At least two very important days have come and gone during the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday mood and I would like to begin with both occasions. There was the World Animals Day that was on 4th October, 2008, and World Teachers' Day on 5th October, 2008. I wouldn't be surprised if a reader or two were to anticipate what I am going to sound like.
Of course, I am going to sound particularly sad on the animals theme, and particularly nostalgic on the teachers theme. The reasons are obvious and unambiguous. The callous, cruel and even savage manner in which we treat animals, often, (I do not talk of exceptional people) is something that remains accepted as a way of life.
It is even deplorable to see that a theme as vital and sensitive as that of kindness to animals is something that is barely recognised even by the sophisticated, educated and religious people around us. What does this symbolise? What is this symptomatic of? Whatever, ultimately, it is certainly sad.
And when it comes to teachers, whose social and financial status, (regrettably not in this order though) has been absent as a concept ever since the country's Independence, - here too there is a great deal to talk about. I read, after the World Teachers' Day was over, that the occasion was ignored in the country, and that teachers were not getting what they deserve.
What is new about this? We have heard this before. Rhetoric, promise, and empty talk. Political jargon too, at times. In a society given to greed, corruption, hypocrisy, sycophancy, it is understandable that teachers are ignored, downgraded, and that nothing has been done about them. One does not see much chance of things improving.
But despite this, one did become somewhat nostalgic at the thought of this 5th October Teacher's Day in our lives. I remembered some of my teachers in school, in college, and at the university. I thought of others who have been teachers to me, in so many ways, and for so many reasons. It is truly amazing how one learns from one's teachers, and does not realise or appreciate it for quite some time in later life.
The unlucky amongst us never perceive their teachers as having taught them anything. As one veteran surmised yesterday as we talked about these themes, that today's young seem to believe that they learn more from computers than from their classroom or tutors. Or that they are that bright!
As I reflect on the teachers in my own life, in the academic world, so to say, many teachers come to mind straightaway. Certainly not in order of importance do I mention their names. I let memory work its own way.
At the St Lawrence's Boys High School, Soldier Bazar (then called Cinncinatus Town), Karachi, the images of two principals, Rev Father Joshua, and Rev Father Trinidad for the period 1956-62 surface. Or teachers, May Lobo, Joe Vincent, Miss Rawcliffe, Peggy D'Cruz, Robert Malik, Zaheer, Samuel, and Mrs D'Souza. Some names elude me, but I remember what they taught. Such is life, as a friend says.
Of course there is so much to write about one's teachers, as a measure of one's gratitude, - and one hopes and wonders whether that will ever be possible. I must underline that at no stage of school or college (St Patrick's College, Saddar, Karachi), was there the slightest indication of the kind of Pakistani society that one would be entering. But that is another dimension.
At what was then an intermediate college only (1962-64) the two principals were Rev Father R. D'Arcy, and Rev Father Stephen Raymond - two different kinds of administrators, really. Teachers, Rev Father Augustine Fernandes, Amanat Kureishi, Michael Chohan, Mrs Dass, Miss Teresa Raymond, Oswald Mascarehnas. Wonderful teachers, determined to ensure that the student focused on his studies.
At Karachi University (1964-68), from the English department there are teachers like Dr Syed Ali Ashraf, Dr Muzaffar Hussein Naqvi, Dr Kaleem-ur-Rehman, Maki Enver Kureishi, Maya Jamil, Anisur Rehman and Masood Amjad Ali.
With some of these teachers I have been fortunate to have had virtually life long relationships, sometimes asking them why they didn't tell us of the kind of Pakistan they were preparing us for. But I am sure they too didn't know. About some of them, one could write an entire chapter each, was I to attempt a book on the teachers and this society in the last fifty years.
But this is not a column only about teachers that I remembered on Teachers' Day and felt good and great about them. I want to talk about Animals Day also and the memory of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) that we have in Karachi and which after the demise of Lady Constantine has never been heard of. We have a well-publicised Dogs Day and a Cats Day at the Expo Centre, Karachi, and every winter. That is all.
That's apparently an elitist event, said a friend of mine sarcastically, as he talked specifically about the way in which children stone cats and dogs, as a pastime. And their parents and elders watch this unkindness, at times amused, at times helpless.
What is impossible for me to comprehend is why at all do not the print and electronic media play a sustained, effective role, and do regular campaigns to create or try to create awareness that animals need to be respected, protected if not loved. Why can't the SPCA be brought back into existence? There is a need, by all counts.
Which reminds me that I have heard from the leading practitioners of veterinary medicine and surgery in town observe how even pet owners do not take care of their cats and dogs (for example) as they should. This is a subject for a detailed focus soon.
For the entire regular interaction that I continue to have with the popular veterinary surgeon, Abrar Pirzada (whose father is the veteran veterinary surgeon Pirzada, now in his seventies, and still going strong) the profile of pet owners is not very cheerful. It would be revealing and educative to talk to the senior Pirzada, who has two of his sons following in his footsteps.
What Isma Gheewala, another leading practitioner has been quoted as saying is depressing further. She has said that only one percent of pet owners approach vets regularly and only five percent look after their pets to some extent; the rest is neglect them evidently. It is sad, and deplorable.
Why keep pets then? Asks a friend who loves cats, and whose cats have lovely names. The man-animal bond can be a rich source of strength, and pets can create a reservoir of love and compassion in man, believes a pet owner of long standing.
I wish that next year days like the World Teachers' Day and the World Animals Day will not go unnoticed as they did this year, or as they have been low profiled in the past. Some such days that are celebrated the world over, get so much media hype. Both these days have market potential that needs to be explored. It could contribute towards the definite need to bring in the finer values of living?
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