Qayoom Jan Sheikh, the making of a legend

By Salahuddin Sikander

Mr. Qayoom Jan Sheikh, was my best teacher. He, in my opinion, was and will be forever among the greatest men of our region.The only phrase which can perfectly encapsulates his personality is that of ‘Larger than life”. Every thing about him was great, grand and inspiring. Few understood him in his life time, fewer others came, even remotely close, in emulating his great example or in drawing up correct sketches and appraisals of his great and glorious personality. This is how Mr. Qayoom Jan khan gradually faded away and drifted into oblivion after his demise. Then, people of our area forgot him. I doubt, even if his immediate family has an inkling into his tall stature or the fact that his life and personality was the stuff of a legend. People from his own town and those in Draban Kalan, never raised a monument in his honour or kept flame of his memory alive through some means, like naming some public building or an even event in his name. Yes, it needed some distance in time and some other set of circumstances , allowing others, with kindred passions and sympathetic and compassionate outlook on life, to pass a judgment on this great and illustrious son of the soil.You need to have greatness and unselfishness in yourself to understand this great man. If you don’t have love and sympathy for humanity then Qayoom Jan’s message won’t appeal to you, it might look like lack of experience in life, sheer simplicity and something as an outright folly. But we can’t judge a person through money he earns or big offices he holds. Both of these carry enough temptations for doing evil. As a great German philosopher said “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.

Give a man power, money and position of authority and he if is, knowingly, desisting from doing harm to others, and is rather doing acts of unselfish good then you must pause for a second and think that you are dealing with a great man. Mr Qayum Jan was one such great man, whose life was untimely and tragically cut short by a fatal illness and he died in relatively young age of 35. Qayoom Jan, my best teacher,was from the famed town of Musa Zai, housing famous shrine of Khanqah Ahmdia Saeedia, Musazai Sharif, which acts like an invisible magnet, drawing tens of thousands of devotees from all across Pakistan.

Mr Qayoom Jan had a rich, affluent, landowning background.True to his family bloodline, he was a tall, handsome man with beautiful facial features. He didn’t have to take up teaching as a profession for earning money. He was a man of independent means but he enjoyed teaching and most importantly he had valuable message to convey to the students. He came to school in his own car, something which was unheard of then and quite surprising now for teaching community in our area. Concept of car as personal comfort giving vehicle was mostly alien in Draban at that time. Musa Zai, unlike Draban, had a rich, influential and educated upper class, The Aristocrats. They came from Pashto speaking Peer, The Sheikhs, and Miankhels people of pure Pashtoon descent who could equally speak Saraiki like native speakers of the language. People of Draban then, generally gave short shrift to notions of education as a tool of personal empowerment, financial stability and inner illumination. Their constant plaint was good jobs are possible with money or it requires powerful connections, Sifaresh as they said it. Sending children for smaller jobs was nagging concern of most of the parents.
Mr. Qayoom Jan, though coming from same aristocrat background, was so much different. I admired Mr. Qayoom Jan for his great qualities. He was far ahead of his time. He was an idealist, an iconoclast, a man overflowing with milk of human kindness, a champion of liberty, equality and fraternity. He didn’t give a damn about class system which makes any person less worthy because he earns nothing. He himself came from privileged class but he himself realised the hollowness and vanity of things which were transitory and subject to decay. Mr. Qayoom Jan pinned his faith on our common humanity and our shared values. While traveling to Musa zai from Draban, he gave free ride to poor labourers in his car, who were waiting for local bus bound for Musa Zai. He was a man of golden heart and golden deeds. This is Mr. Qayoom Jan’s Way of looking at the world. When we stripp away our false pretentions, shaping our identity and our sense of divide on basis of race, language, ethnicity, economic or social standings then we are able to see our shared humanity. When Mr. Qayoom Jan spoke, he exhibited his vast knowledge, it was his educated, civilised, polite manner of speaking that caused a spell over his audience. His discussion was full of references and quotations, with scholarly touches lying here and there.This rendered his method of teaching highly effective. You were always in big company while listening to him . He treated students like his own. He doesn’t address us “beta, weta” etc but we knew him he wanted our good and dealt with us in perfect sincerity. He inspired us to do great things in life. He never commited an abdominal sin, which unfortunately has become defining feature of our our education system and without it our education looks so imperfect, like a car without four wheels. I am talking about tuitions and the deadly lethal alliance between education and money. Mr. Qayoom Jan bought books on diverse topics from Dera Ismail Khan and gave these to students for free, He never charged money. What I know for sure Qayoom Jan wanted us to tape into our vital intellectual faculties to get access to fresh, modern ideas. He wanted us to create “A Brave New World” and this new world was to be created on the back of these ideas. He urged us to rid ourselves of outworn, stale, pale thin, stagnant ideas of education which no longer worked and which offered only prospects of small jobs of primary school teacher or those of minor jobs in FC. Mr. Qayoom Jan’s aim was to expand our mental horizons and make us ready for bold adventure in our quest to make ourselves highly productive in our lives.

Many times during evening, I had to travel to Musa Zai. Then, in twilight, as the sights and sounds of Draban begin to fade and Musa Zai became slightly visible in the distance, I began to mull over the idea of Qayoom Jan sheikh. This man was an embodiment of all that can conceived in a human being, an angelic figure. He died young and those who die young live for ever. Great legacy and message of Qayum Jan Sheikh we need to kept in perpetual motion. We just can’t afford to let his vital message slip into oblivion and forgetfulness. In my own humble opinion Qayoom Jan, was a role model for us, even the word role model looks so dull and drab in describing great and multifaceted personality of Mr Qayoom Jan. On personal note, I must share this with you, that apart from my paternal cousin Karim Shah Hashmi, it is Mr. Qayoom Jan who exerted tremendous influence over my life.
Qayoom Jan proved that for living in hearts you need not be a politicians or to act in manner of a Khan, though he had graceful personality of a tall handsome Pashtoon man, he was a Khan per excellence.
Thus essay is a tribute to Mr Qayoom Jan Khan and it was long overdue. In showering praises over great and noble personality of Mr. Qayoom Jan, I need to emphasise, side by side, that other teachers of our area are equally worthy of respect and many of them I fondly remember as persons who taught me. My aim in writing this article was to pay a tribute to this great man and also to let my readers know that what made Qayoom Jan, so different, so unique and so great. And emergence of great men is rarely unique phenomenon.
Other great teachers of our area include illustrious names like Mohmmd Maskeen saib, Asmatullah Khan, Alizai Khan, Asmat Khan, Saifuran khan, Ramzan Khan, Ghairat khan, Jahangir khan, Atlas khan, Abdul Aziz saib, Saifurman khan of Chowdwan , Sonra khan.

