A rainy Day
Some of my classfellows from class X. This picture, with our teacher Mr. Mohabbat Khan Niazi was taken in 2015. Aqeel Hafeez Khawaja, mentioned in the article below is standing at the back on the extreme right (with the broadest smile and is wearing suspenders!)
A Rainy Day :
This morning, when I was going to the office, it was raining quite heavily. Despite the summer day, the cloud was so thick that the light was rather dim and the morning was gloomy. My mind switched back to the days of class 9th and 10th. Our class room was in the block that faces the College building, next to the old college library (not the new library block that has been built on part of the school playground).
Our class 10th was an interesting group of students. Quite a few of my class fellows had been students in other sections but because of the poor disciplinary records and sub optimal academics, were facing expulsion. Our class teacher, Sir Muhabbat Khan Niazi, asked the principal, Mr. AB Nashir, not to expel these students, but to transfer them to his class. The result was that our class was full of some great characters!
موتی سمجھ کے شان کریمی نے چن لیے
قطرے جو تھے مرے عرق انفعال کے
These students were members of most school sports teams, were involved in brawls almost every day and their attendance records were less than optimal, to say the least! As these fellows were aware of the huge support that Sir Niazi had provided them, they would usually attend his first period (of Maths) but then would disappear for rest of the day. That would leave about 5-10 students in our class, on most days.
A rainy day, would however be different. Attendance on such a day would be particularly poor. Lighting in our class rooms was nothing to write home about. Most rooms had a couple of bulbs, which were woefully weak to counter the gloom of dark clouds. The contrast with College classrooms, which were illuminated with many fluorescent tube lights was particularly striking. We would admire those brightly illuminated rooms in awe. One of our classmates, on one such occasion, remarked that the college classrooms were looking like a mithai ki dukaan!
The few students who had been forced to attend the school on such days, were sure to have even fewer teachers. We were bound to get two may be three 'free' periods. These periods would be spent in gup shup, discussing previous night's TV shows, any sports matches happening those days or just routine chitter chatter! If the rain stopped, one could play a game of 'ring' or sometimes, engage in chalk fights! Throwing chalk involved two main techniques. One was the cricket style throw which would make the act plain obvious and everyone could see, who the offender was. The other was more of a 'bunta' style sling shot technique. Not everyone could master this technique. Only boys with big, strong hands could use this. Our class fellow Aqeel Hafeez, was a particularly good expert in this nefarious art. Me and a few others remember the stinging hits that we had to endure during countless 'free' periods because of his stinger missiles!
Winter rains were particularly atmospheric. Cold weather, dark days, students trying to cosy themselves in their warm coats, puffing their cheeks to try and keep their hands warm helped with a few moong phalis and daal sewayyan!
As they say,
ایک بار دیکھا ہے، دوبارہ دیکھنے کی ھوس ہے