TEACHER'S DAY

TEACHER’S DAY

A teacher remembers his teachers…

Khaliqur Rahman

Let's go then, you and I … with apologies to T S Eliot … where Education is spread like a patient etherized upon a table. Fashionable physicians, surgeons and, of course, some quacks rush in where Specialists fear to tread. Anyway, all those who've rushed in to ‘doctor’ education, register prescriptions which soon turn into valuable material for precious documentation in the form of a tome fatter than Gray's Anatomy.

Treatment for the ‘sick’ is recommended ad hoc, as the patient is feared to slip into coma at the sight of the growing crowd. Everyone seems to be waking up suddenly from a long deep sleep. But that we do every year. Kumbhakaran sleeps for six months. We've comfortably doubled it!

A few days before the Teacher's Day, the Birthday of former President Dr Radhakrishnan, we earnestly value Education, at least on paper. Our alert Press is always there to uphold national interest.

Therefore, a local Daily diligently prepared a Questionnaire of FIVE fanta+stick, sorry, fantastic, questions, the answers of which, they thought, would solve all the problems related to EDUCATION, at least for a year, so that the nation could go to sleep again until next September.

The Newspaper has received and published the answers to these wonderful questions from all the Very Correct VCs of all the State Universities. The VCs, unlike most students, have answered all the questions, in nearly two full pages of the Newspaper, which everyone feels will prove valuable to last the year in solving all Educational problems.

I am now in the 50s and very proud to be a St Paulian! I love my teachers in St Paul’s. Mr Dandekar, the Principal, then, Mr Narsaiya takes over. Mr D L Jha, the Maths teacher, Mr Rajimwale and Mr Mishra, the English teachers, Mr Williams, the Drawing teacher are some unforgettable names. The two great pillars of the teaching staff, fondly known as NNB & KCB, are the wonderful all-rounders. They can teach any subject. No St Paulian can ever forget the other all-rounders like Mr C L Shrivastava, Mr D N Thakur, Mr W T Paul and Mr W M Paul. Then who’ll forget Mr S P Shrivastava and his ambi-dexterous versatility on the blackboard?

I can go on but I come to 1979. My uncle, Mr Fazlur Rahman Khan, a senior Secretary in Pakistan Civil Service, comes to India and remembers his old St Paul’s teachers. He recalls Mssrs D L Jha, NNB and KCB and asks me if they’re around. We go to meet Mr KCB who now lives close by. We walk down and are led into the room where the old man now is mostly in bed. He recognizes us and asks us what we’re doing. I say I am a Lecturer in English. My uncle says he’s a Senior Secretary, Customs and Excise in Pakistan. His face lights up. Then I say I am an MA in English because he taught me English and my uncle is an MA in Geography because he taught him Geography. Happy heart instantly pours out proud tears. Our respect and his love fill to the full the cup of compassion. The teacher weeps, the students are moved for life.

I have always been very lucky to find myself in the galaxy of excellent teachers. During MA, very brilliant teachers are coincidentally there on the staff. Prof P N Shrivastava teaches Chaucer and he knew how to pronounce Chaucerian English because Scottish teachers had taught him.

At CIEFL, short for Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, I have Dr R K Bansal as my Supervisor during MLitt in Linguistics & Phonetics. Dr Bansal was Gimson’s student who was the student of Daniel Jones, both widely known for compiling the English Pronouncing Dictionary. At CIEFL, my friends, no wonder, find me boasting of being the academic grandson of Daniel Jones!

Dr Bansal asks me one day who I think is my best teacher of English. Cricket, I reply, despite all excellent teachers around, including Dr Bansal. He, then, asks me to pick the best from all subject teachers. I pick Mr D L Jha!

It always takes the ‘good’ with the ‘bad’ to make this world go round. In earlier times, the ‘good’ out-numbered the ‘bad’ in teaching. In such a situation, the quality of life goes up. The present world scenario shows that the overall quality of life has deteriorated. That means education has failed to produce sustainable out-put. Voices of concern keep coming.

As has been rightly suggested, the 'bad' trickles down from the top. But the 'good' is always raised from the bottom and pushed to the top. A good teacher does that. Let's hope this happens. Pray, long live THE GOOD TEACHER and may his tribe increase!

 THE LIGHT THE BREATH OF LIFE

Khaliqur Rahman

I don’t know where the night before I was and what stopping-place it was that in all directions, it was the dance of the victims; the night before.

