Jamia senior secondary School...Gupta Ji

Gupta Ji, biology teacher in Jamia senior secondary school during my stay in 1983-87.
Even today I don’t know his full name, other than Gupta ji.
He was tall, dark & an old man in his 50’s.
Thorough gentleman & well versed with knowledge of his subject.
Biology lab was incomplete without gupta ji & jumman bhai (lab assistant).
I have chosen mathematics & Urdu in class XI, but have enough experience with gupta ji during IX & X.
When allotted with section c in IX standard in higher secondary school, I was pretty happy & satisfied because maximum friends of class VIII were there with me.
It was the first time that section c was created in 1983-84 due to bad results & complete IX A was filled with the students who didn’t succeeded to class X.
However, new to higher secondary school, new to biology class.
Those days biology class was situated on first floor, just above the chemistry lab & class.
The whole block was in symmetry with one on middle school side.
While coming from principal office, it was on the left side of pathway going to Jamia nursery school (new building) & extended up to playground over looking physics lab.

It was a biology period & we all were sitting in a jolly mood and listening to gupta ji.
Taqueer ikram, Rashid rafique, ZMA, QMD, HZS & I was sharing one table, & Tauqueer continuously saying some thing supported by Rashid rafique & ZMA.
Gupta ji once pointed out “beta chup ho jao” (Son, please keep quiet).
Since he was very polite & we were new to higher secondary school & the fellow sitting with me were really Guru, there fore they keep continue & I was part of them.
Some one laughed & gupta ji once again “Beta…..Khamosh ho jao”.
He just continued with cell, membrane & dissection & we continued with joke disections, totally unaware of next happening.
Tauqeer said some thing funny & we couldn’t stop our self.
Echo of our laughter went from one table to another, reaching to gupta ji & finally came back to us.
Gupta ji, stopped & asked angrily, who was he?
No one uttered a single word & gupta ji asked once again, who was he?
I thought, if I take the blame, then these people will be spared & what maximum will happen?
Gupta ji never beats any one, may be he will slap me once & that’s it.
On his third call, I raised my hand.
He then said, come here.
I went to his table.
He moved back to the door, closed it & took one thick piece of wood (palang ka paya) (I don’t know the English of it).
I looked at it & thought!!!
Zubair, this is your last day in school, in one hit you will have a broken bone!!
I also looked at my friends, they also in a state of shock, but not like me.
Another thought came to me that, today I will be paying the cost of friendship.
Gupta ji angrily moved at me, I closed my eyes & tighten my body in position of “saawdhan”(attention).
Yes, he struck me by holding it in both hands & I felt it on my hips.
Second one on the same place but all my thanks to ALLAH & to the termites.
That piece broken into two due to honey comb resulted by termite eating.( it was infested by termites almost 70%).
Gupta ji looked at broken piece & then at me!
Directed me to go & sit down.
Class finished.
All my friends asked if I get hurt?
I said, no.
We went to canteen, relaxed a bit & cursed Tauqeer ikram.
Tauqeer finally cleared the bill.
I decided not to take blame of any body, but it was a temporary decision & I repeated the mistake many times for my friends & still in practice, despite loosing too much in many ways.
Next day gupta ji called me & asked, did I get hurt?
He said to me, “I know you were not alone but you took the blame”.
Beta, class meiN khamosh rehte haiN, mujhe maarna achcha nahi lagta hai, ab khayal rakhna.
(Son, be quiet in classroom, I don’t like to beat any one, be care full next time).
I also forget yesterdays’ happening because his love prevails his punishment.