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Tales from your Favourite teachers

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#1 [Permalink] Posted on 28th March 2020 13:08

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:

  1. Praying 5 times a day
  2. Staying away from girls
  3. 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".

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#2 [Permalink] Posted on 28th March 2020 13:23

Our English teacher "Sir Mazhar" was from Bihar (India). He was a triple gold medallist under the British and took great pride in his achievements, went out of his way not to speak Urdu.

When he came to Pakistan in 1947, he only brought his Gold Medals or smuggled them into Pakistan stitched inside his underwear to cross the border.

Sir, taught us OR beat "English Grammar" into us and forever told us:

  1. IF you want to progress in your life
  2. You better lleearn to speak English like an Englishman, yeah long lleeeaarn instead of "learn"

Half of the class was spent about his stories abut how he learned English in Bihar (India) and honed his pronunciations while practising with Mem Sahebs (White English Women). He tried teaching us English pronunciation with examples like:

  1. Gentleman pronounce Wednesday
  2. Ladies pronounce Wenesday i.e. d is skipped

The only way to stop "Sir" and his stories was to ask, "Sir, how did you smuggle the Gold Medals from India to Pakistan"

With girls in the class, he used to turn red (with shame and embarrassment) but we used to keep asking so he used to try to whisper (to the boys)

I had no choice but to stitch the precious commodities in my undergarments at the cost to my dear life!

We all used to giggle (girls louder). This used to happen almost everyday and somehow it was funny all the time.

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#3 [Permalink] Posted on 28th March 2020 14:53
Hmm, I'm sure the most stories will come from teachers who were not favourites ;)
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#4 [Permalink] Posted on 28th March 2020 17:31
abu mohammed wrote:
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 That's true brother 

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#5 [Permalink] Posted on 28th March 2020 17:48

I only studied for a few months in College in Pakistan. At that time, there was a famous religious Scholar on PTV who used to present Islam and answers questions.

It turned out that he was a Professor of Islamic studies in my college but taught older classes (not us).

He used to come to college with a huge cigar is his mouth, Ray-Ban glasses and a suit, used to look and act like a gangster, his image and dress up was completely different to when he was teaching "Islam" on TV. In real life, he was very loud, cursed a lot and shouted at students while on TV he was gentle, kind and always paying attention.

The older boys hated him and his class.

As the youngest guys in college, first we didn't even recognise him.

This was a good lesson taught by life, "Don't be fooled by what people say and their looks on TV". The reason I remember him is that one day, I was entering college and this guy sped through the college gates and almost ran me up. Students used to run to get out of the way of his speeding car.

But everybody liked his "style" and wanted to copy him.

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#6 [Permalink] Posted on 29th March 2020 13:29

When I was very young, a family moved into our neighbourhood in Islamabad. Aunty had studied in Egypt so my parents decided that it would be good for my Tajweed to learn from her, instead of the local Masjid.

She had a son and a few daughters, all way older than me and in the university.

First day, Aunty told me the Sunnah of entering a house and she told me a few things:

  1. We are supposed to knock at the door 3 times
  2. IF there is no answer then we go back

I saw an opportunity to “skip” so whenever I didn’t want to study and play I would “not knock” but touch my nails on the door (lightly) 3 times and then leave.

Next day, I would tell Aunty that I followed the Sunnah and since nobody answered, I went home.

Her daughters would yell at me for lying and tell their mother that I am lying because nobody heard anything but she would reprimand everyone and say

“Look, Masha’Allah he is following the Sunnah so this is wonderful”

Then she would give me special treats for following the Sunnah, although I was lying!

In 3 weeks I felt so embarrassed by her behaviour that I quit lying and changed my behaviour.

The next year, they moved out so I was back at the Masjid and back to the same old environment with 100s of kids and same method for Hifdh of the Qur'aan.

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#7 [Permalink] Posted on 29th March 2020 19:15

When I moved to the Masjid our teacher was a Hafidh Saheb (from Multan) who was blind. The Qarees from Multan are famous for their Tajweed.

Me being me, I was always messing around in the class and getting in trouble.

This Hafidh Saheb was the smartest person I know, his Qur'aan was PERFECT and his control of the class was excellent, although he was blind.

We were astonished that he was able to catch even the slightest movement of children and react immediately.

One day (years later) I was with my mother in the market to buy vegetables. Hafidh Saheb was there and he knew from my voice and he told the shopkeeper.

"He is the brightest Hifdh student I have ever had, whatever he put his mind to it he memorised, Masha'Allah, Masha'Allah".

  1. I was not studious
  2. I was not well behaved
  3. I was certainly not the brightest student

But his description filled me and my mother with pride. I went home and for the next few years I was motivated to study in the Qur'aan because of his praise because I wanted to prove it. 

My ability to memorise the Qur'aan went several levels highers just because of this incident.


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#8 [Permalink] Posted on 29th March 2020 21:57

This takes me to our Urdu teacher.

He was from the same village as my father and he used to say, "I used to beat your father so who are you"? I thought that he specially hated me and singled me out for special punishment.

I was dead wrong!

Sir used to love Imran Khan so in the class he used to hide a Transistor Radio and listen to Pakistan play Cricket. Whenever a wicket fell, he used to stop teaching and adjust his headphones to listen to commentary.

He taught us Urdu and I was never into poetry etc. In fact, I was very bad at it and still am.

Years later, I broke the record for US Military and he heard about it from someone. Many years later, I went to Pakistan.

Sir was old and became blind and crippled. He found out that I was in Pakistan so he found my relatives and came and saw me, "He told the whole neighbourhood that he taught me that's why I broke the Record"

He climbed 5 sets of stairs to come and see me, I have never been so embarrassed in my life. He brought people, sweets and the whole neighbourhood to celebrate my success (although the record had nothing to do with Urdu).

That's when I found out that he did not really hate me.

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#9 [Permalink] Posted on 21st July 2022 09:01
My Arabic teacher in secondary school Mr Qamaruddin was a very kind man. Once, right after finals, he called me into his chamber. He asked me questions about mudhaaf and mudhaaf ilayh, which I answered correctly. He then pulled out my answer book and showed me that I had written the answers incorrectly and he said I must have been absent minded when I wrote the answers. He told me to make corrections in the answer book and told me not to tell anyone that he allowed me to change my answers.
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