Looking down from Takht, a travel account of ascent to Takht-e-Sulaiman

Takht-e-Sulaiman mountain range as seen from Draban

The travel account was
published in Dawn, The News, The Frontier Post and www.khyber.org in early and mid 2000’s.

Draban in late 19th century, Lohani Miankhel tribe camp

Takhte Sulaiman, the highest peak of Sulaiman range, has for long, remained shrouded in myth and mystery. For the  people, from Sherani  hills and mountains and from vast plains of Damaan, Takhte Sulaiman embodies some kind of religious mystique, having  associations with none other than the Biblical Prophet and king Solomon or Hazrat Sulaiman.
Before the age of internet, modern smart phones the beauty of Takht-e-Sulaiman, largely went unnoticed and unsung in wider Pakistan. But then with smart phones and sharing applications the idea of Takht-e-Sulaiman  burst open all around us on the internet. Takht-e-Sulaiman is now getting serious press. Takht-e-Sulaiman  was, in recent history, scaled mostly by  people of the region as part of local  religious, cultural tradition. The peak served as a shrine, with animal sacrifice as an essential feature. Peak’s presumed  associations with  Prophet  Solomon or Sulaiman and the  legend of flying carpet and his landing on Takhte sulaiman has remained part of local folklore and a widely believed story. To the plains of Damaan, the sulaiman range and twin peaks of Takhte sulaiman give wonderful, picturesque background. Indeed, Damaan wouldn’t have been the same without Takhte sulaiman. Countless generations of men and women have lived and died under the long shadows of Takhte sulaiman , new generations of men came into existence and  then went out of existence at their fixed hours, while The Eternal Mountain of Sulaiman has remained unmoved, unaffected, standing  in perfect grandeur and  majestic repose since the beginning of time. Takhte Sulaiman, inspires awe and wonder in the hearts of men. It  is indeed a holy mountain.
According to local tradition, Prophet Sulaiman, who held his dominion over djinns also, hurled down and imprisoned those mischievous djinns deep inside inside this mountains who refused his commands.There, these spirits are to dwell in eternal captivity, only respite coming in Safar, the second month of the Islamic calendar. Then these creatures, for some unknown reasons are unchained, who then prey upon ordinary people, subjecting them to their demonic influence. And then at the approach of evening hours as the shadows of Sulaiman mountains begin to lengthen over and envelope the vast plains of Damaan,  people in Damaan  hurry children home to keep them safe from such baneful influence of the djinns.
It needs to mentioned here that belief in djinns , evil eye, casting of spells, demonic possessions, evil influence of black magic is widespread in Draban, Musa Zai and Chodwan.
Stories associated with Takht-e-Sulaiman  fascinated me since my childhood. And the temptation of climbing it was harder to resist when I had a mind  sharpened for adventure by reading East & West, NWFP, BA level marvelous English essays book.
I, then, had this peculiar flair and liking for  optics and I experimented making basic  telescopes as a matter of hobby. With these telescopes I looked at the beauty of Takht-e-Sulaiman mountains with awe and wonder. Then, with my friend and relative Haroon Rasheed, currently an official of federal government, I made small trips to explore foothills of sulaiman mountain facing Draban. Later on, others joined us in these adventures.
At the height of 3,382 metres above sea level, Takhte Sulaiman is name of spectacular mountains which offer endless opportunities of trekking and climbing. A trip to the top of the Takht, however, is possible in summers only as the winter snow keeps it out of bound from November till March. Dera Ismail Khan region was visited by Mountstuart
Elphinstone, 1779-1859,  around first decade of 1800’s. He was the first British Indian government who on reaching Draban wrote on Takhte Sulaiman and perhaps made an attempt to scale its peak. His account of his travels in our region can be seen in his book “An account of the kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies”. According to Edward Emmerson Oliver, author of “Across the Border: Or Pathan and Biloch”  a British expedition was sent to Takht-e-Sulaiman to carry out  survey of  Takht  in 1884, with the aid of the tribesmen .
In 1891 two British officers Major Maclvor and Captain A.H.McMahon reached either the shrine or the summit of the peak of the Takht-i-Suliman.

Likewise, Sir Alexander Burnes in around 1831, 1832 traveled in  present day KP and Afghanistan in year and wrote down accounts of his travels in his book ” An Account of a Journey from India to Cabool, Tartary and Persia; Also, Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus. Burnes is likely to have visited Dera Ismail Khan. Famous Muslim traveler  Ibn Battuta also reported to have  visited region of Takht-e-Sulaiman in 14th century. Last time the foreigners visited the mountain peak or region around it in second half of 1990’s in our company. They were Ivan Mannheim and Michael Bertrand, both were out friends and came to our area twice.
Takhte Sulaiman can be reached both through Zhob or Drazinda Dera Ismail Khan. But people should better climb the mountain up from Dera Ismail Khan , KP side. It is thrilling and travel from Raga Sir takes a traveler on roller coaster ride through the most beautiful and scenic parts of the mountains. Those who travel to Kikrai from Zhob and ascend the peak miss out on the main show. Public transport heading to Ragha Sar, the base of the Sulaiman range, can be booked from Draban Kalan.
Once Upon A Time In Draban
One fine summer day, we boarded a local bus and headed westwards — through the wide stony plain which is a part of Damaan that stretches for about 120 km north-south between D I Khan and D G Khan. This area is sandwiched between the Sulaiman mountains to the west and Indus river to the east.
The road that cuts through a ridge of low hills took us to Drazinda, the tehsil headquarter. After a brief stop there, the bus drove forward winding its way through the mountains; then turning west from the main D I Khan-Zhob road. It followed the right bank of a gorge to reach the top where the village of Raga Sar is situated. The high mountain chain that houses the village eventually leads to the highest peak of the Sulaiman range.

Sir Alexander Burnes, one of the first to explore KP and Afghanistan

Mountstuart Elphinstone
Who in 19th century visited Daraban Kalan

Stone and mud huts give Raga Sar a quaint antique look. It is inhabited by friendly and hospitable people of Sherani tribe. But the ominous presence of kalashnikoves slung over many shoulders bears testimony to a tradition that leaves few happy — blood feuds are common.

