My dear friend’s father, and my 10-grade Urdu teacher, Mr. Osaid Abbasi, passed away earlier this week. Mr. Abbasi, who was also a poet, taught at St. Patrick’s High School, Karachi.
One of his peculiarities was to feel his bearded chin with his right hand and say “mian kia kar rahain hay aap” (translation: young man what are you doing).
He would say this every time one of our classmates was up to something mischievous or mispronounced something…so much so that it became our habit to imitate him behind his back to make fun of him.
We were just being stupid 16-year-old kids. Each day after the usual 11-or-1130am recess, nearly 40 plus students would form a queue and walk into his classroom, each laughing and saying “mian kia kar rahain hay aap” - knowing fully well that Mr. Abbasi wasn’t inside the classroom.
He had a habit of coming to the classroom a minute after we had settled in…so we always had that comfort of not getting caught. One day as we walked inside the classroom habitually feeling our chins, laughing and saying “mian kia kar rahain hay aap”, we realized that Mr. Abbasi was sitting quietly at the unusually unlit corner of the room. Horror! Horror! Horror! Suddenly, there was pin-drop silence as all of us shuddered at the thought of being punished in the most severest of the ways.
But Mr. Abbasi — what a polite human being — he did not even say a word. Not even raised an eyebrow. Calm and business as usual. I cannot remember if we imitated him ever. Or ever made fun of his poetic idiosyncrasies. Such was the lesson he taught by a simple act of kindness — a lesson we keep in our hearts and minds till today in our everyday interaction with all and sundry. May Allah grant him the Paradise!
Rehman J. Class of 97 St Patrick’s High School (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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