Jamia Millia Islamia....Jumman Bhai

JUMMAN BHAI was a prominent personality of Jamia Senior Secondary School.

Basically, he was responsible for many things in school other than administrative and teaching job. Right from ringing of bell to provide mice for dissection in biology lab, he was absolute. If the bell did not ring on time, the classes would not begin. 

If the mouse did not appear in the biology lab, the dissection practical would not happen and somehow, the bell always rang on time, and the mouse always appeared. 

That was Jumman Bhai. 

He made things happen without anyone noticing how!

Jumman Bhai was having many friends with no enemy. He was always smiley with cracking jokes to all the people. It is very difficult for me to key down personality of Jumman Bhai, as he was a multidimensional man. 

A man who could be a caretaker in the morning, a smile spreader in the afternoon and a guardian in the evening. A man who belonged to everyone and belonged to no one in particular!

I still wonder from where he used to get rats for the laboratory. They would appear, somehow, whenever they were needed. Nobody asked where they came from. Nobody questioned the mystery. We just accepted it as one of the many small miracles that Jumman Bhai performed without fanfare.

There were three hostels in Jamia Senior Secondary School, and I have witnessed many students going to Jumman Bhai's house, within school boundary and adjacent to Hostel-3, and taking breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

All free of cost. 

His house was not just a house. It was a home for the boys who had no home nearby. A kitchen for the ones who were tired of hostel food. A place where you could sit and eat and feel, for a little while, that you were not alone.

During school time, many girls used to visit his house and the care shown by his entire family was beyond explanation. His family did not treat these girls as guests. They treated them as their own. 

There was no formality, no distance, no hesitation. 

Just warmth, care & the quiet assurance that someone was looking out for them.

If any hosteler is sick, it is Jumman Bhai, who used to take care of him. 

I remember one boy from the hostel who fell ill with high fever. 

The warden did not know what to do and then Jumman Bhai showedup. 

Nobody had called him or had informed him. He simply came, as if he always knew when someone needed him. 

He helped the boy walk to Ansari Health Center, his arm around the boy's shoulder, talking to him softly, telling him not to worry. 

After the checkup, he brought him back to his own house, not the hostel but his house, and made him lie down on a bed. He brought whatever was available in his home and sat beside him until the fever broke. The boy's parents were in another city. They did not know their son was sick. But Jumman Bhai knew and that was enough.

I never found anybody complaining of Jumman Bhai right from students to the staff. 

Not a single person & a single word. It was as if he existed outside the realm of complaints. As if he had somehow managed to live a life without making enemies.

If somebody dies, then it was Jumman Bhai and his family who arrive first to console them. Before the relatives & the neighbors OR anyone else even knew. 

They would be there, standing at the door, ready to help, comfort & to do whatever was needed.

When it comes to collecting money for Jamia Masjid, it was Jumman Bhai and family along with Mirza family who leads the way. 

His support was not limited to the students of Jamia Senior Secondary School. It went up to Fine Arts Department situated next to school. If someone needed help and Jumman Bhai could provide it, he would. It was that simple!

I am sure that his earnings were way lesser than the teaching staff, but he leads all of them in many ways. He leads them in kindness, generosity & in humanity. 

The teachers had degrees and positions and salaries. Jumman Bhai had something that could not be measured by certificates or pay scales. He had the love and respect of every student who ever passed through those gates.

He was the one who even dared go to Abdul Haq Khan Saheb to influence his decision if it comes to the benefit of any student and was very much successful. He did not do it for himself. He did it for the boys and girls who had no one else to speak for them and Abdul Haq Khan Saheb, a man of great authority, would listen because even the powerful knew that Jumman Bhai spoke the truth.

Although short in height by nature, his real height was more than many big people around.

If somebody asks me what are the values of Jamia Millia Islamia and what culture does it have?

I will simply reply to him, go and meet Jumman Bhai.

Love and affection for all, big heart to accommodate everyone, gratitude, courage to share even if he does not have, bring smile to someone even he is in pain, teaching the practical things to the students even he was not a teacher, getting them familiar with truth of life by help of easy and thoughtful examples, taking initiative to help the needy are few features of Jumman Bhai rather, feature of My beloved institution, JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA