Kishanganj: Insan School & Dr. Syed Hasan [Part 9]

Contributed by: Dr. Equbal Wajid

[An extract from the author’s autobiography]

When the college shifted on its own campus, it was the common talk among all, that the College is going to emerge as a University. More than many times I heard it repeatedly by Dr. Syed Hasan. Once while giving a lecture on his plan he took a hard blow on the black board and said:

“In 1985 Insan University will be declared, it is decided ….I am a decided man…” He continued. At that time in the locality from Katihar to Purnea, and from Araria to Thakurganj and in the West Denajpur District of West Bengal the news was all spread.

This was a big attraction for the Lecturers of Insan College to try their luck to work as University Teachers after four years. Therefore, most or all most all of them decided to test their fate at Insan College. There was no question for anybody to leave the College. Although the salaries were still low but Dr. Syed Hasan told us that after one year he is going to pay more than what the Lecturers are getting in Government Colleges. We believed on what Dr. Syed said. The Lecturers left other offers. Malika Rehana [ Hindi] and Malika Ferhana [ History] got appointed as Lecturers in Gurugobind Singh College Patna City, but they both said no to the Job. They wrote to their father :

“We have better future prospect in Insan College, it is going to be declared a University in the near future ”.So we spent our valuable time without caring for the future. There was not a beautiful place in our mind except that of Insan College. Insan College became our dream, it became our identity, our love and our soul. Years passed so smartly that I can nor imagine.

Mr. Abul Hasan, lecturer in English from the village Bijhara near Barsoi, was a sober man by nature, he had also some scope somewhere else but he never thought to leave the Insan College. So was the case with most of the Lecturers. Syed Shahid Ahmed Sami, Lecturer in Commerce left his position in Allama Iqbal College Biharshareef.

When the young team of Lecturers use to walk through the streets of Kishanganj all together, smiling and enjoying the evening walk, the people use to gaze at them with respect and pride.

“These are the lecturers of Insan College, look at them”. They said to each other.

In those beginning years we enjoyed more prestige at Kishanganj than that of the Lecturers who were working in other Government recognized Colleges. We thought nothing but only the Insan University which was going to be declared on 1984. We thought ourselves the future lecturers of Insan University. This was a hope which had been created in us so vigorously that it smashed all other immediate needs and desires of our careers.

I was owing to emerge as a critic in Urdu so I wrote articles on criticism which were being published in literary Urdu journals. Dr. Syed Hasan knew that I am of a philosophical mind so he use to touch me time to time. One day he was taking a round of the hostel. He came to my room. I had written a quote of my mine on a paper and pasted it on the wall of my room. In Urdu, It was written in bold:

“ FITRAT KHUDA KI TAHREEH HAI” [ The nature is the explanation of God].

When Dr. Syed Hasan entered my room and he saw the caption he enjoyed the quote and said:

“JEHAAN….JEEHAN…. YEH AAP NE LIKHA HAI?”

“JEE SYED BHAI” I spoke.  Then he said nothing.

I had been a sensitive man throughout my life. One of the surprising happenings in those days was that in the Urdu class I was teaching the students the short story of Prem Chand named “Boorhi Kaki” [The old aunty]. It was the intermediate class. I remember among the students Atia Bano [Kishanganj] Gesu Syed Hafeez [ Daughter of Dr.Syed Hasan] Yasmeen Begum [Kishanganj] were sitting in the front row. The Urdu class was full of students. While teaching stories I have always tried to read the story loudly in the class so that he students may get an idea of the whole story if they further miss to read the whole story.

Whenever I have taught a novel, I have taken special classes for one whole day on Sundays. Such classes had been started in the morning and it gone continuingly up to 1or 2 pm. The students listened attentively. From the beginning to the end  the major parts of the Novel had been read. At few places wherever if I felt it suitable I only summarized the story and then moved forward. I found it very fruitful and interesting to read the whole story of the novel at one time. I used to give intervals after each two hours. I remember I have taught two Urdu novels, two times in one-day special classes. These Novels were ‘Nirmala’ of Munshi Prem Chand and ‘Umrao Jaan Adaa’ of Mirza Ruswa. As an additional reading material once I read the Novel on Seerat “Durrey Yteem”. I collected money from the students and ordered for 30 or 40 copies of the Novel and in one day- session I read the whole Novel in the class. The student were unable to get back their tears at many places.

So, once in  the intermediate Urdu class, I was reading the story ‘Boorhi Kaki’ to put an effect on the students. In the story there was a  character of an old grandmother who is laying on her bed on the marriage day of her granddaughter. All the night she was thinking about the Puri and Sabzi which was made on the marriage day. Nobody gave her a single piece. When the night fell she moved slowly to the Kitchen, nobody was there. The used dishes were kept down for washing. Boorhi Kaki saw the plates, some broken pieces of Puris were laying in the plates. In some of them she find little quantity of vegetables. She collected the vegetables and pieces of Pooris and started eating quickly with the fear that anybody may not see her. When I read those lines it was unable for me get my tears back. I burst into tears abruptly and was not able continue the class.

Mohammad Azfer Sulaiman was an M.A. in Political Science. He worked a Lecturer in Political Science at Insan College for several years.  He had spent 11 years in Aligarh Muslim University. He was living in the College campus next to my room. He was a man of peculiar nature. He was a cynic-type personality. He always liked to show that he is different form all. So he often acted in peculiar way. When we started self-cooking  he used to eat separately only one time in 24 hours. How he dared to do this, I cannot say, but it was his routine for months. When I try to ask him the reason he never answered and laughed in a mysterious way. He often use to say that he is man of ‘Tough Mind’. He liked this term very much. One of his self imposed principles was that if among his colleagues come and he must do prepare tea for them, and if somebody comes after the tea is ready he will never share the tea with the new comer. One day as entered in to his room, I found some colleagues there. He made tea, served them and don’t asked me for tea, even if there was more tea in the pot. He told me that he never serve tea for anyone who comes late.

I was ashamed, I wanted to touch him again. I asked him about the betel. He told me I never share betel with anybody who doesn’t takes tobacco.  Even if I have never eaten tobacco before I asked him to make a betel with tobacco.

He asked :

“How much?

“little more than what your do take every day”. I told.

It was a challenge for him. He took more tobacco in his betel that he can bear. Then he turned to me and gave me a Betel with tobacco. I put it on my month. I have heard with Dr. Syed Hasan that the ‘Will power’ can control the mind, so I hold myself strong, concentrating on my ‘will’ that I will let nothing bad happen to me.  Azfer Sulaiman spited out once. I also spitted out once and then I swallowed all the betel in my stomach. Azfer Sulaiman spited out two or three times more . This was his defeat. He kept silent and then commented on me after a while:

“Either he is a mad or he is overpowered by a Ghost”

The joke finished.

One of our colleague Syed Shahid Ahmed Sami a Lecturer in Commerce was astonished to see that I lifted a 100kg Rice Bag and put it at some place quite normally as if it is a light weight of 15 kgs. He remembered it for long times. (to be continued)

Disclaimer: The content of the article is the personal views / experience of the author (contributor). Kishanganj Blog (Md Mudassir Alam) is not responsible for any type of personal remarks or any objectionable statement made by the author.