Contributed By: Dr. Equbal Wajid (ahmedsi03@marafiq.com.sa)
In 1981 when the College was shifted to its first Campus surrounded by paddy fields, which later allocated for seventh class campus, Dr. Syed Hasan told the lecturers and the Students that he will not give any cook and that they have to cook the their food jointly. It was a new experiment. Only the raw materials were being supplied and the Lecturers and students were jointly cooking and serving the food to each other. There were all 50 to 60 persons in total in the hostel including 8 or 9 Lecturers. I remember some of the students were Mohammad Ahmad from Champaran Bihar who always goes on smiling, Firoz Alam from Kanki, Gholam Shahid from Kishanganj, respectful to the teachers, Khawja Gholam Shahid from Barsoi, always asking what is right and wrong, Ghufran Ahmed [Betiyah Bihar, soft with a serious look and many others.
We were cooking breakfast in the morning and then the meal in the evening only. For dinner we get a piece of bun, an apple or a banana or an orange with a boiled egg. This was all about the dinner. We formed seven groups, each of the group contained at least 2 students and 1 lecturer by rotation. The Lecturers and the students together cut onions and garlic, they blend spices on the stone piece, they slash and clean vegetables, meat etc while the others wash the rice and pulse and make the meal get ready by 7:30 pm. The food was being cooked on wood-stove. Only the raw material was being supplied by the College authority.
At 8:00 pm all come to dinning to take their lunch. For the breakfast we usually cook grams, sometimes I cooked bread filled with potato paste. By rotation our term comes a day in a week. We all had readily adjusted ourselves with this routine and believed that this was surely a significant experiment in education. What happened after a week or two that the students escaped this routine and the burden of cooking meal came solely on the Lecturers. Mr. Abul Hasan [Lecturer in English from Barsoi ] told us that if the students have quit the experiment why we should do the same? We will continue it. As a result only the Lecturers remained there as cooks. No student helped us. Now there were 2 Lecturers in each group a day. We continued cooking the meals. The students use to come in time. We cook and serve the food on the table. The students come all at one time in the Dining Hall slightly bowing their head, they eat silently, without telling a single word and then go. This routine continued for a more than a week. Nobody among us complained anything to the Dr. Syed Hasan. One day as he got the news by someone, he rushed to college immediately. He called a meeting and gave hard time to all of us. He certified that nobody among us can do any big work in our life. He then introduced a new system as a punishment to the Lecturers and a reward to the students. In this system a cook will be there in the College but he will cook only for the students not for the Lecturers. The Lecturers were forced to manage their food by own, either by self cooking or by eating from the market, not from the College Dining Hall..
It was a collective punishment to the lecturers for the reason obviously known only to Dr. Syed Hasan. We felt humiliated before the students, as they were enjoying cooked meals all three time in the dining hall and the lecturers were forced on self-cooking. It continued for few months until Dr. Syed Hasan felt pity on us and allowed to enjoy meal in the dining hall. Dadu a Hindu Bengali was employed as a cook. He was as black as night, well adjusted with both the students and the teachers.
In those days a cold war was going on between me and my colleague Mr. Wajahat Husain Alam [M.A. Urdu Delhi University] which ended on a direct battle. He was also working on a teaching position in Urdu in the College. He was a poet, with a nice melodic voice. He was the brother of Dr. Syed Hasan’s second wife Nigar Baji. I remember one of his couplet:
PESHE NIGAH WAHAM KI PURCHAIYAN NA THIEN
DARYA MIEN PAAOUN RAKHTE HI GAHRAIYA NA THIEN
[ There was no illusions in front of eyes…there was no depth as feet descended in the ocean]
When Wjahat Husain Alam was appointed as a Lecturer I was glad and I welcomed him. Actually, it was I, who suggested Dr. Syed Hasan to appoint Wajahat Husain Alam as a Lecturer. The day he joined one of my colleagues Mr Buland Akhtar Hashmi [ Lecturer in Psychology: Begusarai] filled his ear against me saying that Equbal Wajid was telling behind him that what kind of man Syed Bhai has appointed? This pinched Wajahat too much. From the same day his behavior changed with me and he said that there are some hypocrates among us, we should be aware of them. I never minded that he is asking about me. Days passed and he started teasing me whenever he like. As a result his love in my heart changed in to hatred. We were living in a same room and cooking separately. Due to his boorish, haughty and ill mannered behavior I was feeling insulted most of the time. I failed to understand how to compensate the pain. The confrontation continued and I often felt that in humiliating me and in making unbearable jokes with me, most of the times he crosses the boundary level which other can’t.
When I thought deeply on this issue, I found that he gains confidence only from the feeling that he is the brother of Dr. Syed Hasan’s second wife, and that nobody can harm him in the campus. In my limited and inaccurate knowledge of Deen I thought that Allah will feel shame on me as to why I tolerate him at that much extent. I asked the same sentence to my friend Maulana Naeemuddin Qasmi. He laughed meaningfully. One day against my personality and self, I changed my room unwillingly and shifted in another room. I decided that if even then again he will pinch me I will surely beat him up. I told Mazahirul Hasan [ Senior Lecturer in Political Science] to warn him on my behalf that if he will hurt my sentiment next time he will face physical assault.
