Flashbacks from School

nazar,

......... i never knew that sargodah used to be a public school and i also didn`t know it is a public school again..............all the guys i know were there when it was a cadet college and went on to risalpur ............ that might explain the difference ..........

............ but are you saying that the values imbued by the air force act are less moral and looser than those inculcated by the british public school code of ethics !.............. then why the heck did we kick out the british?............ this seems to be a recurring theme !

........... regardless, i have found the guys from the cadet colleges to be thorough gentlemen even if they are a little wicked when it comes to having a ``khushy`` time !

hamidm2 # 20

In 1973, the Public School was closed. Last entry was 21st. Its premises bacame a part of the PAF Academy to get Bsc Degrees. Students became uniformed Cadets, rifle drill & military discipline bacame a part of life & teachers were now uniformed Instructors.

This remained so for 17 years until 1990 when it reverted back to as a Public School.

The product of that period was not a Public School product but of a Military Academy. And there is a big difference between the two approaches & requirements. The Academy boys did not have the innocence and frame of mind that the Public School boys usually have. Education standard got down because of the Matric System & the value system got used to be regulated by the PAF Act rather than through imbued convictions & values.

The officers of that period may be very good but here we are splitting the hair.

Old Boys Association have grudgingly accepted them in its fold. More due to the practical reasons that once they hold senior positions, their influence could come handy in its projects.

It is being ensured that the Association`s School Project in Sind, to function from next year, will have a liberal, egalitarian air; and its Principal along with some members of other staff would be British.

It may be cruel to say but a Pakistani mind does always have some hangovers. While Mr. Catchpole could keep the CAS waiting on line, the later Pakistani Principals could easily be cowed down by the petty local Base Commander.

nazar sahib,

``The public school hostel boys, in general, are simpletons. They have arranged marriages & stick to one spouse. They are certainly not worldly-wise in the contemporary sense. ``..................what ?!!!!

............. mian, are you serious !.......... i have a few close friends and two brothers-in-law from sargodah who are now wing commanders and air commodores and through them i know a bunch of sargodhians (all pilots) who might be 8-10 years junior to you........ and no sir, none of them is a simpleton !............ as a matter of fact they make me feel that i am the one who has led a protected life !............ of course some folks tend to exaggerate things a little bit after three scotches, but even if half the stuff they say is true they would qualify for many many years in purgatory ............they make the abdalians look like a bunch of country bumpkins and the aithisonians and gallians look like choir boys !............

............ nazar sahib, stop spreading this propaganda !............ or maybe things really changed ten years after you left sargodha ............ i will agree with you that most of them finally end up with one wife but i have done enough ``guard duty`` to know that most of these guys had quite a few hours of flying under their belt before they settled in the hanger with bhabi ...............now, if this post was for bhabi`s consumption, i understand and opologize for my indiscretion.............. but as mrs hamidm says, ``hum log sub jantay hain, admi ki zaat ka koi bharosa nahin......... pur ham kuch kehtay nahin``..............it is a veiled threat but god bless her anyway !

Temp Bhai # 10

You are right. I am just blaming the school. I am only lazy. Many school boys do all this stuff ``Pressing clothes, making bed, polishing their own shoes``.

Romair # 12

There are 75 old boys only in Toronto. Then there are others in Montreal. Contact bakhtiar161a@hotmail.com for details of North Americans.

Stuka # 14

I transferred from ``Three Castles`` to ``Gold Leaf`` to now ``Benson & Hedges``.

``Gold Flakes`` was also in Pakistan in those days.

Sac # 10

Yes. I think the real intimate friends are from old School Days - though you may not meet them for years.

Later in life, real friends come a little difficult since then your quality time is more with your family or work associates.

The intimacy of school days can not duplicated later.

SameerJB # 13

The public school hostel boys, in general, are simpletons. They have arranged marriages & stick to one spouse. They are certainly not worldly-wise in the contemporary sense.

Almost all teachers later became Pricipals of others schools or migrated abroad for greener pastures.

Religion was never an issue in school - there was no official patronage. There was one period of ``Islamiyat`` once a week by the soft-spoken Mr. Qazi, who just gave a lecture. No syllabus. No exam. There was no mosque in the school.

Later when a Pakistani Principal, Mr. Quereshi, came, a mosque was built. By then, we were out.

SameerJB:

``those days of two samosas with chutni, followed by a cup of milk sweet tea followed by Goldleaf cigarette between the two bottom fingers and inhaled from top of the fist...... ``

Replace Goldleaf with Goldflake and it is my college days u might be talking about. :)

NHK: Good article as always. Enjoyed reading it though could not relate too much. I was a dayscholar through school.

nazar hayat:

Very picture perfect memories of earlier life. Let me guess! You went for arranged marriage and saved enough memory space in the brain to store school and childhood memories...;)

Well, I have never been to Sargodha, therefore can`t comment on the school/ college but I wonder what kept all these highly skilled and talented teachers in Sargodha from moving to big cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad with more opportunities and urban social life. Perhaps due to growing up in Rawalpindi/ Islamabad and spoiled by the life of big cities, I have hard time imagining spending all life in Sargodha. Even in the USA, talented professors from mid-America are sucked into east or west coast universities.

Not going through regimented school system and instead allah chosing peela federal government schools in Islamabad and government college Rawalpindi for me, my memory compartment is loaded with extracurricular activities with sports, politics and sex covering most of the space with little for teachers, gardens, pavements, employees etc.