Our journey to Takhte Sulaiman began the next morning with necessary provisions and the valuable guidance of our friend and host Sultan Khan. Shortly after braving the strenuous narrow track, along a stream and over small boulders and pointed stones outlining the mountains on either side, we found ourselves in an open area with magnificent mountains all around. The four-hour track from Raga Sar came to an abrupt end here.

The next stage was to get to a hilltop village of Tora Tisha. And there we reached after half a day of strenuous trekking. The mosque in Tora Tisha was an ideal place for us to rest and relax, before embarking on yet another demanding trek across a small wooden bridge built over a narrow gorge. Deep down water gushed forth at tremendous speed. We proceeded further to ascend a sheer rock wall.

The trek finally ended. Another region lay open before us with a peculiar climatic condition and flora and fauna of its own. Mighty Sulaiman mountains covered with green forest afforded a very good view from the close quarters. We were supposed to make our way through it before dark to complete the first leg of our journey. A smooth climb over a mountain nearby led us straight into those pine forests.

View of Obashta peak from top of Takhte Sulaiman

The lush green landscape left us spellbound. It was a place of outstanding beauty. ChilghozaChilghoza and Nashtar trees could be seen all over the place. A smooth and straight track led us to a village called Poonga. Here ended our journey for the day.

Poonga spills down the mountainside. It offers a panoramic view of the gorgeous green mountains covered here and there with patches of flowers. A distinct silence we usually attach to high mountains could be felt and enjoyed. The warm sunshine added yet another charm to the place.

Next morning, we headed to the north of the village on a long and hard uphill track. We continued with the hope that the way would ease out along the flank of the mountain. That it did, and to our sheer pleasure was lined with the most amazing growth of wild flowers.

The view on the other side was simply breathtaking: A vast landscape characterised by lush green pastures and dense Chilghoza forest; a simple and serene village; idyllic peace and harmony; another mountain range at the back of the village and the view of its summit all featuring prominently. We decided to take a detour from the main track and go down into the valley where the scene was absolutely enchanting — with a dazzling array of wild flowers and pine trees.

We, however, took to the main track again and after an overnight stay in a village, next morning we took a path to the right, which led steeply to the peak.

In sheer contrast to the area around it, the top is a victim of intense deforestation. It has a camel route for the transportation of timber to Zhob. The top would have boasted plenty of pine trees once but today it presents a somewhat desolate look.

A room built in stone awaited our us at the top. It was for those wanting to stay overnight. Inside the room it was pitch dark but conditions outside were extremely cold. A natural water pool was there to serve all visitors.

There Qaisa Abdul Rasheed is said to be buried under a shady tree. Locals believe him to be an ancestor of the Pakhtoons. A small clean place near the end of the mountain is used as a mosque and this place also marks the point where Sulaiman, the prophet, would land.

A few stones are firmly placed at the edge of the mountain so as to serve as stairs for people wanting to go down about 10 feet to the slab — said to be the Takht. There is barely enough space for a man to stand or sit on the Takht.

From the top we enjoyed a From the top we enjoyed a panoramic view all around. To the north was Waziristan, the land of blue and green-eyed Masoods and to the west was a chain of mountains all steeped in silence. Absolute bliss!

Cosmos، my Voyage of discovery

By Salahuddin Sikander
I remember a time long past in my native village, Draban Kalan, Dera Ismail
Khan، Pakistan. Often in the middle of night while laying on Charpai, a woven bed of
knotted ropes, in the open courtyard of my home, I looked up at starlit sky and at the
moon which like a ship of light charted its voyage on the sea of the night and wondered۔ The
Milky Way and countless heavenly bodies I kept gazing on in perfect silence. The
starry heavens above overwhelmed me with a sense of awe and wonder. The
marvel and deep mystery of the universe lay beyond my power of understanding
and simply baffled me. Many times in the dead of night when common folks slept,
I went on my lone walk in open places; I looked at the heavens above and reflected
on the riddle of the cosmos. What an extraordinary, almost mystical experience it
was. An embodied consciousness like me had this rare ability to think over the
silent sky and its intricate beauty, a privilege denied to the animals. As I grew up
and my mental horizons expanded, I made astronomy and cosmology dominant
fields of my interest. I became an amateur astronomer and star gazer. BBC world
service programmes “Discovery” and “Science in action” furnished me with
necessary information. Further I read voraciously to gain knowledge of man’s
changing conceptions of the cosmos. Far back in time in ancient Middle East, the
cradle of civilization, in Mesopotamia and in Ancient Egypt mathematics and
geometry kick started and skies were scanned by astrologer priests. It wasn’t
genuine and real astronomy as we understand it now, then astrology and astronomy
were bound up with religions and mythologies of the prevailing times. My quest
and thirst for knowledge took me to Ionia, the Western coast of Modern day
Turkey, which has the rare distinction of being the birth place of philosophy. Greek
philosophers of Ionia and southern Italy of 6 th century BCE and onwards launched
their truly genuine rational speculations on natural phenomenon. Philosophers like
Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes thought over the fundamental basis of all thing.
Pythagoras of Samos added his valuable share in expanding our knowledge of
mathematics. But most interesting I found Atomists, the Leucippus and
Democritus postulating tiny atoms composing everything around us. Brave and
enterprising were these philosopher-scientists of pre- Socratic period. They should
be absolved and exonerated from blame of committing not too infrequent errors in
understating the reality, as they had to rely on their reasoning power and limited
observation to decipher the nature of things. Flat earth idea and geocentric model
of the universe perfectly fitted in with their common sense, an exception should be
made in the case of ancient Greek philosopher Aristarchus 310-230 BC who
proposed a heliocentric theory. A flawed theory i.e. Ptolemy’s Geocentric Model
gained acceptance of the people for over 1500 years. It raises another interesting
fact: that ideas are not necessarily true if they are believed in over long period of
time or by large number of people. Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler corrected
man’s notion of his place in the universe. The idea of Heliocentric Model was
introduced to the world. Copernican Revolution rejected the idea that earth was
placed at the centre of the universe, beginning a lasting feud between Catholic
Church and new science. At the end of the day it was science which won. Sir Issac
Newton in 1687 formulated laws of motion and universal gravitation which
dominated man’s view of universe for next three centuries. Albert Einstein at the
start of 20 th century developed Special Theory Of Relativity and later he published
paper on General Theory of Relativity. Newton’s idea of absolute space and time
no longer held true. New advances in the field of cosmology and astronomy are
mindboggling. Quantum mechanics is at odds with Einstein’s General Theory of
Relativity. Grand Unified Theory or Theory Of Everything is yet to be discovered
to reconcile the two. Our Universe is expanding, a fact discovered by Edwin
Hubble, what will be its ultimate fate? The big bang created this universe almost
14 billion years ago, what was before the big bang and who triggered this massive
explosion? Scientist differs over these vital questions.
The veils of mystery surround me yet, the riddle remains unanswered
despite the fact I know much more than I did in my days in village. Like before I
keep on my daily night walks, look at starry heavens above me from time to time
and encounter a strange , unexplainable, deep mystical experience, a kind of
communion with my thinking self and the soul of the cosmos.