That’s an ordinary attempt to translate the extraordinary Persian couplet of Amir Khusro.

Namidaanam che manzil bood shab jaaye ke man boodam

Ba har soo raqs bismil bood      shab jaaye ke man boodam

Where exactly he was and what exactly it was that he witnessed. He hinted only this that he witnessed, the dance, in all directions, of the victims. Then, who is the Shikari, the Gamesman, of these victims? And, who are the game, the victims? Why are they called the victims? The poet has conveniently left all the answers for us to imagine and speculate; for us to flutter the wings and struggle to fly on the wings of, what else but, imagination and reach as high as possible and still try and make out what he had seen that night that lifted him to that point of ecstasy, that he could not help but write these mysteriously beautiful lines.

Does he capture the vision, a total panoramic vision, of all the Universes, and the planets, like electrons in an atom, revolving round the nucleus, in each of these Universes? The Earth, revolving on its axis, is also moving round the Sun. The planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, are all moving round the Sun, as well.  The Moon is moving round the Earth. And, in all other Universes the same dance the same way, he sees.

He sees Life, in all forms and shapes, engaged in the same dance.

The heart, a universe in itself, is beating in and out the drops of blood. They are dancing, up along the veins and down through the arteries, to the tune and beats of the throbbing heart. The lungs, busy in their own dance, are sucking in, the breath of life, and pushing it out again to make way for the life’s next instalment. The brain, the centre of all kinds of nerves and vibes, is directing countless dances.

Innumerable bodies, of men and women, of animals, of birds, of insects, are managing to dance to the tunes of the heart, of the lungs and of the brain.

This is not all. Add to this the totality of Plant Life. Life dances there as well. The plants and trees suck water from beneath the Mother Earth and the dancing liquid takes the course of multitudinous tributaries until it reaches the very top. From the top, they suck air; two different airs in two different ways at two different times, of the day and of the night, to provide the breath of life for themselves and for all the other living beings, thus orchestrating and choreographing and also dancing at the same time the Dance of Life.

All, all these beautiful steps, the charming movements and the entrancing postures of this beautiful dance and the beautiful dancers are but game to dance at the behest of the baton in the hands of the Great Hunter. The marvel is: the Hunter and the hunted love the game and the hunted falls in love with the Hunter all the way, well down to the finish!

To complete the flight, he arrives at the Houseless House in which the Hunter Himself heads the Assemblage and the Lamp, that bathes in Light, all and entire, is the Prophet!

Khuda khud Meer-e-majlis   bood       andar lamakaa’n ‘Khusro’

Mohammad shamm-e-mehfil bood shab jaaye ke man boodam

This Houseless House is his own body. The Meer-e-Majlis occupies the seat of the soul. Majlis, that is, life, is going on. Isn’t then the very breath of life is the Light of the Lamp? The breath goes and comes back, goes and comes back. Then, the breath goes and doesn’t come back. The Majlis is draped in darkness. The Light is out. Meer-e-majlis terminates the Majlis. The soul departs when there is no breath.

If the Prophet is the very breath of life, not just of human life but of the animal life and of the plant life, and indeed of life in all shapes and sizes, then, Khusro must have realised the Prophet as a Universal Entity, as Rahmat-ill-il-‘aalameen which is just another epithet of God Himself who happens to be the Hunter and the Meer-e-Majlis.

What better ‘rahmat’, better kindness, better mercy and gift of God to all the Universes and to Life in all forms, all shapes and sizes, than the very breath of Life!

To this day, qawwals sing this composition in sama’-mehfils to cast a spell of trance in which a certain level of bliss and ecstasy is experienced well beyond the boundaries of sects, creeds and religions.

WALK WITH TIME

WALK WITH TIME

Khaliqur Rahman

Walk with Time and Time walks with you. Time most often passes those who don’t know how to pass time in positive and useful ways. If you choose to have a fight and quarrel against Time, you have already chosen to lose and lose badly. Failing to plan is in fact planning to fail. Haven’t you heard this in an ad on the tv? If you choose to kill time, Time is quicker to kill you first.

Everyone says Time is all powerful, yet most of us take on time to fight against, as if to win. Those, who’ve realised Time is all powerful, choose to walk with Time. It is always advantageous to walk with power.

Nowadays, students are taking examinations. No wonder, most of them are burning the midnight oil. They’re turning their nights into days. They don’t know, and God forbid, Time can change their days into nights as Time did in the case of Milton. Time can be mercilessly cruel and revengeful.

