I have heard people say that men (and it is usually men) who are strict and hard-nosed with their kids are much more mellow with their grand kids. Some of this can be explained by age, the rest is part of human psychology that I don’t know much about. Growing up, I encountered many teachers who were pivotal in my learning different subjects. One such teacher was Master Afzal. The term ‘master’ was endowed on him because he spent most of his adult life teaching at public schools, and teachers there were referred to as ‘masters’. He taught my father in middle school, in the 1970s and was the Principal of a public school by the time I met him. He had a masters degree in mathematics, and he graduated top of his class. In the 1970s, he started teaching at a public school in Sialkot (my hometown), and he developed a reputation as someone who did not tolerate bullshit and would use corporal punishment frequently. Hence, he got the nickname ‘Gainda’ (Urdu word for a Hippopotamus). Another thing I knew about him was that he started giving extra-coaching classes for students who felt wanted to learn more about mathematics. My father was the first student who he agreed to coach. He did not charge anything for this.
I met Master Afzal when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. He was about 5’3 and stocky. I used to go to his house and he taught me English grammar. He lived in an old neighborhood that was situated on a small hill. His house was on elevated surface from the street and one had to go up a few stairs before you arrived at the door. Like most other places in the city at the time, the sewage system was above-ground. If someone took a shit in their house, you could see it rolling down the side of the stairs afterwards. He taught me English and later Mathematics and Urdu. When I was preparing for boarding school exams, he was one of the people I went to for guidance. I did not always understand his reasoning for solving math problems (which is what was tested) and was too shy to ask him to explain.
I remember one particular incident when I took the math exam at the school I was enrolled in and got a question wrong. We used to get our answer sheets back after the result was announced. I thought the teacher had not paid attention and my answer and reasoning were correct. I took the answer sheet to Master sahib**. He looked at it and agreed with me. He wrote a note, in his characteristic red ink, on the paper and asked me to return it to my math teacher (who was also one of his former students).
He was always kind to me, I never even heard him raise his voice when talking to me. He would get snacks for me anytime I visited him at home or at his office in the school. During winter months, we would sit on the second floor of his house, in the outdoor balcony/rooftop, which shared a wall with the neighboring house. One time when I was in high school, I saw a girl my age on the neighboring roof and overheard someone saying that it was her birthday. I had no idea who this person was, but I bought a birthday card and dropped it on the other side. It is quite possible that Master sahib’s neighbor complained about this and he talked to my father, but I never heard anything about it, or the girl after that.
Whenever he visited my father in clinic for any of of his or his family’s medical issues, I would be summoned to say hello to him. He had two sons and a daughter. His elder son was a lawyer and the younger one had Intellectual disability. Once, Master sahib’s son was visiting Lahore and took the family car, from where it got stolen. It was later recovered from a remote area in the north of the country. Unfortunately, Master Afzal met a tragic death. In his later years, he fell ill and had a debilitating stroke. From what I heard, his lawyer son wanted him to bequeath all of his property to him, and when Master sahib refused, he pushed him down the stairs. It was a terrible end to a life lived with dignity and honor.
** Sahib is an Urdu word that means ‘Mister’ but it doesn’t work very well in English, because ‘Mister Master’ does not feel right.