Philosophy of begging

By Salahuddin Sikander

The intuition of begging is very rich in complexity, though the beggars are
considered as the most trivial and unimportant persons in our world, unfit for
serious thought. It is only upon reflection that we come to gradually unfold the
superficial exterior of begging and reach its real inner core, which is intriguing,
complex, interesting and multidimensional.
Often an approaching beggar is dismissed with a scorn; his beseeching hand
simply puts us off. He doesn’t impress us at all. The manner he comes to us with
the apparent aim of evoking our emotions of pity make him look nothing more
than a cheat. A beggar doesn’t impress because he doesn’t look like a successful
man, his failure and fault is his poverty. He lies at the end of our social ladder, he
is the one who in our competitive driven world can’t compete or doesn’t want to.
With his empty pocket and haggard looks he is totally unimportant. Lying at our
mercy, a victim of our whim, he can instantly be rewarded if we are in good mood
or could` be dismissed with a harsh word.
This is the most common stereotype of a beggar. But there are more things
to him too which make him interesting in his own right. In the first place, the
beggar is a brilliant psychologist, he turns upside down the normal ideas and
notions of the world, the way, the manner, we the normal human beings think of
human physical deformities and infirmities. Then the begger with brilliant stroke
of logic uses these deformities to his or her advantage. We often take pity when see
someone physically or mentally handicapped and disabled. The proud among us
born with such handicaps try to overcome the physical defect or some hide them
and present themselves as normal human beings. Beggar on the other hand makes
his physical handicaps and deformities more prominent and the defining character
of his personality. It is a common sight to see beggars lying on the roadside
showing their handicapped parts to the passersby with the aim of evoking their
pity. Why they do that? The answer is that such sights move humans to pity and
compassion. Same is the case if we see small children orphaned at early age.
Beggar exploits human feeling of compassion and pity for his advantage . Many of
women take their small children around while on begging spree and present
themselves being widowed with small children. In short, pity is what they want us
to feel for them. This is his or her main instrument and weapon. More interestingly,
what stands correct for individual beggar becomes same for normal individuals or
at bigger scale for the governments in certain cases. Countries in indeed of money
resort to the same tactics to extract money from the donor agencies. I remember
many foreign dignitaries visited Pakistan when a massive earthquake struck
northern Pakistan on October 8, 2005. Many of the earthquake affectees were
brought to relief camps in different loacations and housed in refugee camps.
Among the affectees there were women widowed, children orphaned, and many
people becoming handicapped for life. The rich foreign dignitaries were purposely
shown around the human tragedy being unfolded in the wake of colossal tragedy
wrought by earthquake. The aim, purpose and impulse were the same which drive
a beggar. Though Pakistani authorities would loath to even think of acting the role
of a beggar, but this was exactly the role they played.
Feeling compassion and pity for the people in real suffering is natural,
but even the reservoirs of pity dry up when one is confronted on daily basis by
professional beggars using various tricks to extract money out of other’s pockets.
Many of such beggars could earn their living in a decent manner, provided they
have a will and determination but they don’t and prefer the easy way. The efforts
of the government, of the social reformers in many such cases prove futile. Doesn’t
it mean that beggars are the product of a sort of the Darwinian natural selection, of
the natural division of society, into the one who are powerful and who on account
of their personal drive, initiative and ability carve out their own destiny and reach
to the very top, and the beggars and their likes who merely live on the fringes of
life and are reduced to crump and morsels which others throw at them.
For beggars it is all a way of life, he doesn’t have to swallow his pride
because he as a matter of fact has no pride. Selfhood and personal pride have been
wiped out in his personality, he no longer is moved by the conventions and modes
of thought which propel normal human beings to become high achievers in life and
attain a life of great status and wealth. Most of us try to present ourselves as highly
respectable, hide our all faults and failings, and give a good account of ourselves
even to the point of lying, simulation and hypocrisy. We do that because the
society we live in doesn’t consider the weakness a mark of success. And so people
trying to build up their great image in the hearts and minds of others tell others
things, which in reality bear no resemblance to truth. This is because showing
oneself in stark reality in front of others might be an unpleasant truth. We try to
dress up nicely when we go in public only for the reason that our false self takes
the better of us, though in our own home we are not bothered by such niceties. The
great beggar stands at the very opposite end on the spectrum. On the question of
selfhood, personal pride and honor he has no claims. Such claims are the reserve
and domain of the mainstream life, driven by ambition, power, and struggle.
Times have changed, the empires have come and gone, the world saw the
advent of the age of science, man climbed to the moon, but the institution of
begging is still stayed with us, remaining unaffected by the fast changing world
and showing great resilience in spite of our efforts .Perhaps begging is too deep
rooted a trait of human personality to be uprooted with acts of legislature or the
efforts of the society. And for the same reasons the beggars might stay with us in
future as well.