Twenty four hours in a cycle are more than enough. It is better to strike a balance between work and rest. Balanced people sleep and rest for eight hours so that they can work for eight hours with freshness and intensity. They still have eight hours. They call these eight hours their private and personal time and use it for maintenance and enhancement. They need to wash and take bath before they eat and drink. They need to go to the club and recreate themselves and they do keep in their schedule enough time for prayers and spiritual practices to energise themselves. They watch telly and gossip, too. Balanced and wise people do have a fitness programme. They have time for everything and do everything in time.

Thus the healthy slots for sleep and rest and for personal time bring them fully charged for work and an ideal cycle goes round and round and they go a long way in the marathon of life.

Disciplined people keep an honest account of time as they do of money. They know that money goes and comes back. But Time goes and doesn’t ever come back! Life has no second innings!

It sounds simple. But most people find it very difficult. We take a late and lazy start on Sunday. Hi-hello goes on till late in the night and soon it is the proverbial Monday Morning! Nature is regular and periodic. We are irregular and aperiodic. That starts the trouble.

Jo saath na dey waqt ka wo band gharee hai (a watch,not running, doesn’t keep time), said an Urdu poet. Our watches have either stopped or run shamelessly late, particularly when we have to ‘give’. The chief guests and the borrowers come late to ‘give’ a lecture or money. We go late to ‘give’ our duties but arrive early to ‘take’ salaries. Most students are neither ‘takers’ nor ‘givers’. They blindly follow the fashion of the day in getting late. At least here they follow their elders.

The trains are late. The flights are delayed, even cancelled. The passengers for a change are at the receiver’s end. Most clerks, officers and teachers are either most often late or shirk work. The academic sessions are late. The examinations are late. The results are late. The wedding parties are late. The mail posts are late. Even speed posts are late. It seems we have lost the very sense of time and its value.

It is ironic, isn’t it, that most of us, particularly our Hindu brethren, go to an astrologer to ask for the auspicious time, the muhurta, say, for solemnization of a marriage, but the band and the dance on the street send everyone in such dodgy enthrallment that the barat is inordinately and shamelessly late, to the stunning astonishment and discomfiture of the gharatis and the pundit who found out the muhurta, if he is present. Here, I must mention my uncle. It was because of him that we reached the ‘gharatis’ good 15 minutes early! That was my wedding and that had ‘some’ effect on my son’s wedding. Good 30 years thence, I succeeded in getting everything on time! But I believe it is sheer Grace of God that men and women are able to keep time.

I find animals are far better. They follow time and Nature’s cycle naturally. For men it is anytime! We are SOPHISTICATED!

We’ve taken leave of time rather conveniently. But Time just won’t leave us. And, that would be really inconvenient.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VACATIONS IN EDUCATION

THE IMPORTANCE OF VACATIONS IN EDUCATION

Khaliqur Rahman

I was in Edinburgh University in 1987-88 to do M Sc in Applied Linguistics. I was on British Council scholarship. During this period, apart from doing my course work I was able to observe the education system there from close quarters.

School education there is free. The government bears the cost. If I had taken my children with me they too would have got free education. The parents, therefore, don't spend a penny on their children's school education. At 18, one finishes school and becomes an educated responsible citizen. He or she is ready to either enter life and take a vocation or go for university education. They are deemed fit to take their decisions on their own. For example, before 18, they cannot smoke, they cannot drink.  After 18, they can, if they wish to. Nobody can stop them.

If they choose to go for university education, they can do so. But they have to be on their own. They don't depend on their parents. This means that those who do go for higher education have proper motivation to pursue education and thus improve and enhance the quality of life for themselves and, if possible, contribute to society, country and humanity. They go for higher studies because they want to and not because they have to (which undesirably and unfortunately is the case, particularly in India, in the sub-continent and, perhaps, in other developing countries).

In an academic session there, there are three semesters of 10 weeks each. Each semester is followed by a four week vacation. At the end of the third semester the undergraduates go for a 14 week summer vacation. The postgraduates who have qualified themselves through project works and written exams are allowed to write dissertation. Generally, they have to write 3 projects, 2 portfolios (equal to 1 project) and take two written examinations.

