When I was in class 4 in Islamabad, we had this Punjabi Jat teacher who was 6'6" by the name of Sir Ashraf.
Sir was Ex-Pakistani Army, part of "Jamaat-e-Islami" under the Government of President Ziaul-Haq. He was among the new generation of teachers who found new fame in Zia's "Islamic Pakistan" when all the Secular teachers were slowly removed from Pakistani School system.
He used to forever lecture us on:
- Praying 5 times a day
- Staying away from girls
- Learning Arabic
He was a fantastic teacher with a heart of Gold. He used to pay the fees of poor students from his pocket. At this age, we had no idea what girls were but I and Rabia had a competition between topping the class (later reported by Pakistani Media so more on it later) and he hated me talking to her.
I never prayed, in fact I went out of way with other kids from praying but was exceptional in Arabic.
I was on his hit list.
Sir Ashraf was an honest hard-working teacher and came to teach daily on a bicycle.
We used to call him "Amitabh Bachan" and his bike "Helicopter".
One day (unusually) Sir Ashraf didn't come to school so the whole class left the classroom and started messing about in the playground. We put a few kids to look out for for him so we can run back into the class when he comes.
In the meantime, we were all making fun of "Amitbah Bachan" and his "Helicopter".
Sir, decided to come to School from the backdoor and caught us of all, specially me calling him "Amitabh Bachan".
He let the whole class go but made me Murgha for calling him "Amitabh Bachan" which is this.
He then kicked me on my backside so hard that I flew to the other side and it still hurts to this day...
Pakistan was changing from Secular to "Islamic" and he did not appreciate being compared to a "Hindu".