Philosophical reflections on A tiny ant

By Salahuddin Sikander

An ant is a tiny, friendly creature whose sight is a matter of daily occurrence. It is not usually the sort of creature that could inspire deep philosophical contemplation, yet we, the humans on reflection can learn many important lessons from it.
An ant, first of all brings out the discrepancy between its littleness and the might of the man. Man is in possession of tremendous power in contrast to the tiny size of an ant. He consequently exercise total disregard to its very existence. It does not figure in prominently in man’s priority of precious species, but an ant is important because it is a manifestation of the mystery that we call life, something which animates its all activities, drives it to engage itself in wonderful industrious activities. Preciousness of life becomes apparent on encountering the sight of a dying or a dead ant.
Life, like an electric current, enable an ant to live and it dies the moment the supply of the electric current discontinues. But an ant while alive is conscious only of the instincts of self-preservation and perpetuation. Such a daily routine is interrupted by many fatal accidents that cut short an ant’s life and in many instances it is mostly through the agency of man that causes it to go through the tragedy of an untimely death.
How many ants do we, the humans, kill in the course of a single day? Scores of them are trampled under feet without even the least expression of sorrow and remorse on man’s part. Many others are drowned in the deluge of domestic water usage. Man, in short, for an ant is veritable symbol of death and destruction.
On a scale of existence, man and ant stand in a peculiar relationship. Both represent the opposite ends of the scale, on one side is man, a colossus of power, strength and energy; on the other is the ant whose life in many cases lies at the whims and indifferences of the man.
But strangely enough on a different scale of reference man like an ant possess a tiny existence. Very much like an ant he is weak and fragile. The role of the human mind in enabling man to assert his superiority over the animal kingdom is tremendous. But he is up against other formidable forces: elements are beyond his control. The forces of nature are absolutely indifferent to his situation. He lies at their total mercy whenever the time comes.
Hurricanes, typhoons and tornado storm across regions leaving behind a trial of death and destruction. Earthquake hits areas leaving tens of thousands dead and injured. Famine, draught, disease play havoc in man’s life. Nature red in tooth and claw preys upon man, and man is always helpless.
But man is not humbled by destructive forces of nature only. Vast background of natural phenomenon is also a constant reminder of man’s humbleness with reference to the earth and cosmos. He, it is true, has adjusted every human innovation, invention, buildings playgrounds etc. according to his own physical requirements and size. But the natural world is still something beyond him. Giant mountains of enormous size assume a character of immortality on comparison with the generation of men who live and die in their shadows. Like an ant he climbes over their surface, but mountains remain the same; always gigantic, powerful, and undefeated by time and death. Vast landscapes, rivers, oceans testify to the fact of his being a tiny portion of vast background of natural word.
Humans tends to look at things their own eyes, making themselves the most important creature, but a little imagination and objectivity would be rob them of this prominence, and reveal them to be no better than giant ants with powerful brains.
Once on a visit to Peshawar I stood briefly on an overhead bridge overlooking a crowded bazaar. Down below could be seen people walking, closely packed together, in hot pursuits of their daily routine. Such a remote view of people with diminished sizes gave them a look similar to the ants, like ants they went about their business with dedication and determination. Similarly, huge public demonstrations or scenes of huge crowds at football stadiums give them a strange, queer look similar to the ant. It all depends on leaps of imagination, and sometimes on leap of faith, to come to our true realization and status in great scheme of things. We should be highly imaginative to be able to see ourselves in the backdrop of vast stretches of time and space which surround us. This will breed in us sense of humility and enable us to get rid of human arrogance and sense of parochialism.

The Lure Of The Unknown

The Lure Of The Unknown

By Salahuddin Sikander

Man has always, since the beginning, been haunted by the phenomenon of
unknown. Then, there was much in his life that was mysterious, dark and strange,
there were things which forced him to think and enquire .Time and again he had to
grapple with the forces of unknown and to reduce them to an intelligible pattern.
Most of the time his efforts were thwarted and foiled, but he didn’t deter. Unlike
the rest of animals he had an irresistible curiosity and sense of speculation; and he
continued with his crude efforts to decipher the nature of reality all way down from
the prehistoric times till the history began.
This was humanity’s dream time and element of mystery gave the world
beauty. There was mystery in not knowing what lay across the mountains, the
seas and vast oceans, mystery remained in the unexplained riddle of the sun, the
moon and the cosmos and mystery surrounded man’s every day existence, in
things happening around him in the natural world. He, in short, stood face to face
with the vast region of unknown which he couldn’t probe and penetrate at this
stage of his mental development. But here came imagination to assist man in his
endeavors and it lent him help in conjuring up images of his own contraction,
peopling the earth and the cosmos with mythological figures. In his own life he
also saw things defying his thinking ability, he saw diseases and sickness and again
he couldn’t solve the riddle of how diseases were caused and he came up with
theories of demons and other supernatural agencies causing the diseases.
On physical level, man’s experiences were restricted to his own
surroundings or regions of closer proximity and he led mostly an isolated
existence. This remained true not only in ancient times but also, in past not too
distant, when humanity saw the birth of civilizations. For pretty much longer
period of time he didn’t know if the earth was round or flat. There were few who
ventured on long journeys to distant places. And vast majority made a faint picture
of these far-off lands. The picture was made more romantic and given more
mystiques owing to vast distances involved. Even the people shaping great
civilizations in Asia and Europe didn’t travel much. For the Greeks, the world
ended beyond the Pillars of Hercules, modern day Straits of Gibraltar, and their
traveling experiences led them to some parts of Asia and North Africa only.The
Romans of 2 nd century too knew only Europe, the North African coastline, Arabia
and the Indian Ocean.
But then came the Renaissance, a time when man began to make serious
inroads into the vast inaccessible domain of the unknown. It was Renaissance that
vastly increased the threshold of human knowledge and paved the way for clearing
up man’s ideas and conceptions about things hitherto unknown and indefinite.
Exploration of the physical world was one of the dominant concerns of
Renaissance. In the 12 th and 13 th centuries in Europe there were many false travel
stories about the fabled and exotic East. Account of many of these travels was
fabulous and work of pure fiction, Like those of Sir John Mandeville published
between 1357 -1371, highly fantastically and inaccurate.Still these accounts
showed a desire to explore the unknown, fulfilling a natural craving in human heart
to make the unknown familiar. There was also Marco polo who gave an account of
his journeys throughout Asia from 1271 to 1295 in which he described being a
guest at the court of Kublai khan, the Mongol king of China.
During the Renaissance quests and expeditions were launched for
discovering the world. In the process, Europeans met people and saw lands
previously unknown to them. Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, the
land virtually unknown to man till this time. The dark continent of Africa and its
interior were explored till the late 19 th century. Europeans launched themselves into
the region of Asia pacific. Lieutenant James Cook led an expedition in HM
Endeavour and reached New Zealand and then reached the south eastern corner of
Australia. The discovery of the world wasn’t yet complete, till the expeditions
were launched to the South Pole and it was finally conquered and reached at the
start of the 20 th century.
A moment arrived in human history when the veils of mystery were finally
uplifted and the physical world stood in naked reality, all explored, all discovered.
At the speedy onrush of real exploration, myths and romance began to recede. The
beauty of the unknown and unseen which excited human imagination to new
heights, the sense which gave birth to the stories of Sindhbad and Gulliver, all
began to vanish and cease to exist.
High on heels of exploration in physical world, came newer and newer
discoveries in the realm of science explaining the natural causes of things
happening around. There was no longer any need of any intricate web of
mythology to explain the working of natural phenomenon. Science replaced myths
and gods and goddess went tumbling down. Man’s imaginative attempt at
explaining the unknown, what he couldn’t understand in the natural world received
a crushing blow at the hands of science. Unraveling mysteries, of making unknown
familiar, science started its unchallenged march and shaped the world as we see it
today.
Shorn of mystery, its deep romance and mystique, the world today doesn’t
look as much beautiful as it did in the past. It is all because science and
geographical exploration have landed us in the broad day light of naked reality,
and left no scope for human imagination to work on. But all is not lost; there is still
some consolation left.
Man’s voyages of discovery in the physical world, his splendid
achievements in the field of science in unearthing the secrets of the heaven and
earth are major milestone. But still even today there is much that remains unknown
and undiscovered, and many mysteries that stand yet to be unraveled. These are the
mysteries of life and death, the mystery of God and the mystery of the Cosmos.
At the tail end of the Milky Way we live on planet earth, in a universe so
vast which human mind fails to encompass. We are only intelligent and self
conscious specie sharing planet earth along with other millions of life forms.
Humans haven’t yet found any other intelligence anywhere else in the universe. No
scientist can give explanation of why we are here or make clear the purpose of life.
Except devoutly religious no one can tell what happens after death or truly
penetrate the phenomenon of death.
Looking more imaginatively and bit more poetically we find the mists of the
forces of unknown enveloping man, his earth and his entire universe. Human mind
has led man to achieve great wonders. From the dense jungles of ignorance and
superstitions he came and erected the grand edifice of human civilization and
intellect, but there is a limit to everything and there is limit to the power of human
intellect. And some mysteries will forever remain mysteries, and there will be
much there will remain unknown for all times and forever.