During the vacations, the students (both boys and girls) go out to seek work to earn enough money to be able to pursue studies on their own. They work part time/full time in restaurants, shops, airports, petrol pumps...anywhichwhere...that gives them money. The girls don't hesitate to work in pubs, the boys, too, do hard work like gardening or baby-sitting.

Thus, the ratio of 30 week work and 22 week vacation is very constructively utilized.

Here, it should be appropriate to relate that during semesters the classes are held 5 days a week. On Mondays and Tuesdays, a one hour lecture is followed by an hour of pre-tutorial and that is followed by an hour of tutorial. The tutors, too, listen to the lectures and are thus prepared for the tutorials. In the pre-tutorials the students in their tutorial groups select the problem areas in the lecture and prepare for the tutorials. In the tutorials, the tutors guide them to sort out specific problems, if any. On Wednesdays, there are no classes. The students go to the library to finish off with the inputs of the lectures that were truly followed by pre-tutorials and tutorials. Thursdays and Fridays are like Mondays and Tuesdays, except that on Fridays, they have lectures by visiting professors instead of tutorials. On Saturdays, the students can go to the library. What is noticeable, here, is the fact that the follow up of the lecture input is more than three times in respect of time duration.

The evaluation of the students' work during the year is done internally. Two teachers in the department evaluate the projects and the portfolios and the written examination scripts. They cannot fail a student but can recommend failure. There is one external examiner appointed for all the universities for a subject every year. This external examiner checks the cases of recommendation for failure. The external examiner can call the candidate for interview to make sure that no injustice is being done to the candidate.

In 87-88 only two candidates failed in the department, one in Applied Linguistics and one in English Language Teaching.

After the external examiner's report, a committee investigates why the candidate failed. The committee's report is sent to the sections concerned like Materials Production (related to curriculum/syllabus design, testing and evaluation, teaching, accommodation, etc) to get to know the cause of failure so that it can be rectified in the next session.

They understand the importance of education and work culture that accommodates work and leisure. The students, too, understand how to convert leisure into resource to pursue higher education.

Their syllabuses change every year according to the needs of the students. The students record their wants and expert educationists analyse their wants to find out what, in fact, they need. This is known as want-need analysis.

They have small and honest syllabuses to follow. Therefore, they get honest and big results!

IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

Khaliqur Rahman

1959

I saw a young bud bloom

And fall to dust

And meet its doom.

It could not stand

Even to the breeze

That blew to caress!

The fellow buds

Redden in grief.

The flowers with dew-drops

Weep at the sudden death.

The drops fall

Over the petals fallen.

But the breeze soon soaks it.

Many a rose falls

And the Spring

With fresh flowers

Coaxes to forget

What is but past.

Still there remains

A feeling of

Old grief and past gloom.

The bloom has met its doom.

Swapan Kumar Sur , my classmate, first year college, 1959, died of Leukaemia.

YOU MEAN LUNCH?

YOU MEAN LUNCH?

Khaliqur Rahman

“What’s for launch?” he inquired. Asking a counter question, I mumbled rather mischievously, “You mean, you are asking what there is for lunch. Were you expecting Ilish? “No! I have books in mind” he clarified. ‘I’m sorry’ I apologized, ‘Bongobhasha is like that only, no?’ Then, I told him how I misunderstood a Bengali office assistant who said Mera boss aagayee, me’n jaayegi when it, in fact, was HIS bus!

Yes, Jug, nowadays everyone either speaks or writes, just as I’m doing right now and just as you always have and, in fact, just as you’ve been doing all along and/but doing so well and for so long. I say that because for every write-up of yours, you have so many comments. I don’t know if they comment because they have ‘something’ to comment or having just got the infection from you, have the itch to ‘comment’ something which I’m doing now because of the itch, overcoming, of course, the hitch to scratch in public. But who cares for public norms these days which even Kapil Sibbal cannot properly define (Will he sue me under 66a?).

But coming back to public speaking, public writing and public launching (of books, I mean), shall I tell you, I, too, had my books – four of them – launched on 09-09-’12 (on the counsel of a numerologist), not by a Neta or a Jam Aadmi (my own coinage to contrast, compare with or cancel Aam Aadmi) but by human beings?

I have an honest desire to send these books to you. For a change, just choose to be a reader of small things. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading them because –aside- (they weren’t, I mean, published in toi, but…) quite a lot of them have been published in newspapers like Morocco World News, Daily Times (Pak), Kashmir Monitor, State Observer and Central Chronicle (has published all of them). The titles, Navel Ideas and Out in the Middle, may activate your taste buds, if you’re still thinking of lunch! The other two, printed in devnagri, Huwee Takheer and Ek She’r Sunata hoo’n are a compilation of my weekly column Ek She’r that ran for five years in a local Hindi Daily Deshbandhu.

