Gurbat mein phool!

Sahil was born on 3^rd January, 1943 in the Cantt Area of Ordnance factory, Shahjahanpur, UP. Though he belonged to Tehsil Kiravali of Agra district, an ancestral place that lies between Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, once the capital of Akbar the great who deserted it due to salty water of the place.

His father joined the ordnance factory as a mechanic during the First World War.  But after the Second World War, he was relieved due to the retrenchment policy of British Government.

The problem of unemployment and the political upheaval due to partition of the country compelled his father to settle at Agra where many of his relatives lived. A severe crisis of bread and butter arose before him. But he didn’t lose courage and started a small shop of general store in the locality.

But when the partition of India happened, many of his relatives decided to leave India for Pakistan. This abnormal situation created a conflict in the mind of his parents. But Sahil’s grandfather firmly determined not to leave the land of fore fathers who are lying buried here. His love for the soil of India was so unflinching and deep that he declared that he would be the last man to leave India. Therefore the family of his father finally decided to settle at Agra.

Sahil then was small child of four years. Those relatives who went to Pakistan and left their houses deserted were occupied by the refugees migrated from Pakistan. This migration of population on both sides was very treacherous and painful. Many of them lost their lives and property on both sides. Sahil couldn’t understand the situation why our kith and kins left us alone.

During this political disorder, he got admitted in a government Primary school situated near the oldest and biggest church of Agra. But when he was in class 3^rd, a head master of Madarsa named Azad Maqtab of Wazirpura, a locality of Agra, came to his maternal grandfather and convinced him to shift his children to Madarsa as it was a recognized school with Urdu medium where Arabic and Persian were also subjects of syllabus. Sahil and his maternal uncle, Anwar who was in the same class shifted to Azad Maqtab. After passing class 5^th from there, he got the admission in Shuabia Intercollege, situated near the collectrate of Agra.

In Shuabia Intercollege, Sahil picked up the company of bad boys who took him out of Mathematics class and made him prey of their bad activities. One of his class mates was Haneef who was professional black marketers of cinema tickets. He was an expert to take cinema tickets in great rush and sold them in high rates. He retained two tickets for him and Sahil. Sahil in the greed of free tickets, became his victim. This habit of truancy made Sahil weak in Maths, resulting failure in the subject. His parents were unaware of his company. This fellow imbibed him in all his evil activities. Agra has a tradition of pigeon flying.

It is said that this custom has been coming down from Emperor Jahangir, the son of Akbar. Here pigeon flying is used as of two armies entangled and then both the masters of their troops called them back. If any of the pigeon of rival sits on his roof, he may catch it abruptly by his net (a racket type net). Moreover the pigeon flying competition is celebrated once in an year in the months of December and January in outskirt area of the city in the open- fields. This celebration was called “Qulkleyn” the festival of pigeon flying in which thousands of people of Agra gathered in the desolate plains where hawkers of eatables items as peanuts, Guavas sellers, sweet sellers, chat walas reached there.

This program changed the place after every second day. Owners of pigeons took them in a carriage made of bamboos on wheels to the place according to schedule. It was a unique way of entertainment of the people of Agra without any discrimination of Hindus and Muslims. Each carriage had more than thousand pigeons with their masks for the distinction. Sahil was also attracted to pigeon flying and domesticated two hundred pigeons at his home and remained busy in flying on the roof during holidays.

Another fair “teraki” (swimming exhibition) was held by the people of Agra in which Hindus and Muslims took part with their Akhara troops, under the supervision of their Ustads (teachers) in the month of Savan from Mahadev Mandir which is the at the distance of atleast two miles from Jamuna Bridge. The Ustad had a special feature of swimming. He swam holding the flag of his Akharas with both hands and he swam with his legs erected. If the flag sinks or falls into water, the title of the ustad was forfeited. Another feature of the Teraki Fair was that they displayed different types of Jhanki (exhibition) while swimming and their destination was Hathi ghat near the Agra Fort. Lakhs of people of Agra on both the sides visited and cheered the troops of swimmers.

Nazir Akbarabadi, the folk poet of Agra also mentioned these fairs in one of his poems. This shows the lively sense of pleasure and an aesthetic sense for cultural activities.

Sahil also enjoyed these fairs, he being a son of a shop-keeper used to play among the spoiled boys of locality. They were sons of labourers, painters, mechanics and carpenters. They didn’t go to schools, Sahil also mixed up with them. Though his father got him admitted in a college, yet he passed maximum of his time in playing Gilli Danda, gambling with coins and marbles. He used to reach home at the time of dinner.

His maternal grandfather who lived adjacent to his house, used to advise him not to waste time in playing with children of his locality. But he paid no attention to his piece of advice.But one day his maternal grandfather told him a story, though the story was ficticious but its appeal was marvelous.

He told that there was a mosque in a village in which children of the village used to come to Arbi (The Quaran). Among those children there was a boy who knew to turn into a snake and again he turned into a boy. Meanwhile a snake charmer was passing through the village. The boy said to Maulvi Sahib to call the snake charmer and I shall turn into a snake, he would not catch me. But if he catches me please do not let him allow to take me with him otherwise I shall always remain a snake. The child did the same and Maulvi Sahib called the snake charmer for catching the snake but warned him not to take the snake with him. The snake charmer tried to catch the snake with recitation of his mantras on his flute but failed to mesmerize the snake. He was puffed up and got wet with perspiration. But in the end he succeeded to overpower the snake.

Then the snake charmer persisted to take the snake with him. He said to Maulvi Sahib that it was unique kind of snake he had ever seen in his life. But Maulvi sahib reminded him his promise to leave the snake. But Snake charmer refused to follow the promise. Then Maulvi Sahib called the villagers and pressurized the snake charmer to leave the snake. Atlast he has to leave the snake. Then the snake turned into a boy, when the snake charmer went Maulvi Sahib asked the boy how he was caught into his trap. The boy disclosed that he failed all his mantras but in the end he recited a mantra in which he felt there was fire all around and no place was safe for saving his life. Then he entered into his basket, the only place for saving his life. “That’s why I was caught”

From this story his grandfather sought a valuable advice that the locality in which he was living, was just like fire of illiteracy, burning all around him. There was no place for saving career from it. If he wanted not to be the victim of this fire, he must go into safe place of education’s basket as he saved himself from the fire of snake charmer. This ficticious story of his grandfather left a deep impression on Sahil and he started to keep away from the local children and turned into the world of books.

Since then the spoiled Sahil got admission in a Christian school, from where he passed high school, then he got admission in a reputed intercollege, the St. John’s Intercollege of Agra where the principal Mr. David, a very strict man of principles changed his life. The lofty ideals of Mr. David and the famous story of Munshi Premchand “Namak ka daroga” created a revolution in his life. The impression of the story was so deep upon him that Sahil tried to be a replica of  “Namak Ka Daroga” throughout his life.

With these notions he adopted the profession of a teacher. By his teachings he taught three generations and his impact on his students of the town was so deep that his students used to follow him as their real guru. Many of his students were felicitated with his principles of steed fastness, strictness and truthfulness. Due to his living teaching many of his students became engineers, writers and judges in judiciary.

Really myriads of flowers blossom in the garden of poverty with education.

“Poverty is no stumbling stone but it inspires and creates man of industry and firm determination to achieve higher goals of life.”  

Love, Mohd. Usman Khan

(Retired Professor)