Man, the machine

Man a Machine
By Salahuddin Sikander

Mystery surrounds human origins. Creation stories of Judaic, Christian and
Islamic traditions speak of him being created by God and placed on planet earth.
Scientists have a different story to tell: Man is the product of stardust. He has
humble beginnings and evolved through gradual progression from primates nearly
40 thousand years ago.
Keeping these mind-boggling speculations apart, if we focus on present day
man then he appears as a spectacular life form, a wonderful biological organism.
But he is definitely not made of ethereal or angelic stuff. The elements that shaped
his body are scattered throughout the universe. “The composition of tiny lumps of
impure carbon and water of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual
physical and chemical properties give birth to man”, as Bertrand Russell puts it.
For a moment dismiss man as we subjectively conceive him and consider him
briefly as a biological machine or as a wet robot as Daniel Dennett said in one of
his lectures on free will. Laced with vision, hearing sensors and above all with a
powerful computer fitted in his skull he is capable of performing thousands of
marvelous tasks. A comparison between him and a piece of machinery, for
example, a car will bring out these similarities more forcefully.
A car needs fuel for its operations. Man needs food for carrying out
numerous physical and mental assignments. Car has an engine; man has various
systems for the smooth functioning of its healthy working. A car has headlights
facilitating its movements in darkness; we, on the other hand, have  eyes enabling
us to see things. Car has got exhaust pipes emitting redundant material; man has
excretory system expelling waste material, a result of metabolism.
When car breaks down it is taken to a mechanic, we on falling ill end up in a
hospital. When humans die they are dumped into a graveyard with lots of
ceremony and hopes of resurrection, but old useless cars end up in junk shops, or
are parked in desolate corners and are left to their own fate. Man’s comparison
with the cars is apt and interesting. But he is not only biological machine; our earth
abounds with so many of them. The animal kingdom exhibits craftsmanship of the
highest degree. These biological machines, the animals find their echoes and
parallels in man’s world. Trucks, tractors, are man’s ingenious efforts in
replicating our dear beasts of burden, the camels, the donkeys, the mules and the
bullocks.
Of course it is logical to question very basis and premise of the theory by
pointing out that man and every member of the animal kingdom is endowed with a
self will, unlike man made machines which can’t get operational without man’s
control. But the fact is that these biological machines have an inbuilt computer in
shape of mind which enables them to become masters of their own selves. Mind
gives them the self-drive ability. But sometimes it happens that a newly created
machine, a new born human child, for example is born with a dysfunctional
computer and logically its self drive ability is also impaired and so such child is
left entirely at the care of others all their lives.
So here we come. Our world having two kinds of machines, one biological
in structure, the other man made and mostly mechanical and electronic in structure,
but the distinction of biological and mechanical basis of making machines is fast
blurring. 21 st century man is playing God; rapid advances in the field of biology
and genetic engineering are taking man to the realm of creation. Scientist in the US
created first virus, cloning created Dolly the sheep and many other animals , and
cloning of human beings is technical possible today.
Here this comparison or equation between man and a mechanical machine
like a car raises another interesting and important question: the question of
perpetuation and replication Man and other living organisms are busy in
reproduction since the day one. But cars lack this vital capacity. But in spite of this
roads are full of them. Where do these cars come from and why? The plain answer
is that cars come from factories and that man is manufacturing them but again a
question comes why man makes cars?
The answer lies in profit, a motive powerful enough to turn cars by millions
out of a factory. When the factory owner is engaged in the task of manufacturing a
car, profit is at the very top of his mind. Though the first man who invented a car
may not have been motivated by profit motive, he would have been more like a
painter who paints a picture to satisfy his aesthetic sense only. But today’s mass
production of the cars is very much driven by profit. But man, the machine in
replicating and reproducing himself  not by profit motive, though again an
exception could be made in case of Pakistan where some men reproduce to have
male offspring to have greater man power and influence in their Biradri. Some
religious minded people here in reproducing have a profit motive of another kind
in minds i.e. to make Muslims greater in number to counter the power and
influence of the infidels. But these two examples are slight exceptions. The thing
that drives most of men in reproduction is the wild drive of mating, the desire to
have physical communion with the opposite partner. This is really the reason why
the process of regeneration and reproduction takes place. As a matter of fact, lust is
such an overwhelming and overpowering passion that during mating the idea of
children as its byproduct is rarely in the mind of mating partners. But this is what
really happens. 
Man, woman working together brings into play the equation of factory and
the laborer. Man assumes the function and role of a laborer and woman becomes a
factory. Man puts into action all his energy and wild power in manufacturing
another machine, another copy of himself. And thus man and women through their
joint effort and enterprise bring into the world another self driven machine, the
human child. 
This obsession, the wild desire of mating drives the engine of life. This is a
common thread that runs through our past, present and the future. Birds, animals
and man, strange life patterns with origins unknown become perfect machines with
self drive ability. A genetical clock determines their life span. Before they are
dissolved back into the elements, of which they are composed and compounded,
they transmit their genes, the blueprint and the basic design of their structure into
their coming generations. The cycle of birth and death continues but life goes on.
The motive for reproducing copies of one’s own species never comes to an end and
the same ensures the continuity and perpetuity of all living species on planet earth.
Once back in the countryside, I saw birds flying and crying against the
background of the vast expanse of the sky. I was fascinated. I don’t know for what
purpose they are here, birds as life forms with the power of flight, living a brief
span of life, transmitting their genes to their children and then dissolving back to
their elements. Still I hailed them as great symbols of life. Life is a mystery but it
forms a grand and beautiful pattern. Animals and birds, prisoners of their own
instincts of self preservation and perpetuation are an essential part of it, but we the
human beings, have the added gift of contemplating the beauties of this grand
mosaic, that we call life.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

