Being an internal student, entering to engineering faculty was not more than a curse for many of us.
Ready to take the challenges of life & many dreams to become an engineer were first to evaporate after attending few classes.
It was not because of course contents & any difficulty to understand them but, due to very bad behavior & biased attitude of many faculty lecturers hails from a particular institution.
They were anonymously against all internals due to the reasons unknown with the exception of a handful lecturers.
This was the time when I experienced a totally new jamia although I was from third batch after commencement of Bsc.Engineering in 1984-85 by Prof.Ali Ashraf, VC at that time.
It was a common practice of many lecturers to demoralize internals in classroom followed by an expulsion from the period with an exception of Mr.Waqar/Mr.Masood Alam (chemistry), Prof.Rafat (physics), Mr.Afaq (English), Mr.Idrees Qureshi (math’s) who were really good to act like a lecturer without any prejudice during my first year in 1987.
But one good factor that prevails during those days was Prof.Mubeen , who was indeed a fair person to judge people & understands their problem.
That’s the reason why he was considered a good Dean of faculty of engineering.
Whether it was Mr.Mehtab Alam, Mr.Shakeel, Mr.Gohar mehmood or any body, they were openly found discussing & disgracing JMI & students coming from Jamia School.
It was very difficult situation to live & cop with.
We were targeted & labeled as bad students, political bugs, miscreants & disturbing elements by them without even a single justification to their accusations.
The day starts with taunting & ends in disgrace.
The whole first year we spend was in real misery & the same attitude was thoroughly reflected in the sessional marks given by them.
It was the second years when we start to sustain their accusations although we never faced this kind of problems with external students, as we were just colleagues & part of engineering faculty.
Mechanical, civil & electrical respectively were the only trades available during our times with priority to mechanical, civil & then electrical.
Initially I was allotted with Mechanical & changed my discipline to civil & registered as the first student rolled back to civil from mechanical.
There were many who has opted a policy to degrade internals in class room as their hidden agenda but, it was Mehtab Alam who came openly against including Mr.Shakeel (hydraulics).
I still remember when he literally abused one of my colleagues & he felt dejected.
It can be understood easily that how bad he would have felt because I couldn't’t resist the pain & voiced against Mehtab Alam.
He was surprised because it was the first time when he was opposed by some one.
I stopped him & told clearly that he has no right to abuse & go personal.
He then emphasized on to hold all of us for another six years in engineering & I took his challenge & told him to go for it.
He targeted most of internals & to me in sessional marks & finally long awaited results came out!
While taking mark sheet/Grade sheet from the office, he caught me along with his colleagues.
Satirically asked me about my results & I bluntly told him that I got passed & he failed.
Didn’t understand & I elaborated further, Mr.Mehtab, you have tried with your associates to hold me in second year by giving very bad grades in sessional, but it is Allah’s grace that I performed well & exams grades are far better than of yours.
There fore never try to abuse anybody with or without reason.
You will loose the respect of a teacher.
Despite of all kind of abuse pondered by those people, there were few, who always acted like a teacher & one of them was Mr.Rasheed Ahmed (environment).
In fresher’s party arranged by second year students, he was the only one openly spoken few words in favor of jamia internal students.
He mentioned & I remember “Please do not degrade internal in any specific way, they are no way inferior to any of external in any regards. If we extend our trust on them, then we will find them performing better than any body else in the college, not only in education but in other fields too”.
This statement took all others by surprise( the one belongs to a particular institution & formed a sort of mafia in JMI), except for Mr.Khalid Moin, Mr.Nusrat ullah khan, Dr.Rafar, Mr.Waqar, Mr.Masood Alam, Dr.Idrees Qureshi & Dr.Mubin who indeed were very fair in their treatment to all students.
Mr.Rasheed’s statement was a cold breeze in the midst of a desert & we have felt a sigh of relief & committed our self to perform better.
It was one of the reason that Engineering final year’s results faded the faces of Mafia indulged in abusing internals.
Topper of Civil & electrical in 1991 were from Jamia senior secondary school.
It might be possible that all those names I aforementioned becomes big bosses & transformed themselves in unbiased entities now, but they should not forget that JMI is the only institution which enabled them to attain high position in academics & in society.
They must feel sorry for their behavior like a person & as a teacher.
There are many other episodes related to college days has to come!