I must assure you, I’m not fishing for anything in return from you. On the facebook and twitter my profile intro says I am a kid of 70 and I love kidding, seriously, which I think I’m doing now because I think I’m a nobody. | If you’re a nobody, too, | come along, let me know your postal address, I send you the books and you, hopefully, have a nice time. Otherwise, I’ll think, like Dushyant Kumar, I had thrown a stone into the sky… it didn’t pierce!

Why do you need to be a no-body to be able to respond to me? Because some-bodies don’t normally respond or reply to a no-body like me! And, I’ve made it almost a habit to write to one of the some-bodies  to find out if they’re really some-bodies, because real Some-Bodies, like, our former President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, have responded and / or replied to me!

RELIGION GUIDE AND SPIRITUALITY

RELIGION GUIDE AND SPIRITUALITY

Khaliqur Rahman

There are bulbs: Philips bulbs, Crompton bulbs, Bajaj bulbs and bulbs of various other manufacturing companies, of various different wattages. Those that are there in electrical appliances stores, waiting to be sold out, do not, in fact, cannot, give out light, can they? Those that have been bought and put into a circuit, can they give out light? Yes, they can. But that depends on a few conditions. They should be switched on, the main switch should be switched on and the power supply from the power station should be on. In the event of failure of one of the three, the bulb will not be able to give out light. There is one more possibility when the bulb stops giving out light. That is when the bulb is fused. Then, there are minor factors, too, that can come in the way, and the bulb fails to give out light. That is when there is a loose connection somewhere or the switch needs a repair or the main switch needs a repair or some other component, like the holder of the bulb needs a repair or needs to be changed.

The brand names of the bulbs can be easily read or identified as long as the bulbs don’t give out light. When they are switched on and when they are giving out light, you can’t easily read or identify the brand. In fact, then, it hardly matters which brand names they bear.

And, a bulb of any brand has undergone a certain meticulously tough process of manufacturing and of quality control before it is branded and sent into the market for sale.

What will follow if a pumpkin, somewhere, somehow, manipulates and manages to carry the brand name of Philips, or a cucumber that of Crompton, or a snake-gourd that of Bajaj? That exactly is what is happening in the dreadful present day world.

Hazarat Nizauddin initiated Amir Khusro’s father first, then, Amir Khusro. But it was Khusro who said: Chhaap tilak sab chheeni re mo se naina milaake.

Can you see electricity? Can you touch it? No. But you can see a bulb, hold it, fix it in a holder, switch it on and get light from it. You can get fresh air from an electric fan, cool air from an air- conditioner, heat from an electric heater and …

It is the same electricity in the bulb, in the fan, in the air-conditioner and the heater and… The bulb, the fan, the air-conditioner and the heater can get changed or can be replaced but can you change electricity? Can you get light directly from electricity without the bulb and air without the fan…?

Every religion has a code of conduct. By strictly following the code of conduct an astute follower reaches the threshold of spirituality. The bulb has reached the shop and it needs to be sold out. Maulana Rumi has been an illustrious example of an astute follower who had dedicated eighty years of life to the code of conduct and who had attained knowledge of the books so much that he was able to speak for three nights on just one letter of The Quran. But all this was ilm-e-safina that had enkindled in his heart the strong urge to attain ilm-e-seena. It was then that Shams-e-Tabrez entered his life and initiated him into spirituality. The high wattage bulb was sold and bought.

People say they can get all the guidance from the books. So, there is no need for a human guide. But even in formal education you need a teacher and a guide even at the level of Ph D. Then how can one attain spiritual knowledge without a guide? The fact is: they don’t want to be sold out. But what about the buyers nowadays? Most of them want to buy on credit! That’s also true. What is the solution, then? Maulana Rumi has already offered one. He has said:

 The guide need not be perfect; the disciple has to develop into one with devotion.

What the disciples need is devotion, dedication and complete surrender. It is quite likely that the unflinching devotion of the disciple may tacitly work and the guide is enlightened!

The power house of electricity is very powerful indeed, but it needs wires for power supply. The Supreme Power House works mysteriously and can turn a bulb into a power house!