By Salahuddin Sikander

Ten minutes’ walk from G.10/4, Umer Market stop to my college, IMCB G.10/4 brings in me myriads of thoughts. I apparently to fellow pedestrians, look like an ordinary person, little do they realize that they are walking with a giant, a colossus embodying pure intellect, wisdom and intelligence of the highest degree. I don’t blame them and simply mutter “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do”.

I walk on foot path but, in fact, in my imaginative voyage, journey across vast stretches of time, defying and breaking the physical barriers I travel to far off places and most distant lands. All I see around becomes grist to the mill, all phenomena in this ten minutes’ walk gets processed and reprocessed and become the stuff of most complicated and complex thoughts. I cast a glance at working men and women around me, the objects of my perception, hurrying to the bus stop. Like me they are mere cogs in this vast social, political machine, the government. Anarchists come to my minds who rejected government and the ideas underpinning it. Political philosophers, one by one, raise their heads in my imaginative vision who speculated on the origins of government and its multiple forms. From pure despotism, from divine right of the kings ,at last ,mankind hit upon democracy at last as the final panacea or is it really the final solution to manage human affairs? My country is also a democracy, is it really a democracy or its mere appearance, its shadow and its real form in Platonic sense exist somewhere in the West? I serve my government in my limited way, teaching boys to grow in intellect. I then look at fresh faced school going boys and girls, dressed up in uniforms and wonder how they will be forty years from now. Their youth makes me jealous; I am not like them but rather turned old by the icy blasts of time. The arrow of time, time as one way street begins to haunt me. Why we remember the past and not the future, why we change from young to old and not the vice versa? What is time, the moving shadow of eternity as Plato said, the time whose existence was denied by St. Augustine of Hippo, who asked “How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet?” What is this strange beast, the time? Is time an illusion, do past, present and future exist simultaneously, I ask myself. “The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion,” Einstein is reported to have said once. All around me on my walk I observe invisible power of time at work, slow, imperceptible hand of time causing growth and decay, birth and death. My gaze then gets fixed up on old people passing by, who were once young, and I am reminded how much fleeting and transitory is youth and human beauty. Old age, sickness and death await all of us, there is no escape from suffering. Buddha and Arthur Schopenhauer reached the conclusion that to live is to suffer. Are we condemned to life? Why is there so much suffering in this world? Or are these questions and related answers based on profound pessimism basically wrong and flawed. Suffering and evil are basically privation or absence of all that is good. This is how Plotinus and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued; the later declared that this is the best of all possible worlds. In this world I live and this world cries out for an explanation? Why this world, this universe exists and not otherwise? Why there is something rather than nothing?

The universe came into existence some 14 billion years ago, gravity formed the stars and the stars exploded in giant supernovas and their scattered material created the planets. I and you won’t have been here if the stars hadn’t existed, stars died so we could live, all the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron were missing at the birth of the universe, these were formed in the nuclear furnaces of stars. These same elements form me, people around me and everybody else in the world. As a biological machine with consciousness, self-awareness, a trait which I share with my species I go on spending my brief time under the sun, not in idle pursuits like others, but in quest to find ultimate reality. My walk comes to an end, lots of thought, lots of questions with little or no answers. Perhaps Donald Rumsfeld is right in saying,“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know”.

BREAK WITH THE PAST

By Salahuddin Sikander

Memories don’t die down and collective memories go on and survive though generations of men perish. Cultures, religions endure and pass on to succeeding generations of men. Memories of historical conflicts and hostilities which one people harbor against the other likewise survive and persist. This persistence of memory, these echoes of battles and wars of distant past into our present generate a lot of harm. In some case a complete break with past memories takes place, past is forgotten in entirety and humans take a new start with fresh modes of thought. Religion and civilization of ancient Egyptians lasted for almost four millennia but after their conquest by the Persians, by Greeks and then by Romans, Egyptian civilization began to experience slow death. Last pagan sanctuaries in the Nile Valley were forcibly closed in 553 AD and Egypt became a Christian country. Heritage of ancient Egyptians saw its continuity in some form. Ancient Egyptians conception of afterlife and their myth of Isis and Osiris formed some part of new religions of the region. But ancient Egypt remained no more and Egyptians were transformed by the ideas of their conquerors. After Islamic conquest, Egypt became a country Muslim by faith and Arab in language. Ancient Egyptians, modern day Coptic Christians survive with their adopted religion only as a minority. Likewise, the Persians made a complete departure with their past consequent upon its conquest by armies of Islam. Zoroastrianism is still practiced by a very tiny community of Parsees, a thread linking ancient Persia with present times. Ancient Greeks and Romans took a radical turn from their pagan past as Christianity, an Eastern religion conquered Europe. Norse gods such as Thor, Woden, Tiu are no longer worshiped in Europe, they survive in names of week days like Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday. The descendants of the Norsemen now worship Christian God though recent trends speak of diminution of Christians and decline of Christianity in Scandinavia. The ancient Middle East, the cradle of civilization is studied as part of ancient history only today. The Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia in due course of time withered away and were eventually consigned to the dust bin of history. There is no historical continuity of these civilizations of the ancient Middle East with the present times. After upheavals of centuries, civilizations, culture and religions of these regions experienced slow decay or people making these great civilizations were overpowered and conquered by others, more powerful. It would require a leap of imagination to come to the startling revelation that ancestors of people living in present day Middle East worshiped pagan gods like Baal, Astarte, Ashur, Shamash, Ra, Amun etc. History offers many such examples of recurring patterns of departures with the past. Pre-Columbian Latin American civilizations, of Inca, Maya and Aztec couldn’t make it to modern times; the last two of these civilizations met their death at the hands of Spanish conquistadors. Indus Valley civilization, likewise, couldn’t see its continuation into future. Hence civilizations decay and die and their death marks a point of departure. This is why we see change as a constant factor in human history. Though in some rare case, some part of these dying civilizations do survive and intermingle with fresh ideas born in the womb of time. But some ancient people, their culture, civilization and world view through sheer luck, pure chance or by these people’s better survival abilities do survive on the slaughter bench of history and make their continuity in times ahead. Our present world owes much to such successful ancient ideas of the past.

