PART-2: NED NOSTALGIA (1978-83)

Enter NED

Just how did it happen that I made it into NED?

NED and Mehran had an arrangement between two institutions that both would reciprocate 30 students upon admission every year. Logically, all top students from the interior Sindh (sans if any opted otherwise) and all bottom students would go (sent forcibly, perhaps) to NED. But, what happened till 1977 was that 30 influential (politically or other means) and desiring students from interior Sindh would manage to get themselves transferred to NED, and similar number of desiring (if any) students from NED would be sent to Mehran. Generally cursed but lucky for us that General Ziaul Haque imposed martial law in the country in 1977 toppling the democratic but troubled Bhutto government. And it paved the way for 30 students from the interior Sindh to make an entry at NED. These 30 seats were distributed to all districts of interior Sindh. From Larkana I, Ashok and Aslam Khan had the honours of going to NED. Don’t remember all 30 names but some top students were: Mukesh (topped in the entire Hyderabad Board) and Iqbal from Nawabshah, Abdul Ahad, Sharafat Ali and Ishrat Hussain (late), Suleman Khoja and Asif Tajik from Hyderabad, Aslam Ansari, Tariq Panhwar and Sheraz Memon from Dadu, Mumtaz Memon and Aleem Soomro from Moro, Mukesh and Indar Lal (late) from Jacobabad, Abdullah Rajar (late), Nasir Jaleel and Aziz Memon from Mirpurkhas, Asghar Ali (late) from Khairpur and Mohammad Ali from Badin, etc., who made it into NED in 1978.

Ashok’s father was in the film distribution business and therefore he used to travel frequently between Larkana and Karachi. He had a rented small 2-room office cum apartment for this purpose on Kachehry Road (linking Liaquat Road near Pakistan Chowk on one end and M. A. Jinnah Road near Lighthouse Cinema on other end). A Bengali young boy employed by Ashok’s father used to take care of this flat. We landed in the afternoon directly from visiting the Registrar office Mehran University Jamshoro. We already had gathered information that a point bus runs from Old Campus of NED at about 0700 am in the morning for the new campus located on University Road.

Next morning we were sitting in the bus silently and sheepishly lacking even a shred of confidence and wearing formal dress; shirts that were not tucked into bell-bottom pants. Karachiites sitting around us were informal with most of them wearing colourful T-shirts and jeans. They looked brimming with confidence while chatting with each other about homework, assignments, cricket, etc. They were carrying engineering textbooks, folded drawing sheets, and T-square. This made us under pressure since we knew that our session had already started about a month ago. Very few students used to carry shoulder bags or backpacks during 1978. Almost all would carry textbooks, notebooks and copies weighing 5 to 10 kg in their hands. Some would wrap a strand around them to prevent from falling/ slipping down and scattering on the ground.

The first sight of NED was unforgettable and romancing. I was awestruck with the architectural design of the campus. It looked like an “oasis in the desert”. Huge open spaces all around the small cluster of beautiful buildings looked enchanting. The arrangement of classes, departments (Civil, Electrical and Mechanical only), a gigantic auditorium, a centrally located fountain surrounded by square-shaped large open area made NED a beautiful campus. Similarly, impressive Admn block, workshops & laboratories, a canteen, and most importantly, a centrally located “Girls Common Room” are also worth mentioning. The location and design of J-shaped four hostels (J-1 to J-4) with large green areas around and within were immaculate too. Perhaps it was mid August of 1978 when we alighted from the point bus and set our feet on the campus. Everything in and around NED campus looked beautiful and enchanting in a perfect cloudy weather with cool sea breeze blowing at a high velocity. It was so windy that boys had to control flying long hair with their respective palms and girls would be grabbing their dupattas tightly on their chests as well as trying unsuccessfully to pull down their shirts flying up to their waists.

Decades later, while celebrating Silver Jubilee reunion of our batch in 2008 we gathered again at NED and took a bus ride in and around the campus. It was indeed a heartbreaking moment; additional construction for creating more departments, classes, facilities, etc., had ruined beauty of the campus. Expansion is good but it should have been properly designed. The essence of campus’ beauty should have been kept intact.

Our admission process completed in a day; processing done in the haunted-like Mohammad Bin Qasim (MBQ)-2 hostel whose ground floor was used for admission office whereas two top floors remained deserted or sparsely occupied. MBQ-1 was however fully occupied with boarders. We were advised to attend the classes immediately. Out of 30 applicants coming from the interior Sindh, each of the 10 students bunch was admitted to Civil, Electrical and Mechanical disciplines respectively. We, I and Ashok went to Civil Department on our choice. I was assigned 163 Roll Number and Ashok, 164 according to alphabetical order. We were advised to attend Section C class.

We also got enrolled for hostel accommodation. We both were allotted room # 13 on sharing basis on ground floor in the long wing in J-1. (Living in this long wing was exciting and fun too. I would explain about it in some other ensuing “Part”). However, Mr. Nauman (Elect Deptt), the Warden of the hostel informed us that the out-going senior batch was in the process of vacating the hostels therefore, it would take a month to get possession of your room. Alternatively, he recommended that if we wished to shift in the hostel immediately we could share a big study room on top floor of the hostel where 10 or so other hostel accommodation aspirants were already perched in. We opted to live rather at Katchery Road, Karachi city for a month, for reasons other than studies. Continued….