In those days, hijab and hijabi women were never an issue. Islam (real, actual and in essence) has not yet fully arrived. Despite being a Jamaatia, we never shouted for hijab imposition, but privately wondered why no women wore underwear hijab in Pakistan but then there was no hadith or injunction regarding women underwears. Although hijab is winning converts but underwear is still a loser when it comes to anew and farhat hashmi type hijabans. Even in cases where underwear wins, it is still looser like loose jeans...

Ah! those days of two samosas with chutni, followed by a cup of milk sweet tea followed by Goldleaf cigarette between the two bottom fingers and inhaled from top of the fist......

Brings back fond memories.

Sargodha was a very nice place. The best institute I have attended in Pakistan. I hope it is still a nice place. I haven`t been back to it in over fifteen years or so.

By the time I was coming in, some of the civilian teachers, who had been there since its formation, were starting to retire. They were legends in their own right, and I cannot think of any high school level institute, in Pakistan, having access to such outstanding teachers. This, combined with the student discipline, due to the military hierarchy, made it a great place to learn without wasting time.

Mehboob Sahib and Khaliq Sahib were the Urdu teachers. The former was the best dressed teacher I have ever seen in my life. His stories of Aligarh, combined with the numerous plays and poetry he had authored, made his class un-missable. Khaliq Sahib counted amongst his friends the President (Prime Minister?) of Bangladesh. He was a rather unorthodox character. His wife (Aunty Khaliq) used to manage our stage plays and dramatic activities. Khaliq Sahib has authored and edited some of the major Urdu dicitonaries and books being used in Pakistanis schools.

Noor Sahib was the oldest English teacher. All the English idioms I have learnt were from his classroom lectures.

Bajwa Sahib was the Science teacher. Another unorthodox character, who knew his subject inside out. His claim to fame was that he had the prettiest daughters in Sargodha. They were older than me, and by the time I saw one of them, she was probably already married. But here legend definitely was true.

And Shaukut Sahib was the principle. Perhaps the most respected person in the PAF. He was a life-long civilian, yet nearly every officer of the PAF, from the Chief of Staff to us new cadets had been his student at one time or another. He talked about Generals as if they were kids. And they behaved like kids, when, in front of him.

I remember when his wife passed away. So many of the PAF high command descended on the college. Air Vice Marshalls and Base Commanders personally flew their fighter jets to attend her funeral. I remember meeting him during those days. He did not miss a single day at work, even when his wife was sick.

(He then moved onto become the principal of Aitchison College in Lahore. And from what I have heard, for some reason, was quite unpopular there.)

All and all, Sargodha was a good college. Demanding, with high academic standards, a relatively open environment, very egalitarian with sons of Generals and businessman studying alongside sons of small farmers, with extremely dedicated teachers (and during my days, and days before, debating teams, which used to win every national competition they entered).

Apparently, there was a big alumin get-together recently at Sargodha college. And interestingly, from the website (www.sargodhians.com), the largest contingent of old students came from Bangladesh. I used to meet regularly with ex-Sargodhians in Silicon Valley. Haven`t found the group in Canada yet.

Dost-mitter # 6

`Prep` was a 1-hour Prefect-supervised study period in a big hall in each house. There were two Preps every day - one was in the afternoon before games; and one was after dinner. We were expected to do study of our own choice but comics/story books were not permitted.

There were no Preps on Saturdays & Sundays. Prefects & House Captain were expected to study in their own rooms.

Please do contact me at (92-21) 5673477/9248204, Cell: 0300-2572571. nazarhayatkhan@yahoo.com

nazar:

The bad habits that I picked up from School are that I still hate to polish my shoes, press my clothes and make up my bed.

...is this your gdp resiliency or the begum gave up on you easily?;)

rgds,

t

Good one Nazar sahib. Do you think any real `friends` you have were from school also?

later
-sac

P.S:WC stands for Water cistern.

Dost-mittar,

I used to think WC stood for william crapp, inventor of the WC.

But a google shows this:

``
So I checked out a web site of the Thomas Crapper Company and found this statement setting the record straight:

``It is popularly thought that Mr. Crapper invented the W.C., and that the vulgar word for faeces is a derivative of his name, but neither belief is true. However, etymologists attest that the Amercian word, ``crapper``, for the W.C. is directly from his name. He relentlessly promoted sanitary fittings to a somewhat dirty and sceptical world and championed the `water-waste-preventing cistern syphon` in particular. Indeed, he invented the bathroom showroom and displayed his wares in large plate glass windows at the Marlboro` Works. This caused quite a stir, and it is said that ladies observing the china bowls in the windows became faint at this shocking sight!``

So kukos to THOMAS CRAPPER & CO. LTD. PRODUCERS OF THE WORLD`S MOST AUTHENTIC PERIOD STYLE SANITARYWARE, for servicing our bodily needs with technical efficiency and aesthetic concern, and to the Yorkshire villagers for offering a fitting, if untraditional, memorial to the mundane.``

imran hafeez sahib,

........ please stop cutting and pasting this nonsense on the chowk ............ didn`t allah subhanwutalla say something about conseving cyberspace and not torturing other people with gibberish ............ give us the url and if we want to, we will read it .............. khuda kay wastay, try!............. please don`t prove my hypothesis that all people infected with this virulent strain of islam can only be fixed by a kick in the shalwar (a loose translation of laton kay bhoot baton say nahin mantay)..............

............ i hope you won`t be out there this year too, trying to bust up new year parties in islamabad .....i am getting too old for that crap ...........here is a piece of advice from my sixteen year old daughter : ``get a life``.................