On Teachers of Present Age

By Salahuddin Sikander
Teachers in Pakistan are outwardly held in respect. They are often
heaped and showered with praises and credited for being nation
builders. The last couple of years saw Salam teacher day observed in
Pakistan to show homage and respect to the teacher’s community. How
much this respect is deep rooted is quite another question.
Teachers assign to them a very high and lofty role. They
declare them as inheritors of the tradition of Prophets who were sent by
God to put humanity on the right path. Their projection in media also
merits some attention. In popular imagination and perceptions fostered
in motion pictures and TV dramas, teacher emerges as a frail old man,
with failing health, donning a Jinnah cap and clad in old tattered
Shewani. But despite physical weakness, he has tremendous stamina
for moralizing and preaching. He is given to offering advices to people
on all kind of matters under the sun, he is the arbiter in quarrels,
admonishes, cautions, warns people for their wrong doings. Teacher is
shown to be totally bereft of masculinity, he can’t fight, or fall in love,
can’t commit murder or any act of violence. He can’t even defend
himself .In no TV soap or Pakistani movie, the teacher is ever shown to
be burning with white hot anger. He is embodiment of pure morality and
goodness without any normal human failings or weakness. He is an
unearthly, ethereal being, a Christ like figure, meek and mild.
This is the idealized image of a teacher born out of deep
respect which emerges on Pakistani silver screen. But in real life the
picture is quite opposite. There teachers belong to the lower strata of
society and he is treated with indifference and unconcern. Consequently
society harbors a collective guilt for not giving teachers sufficient respect
and for same reason some times example of Western countries are
recounted. In common discourse in Pakistan it transpires that teachers
in the West are highly paid and highly respected, even primary school
teachers in the West are said to be PHD degree holders. This is far from
truth because even in the West only university teachers are given top
most importance. A school teacher job in the West is neither eagerly
sought nor it is as highly paid as Pakistanis claim.
In Pakistan job of teachers doesn’t exude riches and power,
rather it gives least opportunities of misuse of power, because
Pakistanis relish misusing power and thereby getting rich. Ends justify

the means is the golden rule in this land of the pure. A teacher job
doesn’t have scope for getting rich overnight. Teachers on the other
hand live in a make-believe world, considering their profession a
hollowed and sacred one. In real life they also try to jump on the
bandwagon to make them rich with whatever limited means at their
hands. Their account of being the inheritors of the traditions of the
prophets, or wandering preachers or great philosophers who spread
knowledge among humanity is utterly false. The actual fact is today’s
teachers are anything but wandering preachers of ancient age. They
are employed by state in schools or colleges and are paid for it, they
don’t teach for free. If they give private lessons then they flees students.
Some among teacher’s community are utterly dishonest with their
profession .Like medical practitioners they have set up shops where
they give their students preferential treatment while same students in
school or college get their utter neglect.
All boils down to money and power, the prerequisite which
makes a person successful in Pakistan. It is our Pakistani Dream.
Money teachers don’t have in abundance; it is always in short supply. To
replenish the dwindling supply of money in age when prices of
commodities skyrocket, they swallow their pride and knock at the doors
to give private lessons to rich fat kids of some rich man. In same rich
man’s mansion where gardener, mad servant, milkman goes, teacher
passes by the same path. He is ostensibly treated with more of respect
but for rich man and his kids he is ranked with others who visit their
home, deliver services and are paid.
Sophists in the second half of the 5th century BC, in ancient
Greece were derided and scoffed for teaching courses in various
subjects and skills for a price. But at least Sophist had shared
something valuable with their paying students. But today’s teachers who
charge don’t enrich mind, don’t expand horizons, they merely give the
basics, or give trips to pass the exam with highest marks. This explains
why in Pakistan knowledge imparted in educational institutions stands
divorced from real world. Stirring questions in various disciplines of
knowledge don’t find resonance in people’s minds. There are no
debates like intelligent design vs. Darwinian evolution in biology classes,
nothing of the latest developments in astronomy and cosmology shake
people’s deeply entrenched views on the world and cosmos. Like a whiff
of wind knowledge passes by, without finding deeper inroads into the
minds.

Teachers of Pakistani breed are not scholars, selfless
seeker of knowledge but if they were, then financial pressure would
have forced them to earn money through private tuitions. Financial
independence goes a long way in securing real independence. Plato
justified slavery because it affords the master abundant opportunities to
pursue scholarly pursuits. Teachers of Pakistan neither crave for that
solitude nor do they have taste for it. Secondly, power or more properly
misuse of it is not part of their profession; basic ingredients which make
a man stand tall in Pakistan. Brandishing a big stick, browbeating
people, parading one’s power with visible, concrete symbols like grand
cars, high offices, palatial residences etc determine a man’s standing in
society. Teachers do exercise power but it is over small kids, who are
easily intimidated into submission. A teacher’s domain or realm isn’t
practical real world, it a place divorced and cloistered, the school. A
teacher is a Gulliver among Lilliputians as Charles Lamb puts it in one
of his essay “ The old and new school master”. For the very same
reason as teacher steps out of his Lilliputia he becomes a misfit. While
those who deals with men, not kids, reach to the full stature as men.
Dealing with men, leading them, putting them on collision course with
governments or authorities, bringing about revolutions etc, all these
great and gigantic tasks were performed by real great men, not by
teachers who teach kids.
A change is needed in Pakistan. Society needs to adjust the
manner it views the notion and idea of “Respectability”. And teachers on
the other hand need to divest themselves of the notion of treating
profession in education as a mere business. Unless this happens we
shall have many young men and women with degrees but no real
advance in the field of knowledge

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