I am basically a coward man from my childhood but sometimes whenever I found my sentiments exceeding the saturation level I have failed to oppose myself against making physical assaults on others. This I learnt from my senior Muzaffar Gilani in M.A. Class in Magadh University. I came to know that being a topper of the class and being a lean and thin person, he always charged physical assault on others if they exceed the saturation level. I made up my mind that if a topper of the class can do this it is true and justified. When I shifted to another room Wajahat Hussein Alam enjoyed a feeling of victory.
For few days he remained cold. What happened next, that in a wind-storm my bamboo’s hut bowed down and there was no option for me to get back in the same room again. So I again shifted in his room. We talked less. We both were cooking separately. One day he invited Shahab Saharwrdi [ High school teacher ] on dinner. He had cooked chicken for him. Not the chicken which is artificially developed in a poultry farm but a chicken which grew up in an open domestic atmosphere, whose meat is obviously tasteful. I had finished my meal with Daal or Vegetable. After dinner I went to bed pretending to sleep. Then Shaahab Shaharwrdi my rival came in to the room. Wajahat Hussain Alam and Sahahab Shaharwardi sat on the other bed and started eating. One time in a very low voice Wajahat told me to join. I said: “No, thanks”. Then he never insisted again. I was laying in the bed in the same room listening their chat and the crunch of chicken bones, and getting the flavor of the spices.
Shahab Sharwardi asked : “ Bahut mazedaar hai Alam Bhai, Kahan se liya tha?”[ It is very tasty Brother Alam from where you get it?]
Wajahat Hussain Alam replied while laughing: “ Idhar se bechne wala ja raha tha usi se liya tha” [ some seller was passing by, I bought from him].
Shahab Saharwardi : “ Kaisa tha ? Kala ya ujla? [What was its color Black ? or white?]
“Nahien yeh laal tha …!” [ No it was red ] Alam replied.
Shahab Saharwrdi : “ Yeh baang deta tha ke nahien?” [ was it able to crow or not?]
Alam answered : “ Bang deta tha isi liye to zanbah ki ya gaya” [ It was crowing so it was killed] and many more chats, all pointed to me. Then, after an hour Shahab Saharwardi went and I felt easy to go in deep slumber.
The next day, in the evening, before sunset, I cut two or three kgs of onions to extract juice from it and then to put it on stove with honey to make a malt to use in acceleration of sex power. One so called Hakeem Ji told me to do this. He said that he has personally experimented this formula. So it was the beginning of my research. I was cutting onion in the open near my room shamefully that someone may ask, the knife was in my hand that the ‘Satan’ came to pinch me.
“ Hi…What are you doing Equbal Bhai”
“ You do see? Don’t you?”
“For what you are cutting so much onions?”
“I have some work?” I answered angrily. He saw my irritation and enjoyed “ Are baap re baap haanth mien churi hai yaar …..maar mat doge” [ Oh !…my father ….it is a knife in your hand …isn’t it? Do ..you … kill me dear? Don’t you?] and then he ….patted my back with his hand and said “ Sher hai Sher ….mera Shear hai” [ Lion …. he is a … lion …lion…my lion…..]
I said “ Aaj maar kha gaya beta ….Sala ….. aaj tum maar khagaya…humse… dekh saaley…kiya hota hai ..abhi” [Today you have been beaten …my wife’s brother… ! …..look …what happens…….today ……today ….you have been beaten.]
I was pre-decided and was waiting for a suitable time to assault him physically. I took a solid bamboo stick [it was one and half inches wide and three feet long] and chased him. He run in to the room and laid down on the bed. I started hitting him one, two, three, four , five , six, seven sticks. He tried to stop it with his hand, so his fingers were hurt. When I stopped he tried to hit me with his blows. I caught hold of his collar, now his blows were not able reach my face, it just swung in the air repeatedly. When I raised the stick on him Buland Akhtar Hashmi [ lecturer in Psychology] rushed to stop me. I hit him hard on his hip. He turned back immediately. After a while the operation ‘W star’ was over, I felt exhausted and cold.
Alam told me while trying to control his breath “ Chalo Syed Bhai ke paas.” [Come to Syed Bhai].
I answered: “ Tumko sale ….jahan jana hai jao,….. mere jane ka naam mut lo nahien to abki sale….khoonte se …..thokienge.” [You do go where you want to go .. …. You… my wife’s brother .…., don’t tell me anything, elsewise I will hit you next time by the stump] Wajahat Husain Alam left to head office. How he reported this event to Dr. Syed Hasan I don’t know. Next day I met Dr. Syed Hasan passing through the way, he cheered me as usual, as if he may not have known about the incident. I was surprised. Next evening I deliberately went to head office and sat for hours so that Dr. Syed Hasan my ask anything but he didn’t. I saw Wajahat Alaam was also there. Nobody spoke anything. Nest day Mr.Jehangir Malick [ a teacher and my friend] told me that Syed Bhai was saying in my absence that he found me mentally more clear than Alam Bhai.
Now after 30 years, I realize, what was done from my side was totally wrong. I had no right to attack anybody against his ill-manner, but I would like to refer a quote of the famous English essayist A. G. Gardiner [1865-1946] . In his book ‘Leaves in the wind’. A.G. Gardiner writes :
“The pain of a kick on shins soon passes away, but the pain of a wound to our self-respect or our vanity may poison the whole day. We infect the world with our ill-humors that probably do more to poison the stream of the general life than all the crimes of the calendar. But no court could administer a law which governed our social civilities, our speeches, the tilt our eyebrows and all our moods and manners”. (to be continued)
