Part VI - My Adolescence Memoirs - Larkana in 1970s

Part VI

I attended Government Pilot Secondary School from class 6^th to 10^th during 1970-75. It was a real fun time at secondary education level. Good teachers (often punished us on incomplete homework), neat & clean, wide airy rooms, learning, chatting, gossiping and playing went all along. During winters, most of the classes would run in open, under the warm sun, in the parks and gardens in front of the school building.

Break time or recess was anxiously awaited when all pupils would rush to the side gate of the school where they could buy ample eatables like Chholay, Dahi-Bhallay, RahaaN (boiled beans), toffees, Layee (a sweetener with a shape of flat sheet about half an inch thick), peanuts, etc. within 5 or 10 paisa coins. I used to get 10 paisa pocket money which later increased to 50 paisa by the time I completed secondary schooling. When the school time was over, we would all run to the railway line (built on high embankment crossing between Jinnah Bagh and Civil Hospital) to watch a train with steam engine chugging on the track from Sukkur. It was not mere watching and enjoying the train, we used to put coins on the track to see them overrun and get inflated under heavy and huge train wheels. 

It was (it is) a grand and beautiful school building with a large playground. Regular sports (athletics) activities, cricket and hockey tournaments kept our afternoons very busy. Besides, regular Scouting Camps held almost twice a year when students-cum-scouts turned from all over the country to Larkana. Being a very shy boy I never participated in any of such activities but loved to see my elder brother Munir in almost every such event.

We, I and Munir, used to commute school on a Sohrab bicycle that our father had bought us. We would go together in the morning but would often return separately; one of us would take the bicycle back home. Once we both forgot to take back the bicycle to home thinking that other would ride it. In the afternoon when we needed it for buying some grocery, we found it missing. We ran to our school for it and found it parked alone in the Lot.

My two classmates who were cousins to each other; Kareem Jamali and Aijaz Jamali commuted daily on their respective bicycles from Jamali Goth, about 3 miles away, on eastern part of city outskirts on Aaqil Road. This area is brimming with Guava and Date orchards. Guava of Larkana is famous all over the country for its sweet taste and flavor. It ripens in cold winter season. As the temperature drops, guava gets sweeter and tastier. Aijaz was my best friend and therefore, we used to visit his orchards on weekends plucking guavas from trees and enjoy eating them. Usually he would guide us which one to pluck as we could hardly recognize and differentiate a ripe and sweet guava from the rest. He would also lead us to the lone guava tree in his orchard that bore seedless guavas. That was the sweetest and tastiest breed.

As we, brothers, moved into class 6 and 7 respectively, our father arranged a tutor named Mr. Narayin Das who would come at our residence in the afternoon/evening for teaching us English and Mathematics predominantly but Science as well. Mr. Das was an excellent teacher but very fearsome too. He spoke hoarsely and his hand was quite heavy. When he would slap us across the face it left his finger marks on our cheeks. Besides, the room echoed with the slap sound. On one such occasion our Mom could not resist, dashed into the room and complained to the teacher as to why he was hitting her children so hard. The teacher felt embarrassed and tried to justify that her kids were being inattentive and obstinate. From next year onwards Mr. Das taught us at some other place near Surhiyo Padhar where he could slap us across our faces at his liberty.  

It’s worthwhile to recall that during our schooling time the favourite hobbies a good student could have were; collecting postage stamps, having pen-friendships, recipient of international magazines and relevant printed material (free of cost) and be a member of some children’s social organizations. I poked my nose everywhere but nothing doing. Wrote many letters to all embassies in Islamabad for sending me some literature about their respective countries, only China and Saudi Arabia responded but that too only for a couple of times. Tried to get into pen-friendships but remained successful only once, that too from an aged person hailing from Mastung, Balochistan who used to write in very difficult Urdu. Our Classmate Mukhtiar Shaikh (Works in Customs, Karachi, I reckon) was a genius one in getting involved in all of the above activities with enviable degree of success. With the help of Mukhtiar I remained, for a short while, member of a children committee running under a Sindhi Children Magazine called “Gulan Jehra Barira” meaning “Flowers-like children”. Such committees existed in almost all cities and towns of Sindh. 

In mid 70s while preparing for our board examinations i.e. class 9^th and 10^th I along with three classmates namely Najeeb Bhutto, Owais Laghari (now lives in US/Canada) and Khushal Das (migrated to India) would visit Circuit House Park, Locomotive Shed Park or Gyan (Zulfiqar) Bagh in the wee hours of the each day for study. Our preferred place was however, Circuit House Park. Loco Shed Park was usually crowded with boys hailing from Darri Muhalla (most of them belonging to Shaikh and Hindu communities) while Gyan Bagh was not ideally located (near a graveyard). We all were average students and mostly relied on cramming books and notes, though my friends considered me as better among us at studies. We would hardly study for half an hour sitting away from each other in the different corners of the Park, and then resort to playing, exercising/stretching, doing athletics; long jumps, and high jumps over bicycle or going to the nearby Rice Canal to enjoy bathing in its shallow water at one of its banks.

We also happened to be in the same cricket team called Shaheen Cricket Club Rialy Bagh where Najeeb used to live. Our team consisted of Najeeb’s 5 other elder and younger brothers named: Ashfaq, Riaz, Rizwan, Irfan, etc. Owais was a good all-rounder, Najeeb, a good batsman while I (considered myself better at bowling and fielding) and Khushal (we called him Dhukkai, a fluke hitter) were just there to fill in the gap and to make a team of 11 players. Continued ……