Contributed by: Dr. Equbal Wajid
Can anybody tell me what caused Dr. Syed Hasan to go to a remote area like Kishanganj in 1964 and start an institution which gained a national repute? 1964 is the same year when he resigned a teaching position in U.S.A. Was he interested to work in Jamia MIlia Islamia, New Delhi, which was his mother institution?
The answer is :
“Yes, he was”
After spending 11 years of his life in United States Dr. Syed Hasan wanted to come back to India and work for his mother institution Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. There was a vacant post of Lecturer or Reader in Jamia Millia Islamia to which Dr. Syed Hasan was a candidate. The call letter for interview was sent to him, so he planned his final exit from America. All of them were sure that he will be appointed for the post. The people who knew Dr. Syed Hasan in Jamia, recognize that he was an strict man. So some of them hated him and never wanted him to get back in Jamia Millia Islamia.
They played a trick with him and changed the date of the interview earlier to the fixed date. When Dr. Syed Hasan landed in Delhi and went directly to Jamia Millia Islamia he came to know that the interview was already taken ahead of the scheduled date. Dr.Syed Hasan had no information about the date change. Now there was no room for him in Jamia Millia Islamia. It turned his ‘Ego’ into a ‘Super Ego’ and he decided not to go for a job hunt but to build another Jamia MIllia Islamia. It may had been in his mind from his childhood to run an institution of his own so he reacted in a positive way. He decided to go to Kishanganj to start a school. The damaged self of Dr. Syed Hasan did a lot in his life. A School of a remote area like Kishanganj could gain the National Repute was not easy to do. Had he not been deceived in Jamia Millia Islamia, he could have started his work few years later.
In the very beginning when he came to Kishanganj he, just not took a start, rather than he spent two years to understand the sentiments of the people. He worked as a Principal in Nehru College Bahdurganj, just to introduce himself in the locality. When he stayed at Kishanganj, sometimes he uses to gather small children in a field, he took a towel and comb with him, he cleaned their blowing noses and faces, and then sang and played with them.
Once, before the formation of ITWA , perhaps in 1981 he pretended to suspend his responsibilities as a Director of the School, out of displeasure with a teacher Rafiquen Anjum, he started teaching Class 1 students. I managed my time to visit the class to see how Dr.Hasan looks in the Class 1. I sat in the back. He was teaching mathematics, table of 2. He made five pairs of students, containing 2 in each pair. Then he took one pair of 2 and sang in a loud rhythmic way and asked the students to repeat in loud.
“DO KA DO…” [two one za two].The students shouted: “DO KA DO [two one za two] then he caught hold the next pair, pushing it behind the first and continued “DO DOONI CAHAAR” [ two two za four] The boys shouted :“DO DOONI CAHAAR” [ two two za four], then he caught hold the 3rd pair pushed them behind the two pairs in a rhythmic way and continued: “DO TYA CHE”[ two three za six] The students repeated:
“DO TYA CHE”[ two three za six] Dr. Syed Hasan sang:
“DO KI EK JORI…..DO….. DO KA DO ……DO KI DO JORI ….CHAR….DO DOONI CHAAR…. DO KI TEEN JORI …CHE DO TIYA CHE..” [one pair of two is… 2….two one za two…two pairs of two are 4 …two two za 4….. three pairs of two are 6 …two three za ..6.]
and thus the class was going on. Nobody was there to enjoy the scene except me. I admired Dr. Syed Hasan more and more in my heart and said to myself:
“Bravo….!!!...Dr. Syed Hasan, pleasure of my heart….the pearl of education…..the teacher of the teachers….the master…of the masters, the expert of the experts…..the artist of the artists…..Bravo ……!!! Dr. Syed Hasan……Bravo….!!! …..Dr. Syed Hasan.”
And so on the class continued. I learned from him as well as enjoyed a lot.
In the early years, before starting his School he often use to go to Mosques where he finds Imam Sahib [the man who leads the prayers] teaching the students, he used to sit with them and then ask the Imam Sahib to help him. With the permission of the Imam he uses to teach the students. This turned as a big advertisement for him. When the boys and girls go to house they talk to their parent about Dr. Syed Hasan. Through this way this Education Guru introduced himself in the Society. He became the topic of Kishanganj earlier before he declared the school opened on 14 November 1966.
When he started the school his fame spreaded in the locality. Step by step it widened in the whole Bihar. He never used any kind of advertisement for the school. The repute of his institution widened through mouth to mouth. People who visited the Institution himselves became the source of advertisement.
The school was firstly started in a rental building. Then step by step it grew and grew, leaving all institutions behind. An small piece of land was purchased. Then little more land was purchased, and so on little more and more near about 300 acres of land was purchased. It is a clear fact, that all most all the land was purchased in cash, but it is also a clear fact that due to the name of a School the land owners charged lesser than what they could get from other customers. Whenever Dr. Syed Hasan intended to purchase a land nobody dare to refuse. People feel proud if they sell their property to Insan School. Mr.Salimgir Ahmed [Kishanganj] a teacher in the Indian Embassy School, Al Jubail ,Saudi Arabia, told me that Insan School had earned such a sympathy that if someone could come in the name of school and ask for something like bamboos, or straws the villagers never refused. People sold their bamboos, land, grasses, in nominal prices.
Owing to this reason a huge area of land was occupied.
It was the end of a session in the School. I was preparing to go on vacation. Dr. Syed Hasan took me for a walk, we went on walking for three kilometers. We crossed the our residential area, got across the Bahadurganj Road, and then walked far away. It was a big baddy field. I looked far away, it was all filled with crops all around. Dr. Syed Hasan pointed with his finger to a big area of crops and said:
“YEH DEKHIYE HUM NE HAWAI ADDE KE LIYE ZAMEN KHAREEDA HAI. HUM EK AISA SHAHAR BANANA CHAHTEY HAIEN JIS KA APNA HAWAI ADDA BHI HO”
[ Look at them, I have purchased land for Airport. I want to situate such a township in which its own Airport will be there]
Even though, I knew that an Airport already exists there in Kishanganj at a distance of 8 kilometers from the Insan School, I filled with admiration to Dr. Syed Hasan that how big his plan was? I thought, at any cost I must not leave this institution which will have its own Airport in the future. At the moment I decided to work there forever.
[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.
