THE JEW

An old proverb suggests that true friendship always demands remaining awake throughout the night. The same thing happened with me, and my second night in London was also spent in a sleepless condition. The next morning, Kamran was free because of some strike and, therefore, he dropped me at the University gate. I came to know from the notice board that the head of the department Mr. Isaac was scheduled to address the new students in Hall 3 that day. Thus, all the fresh students were going towards Hall 3. While we were children, we were very fond of watching a popular historical TV drama serial "Aakhri Chatan" (The Last Rock). It had a Jewish character named David and since my childhood, I had the image of the same Jew in my mind and believed that all the Jews of the world were of the same type. Thus, whenever someone talked about a Jew, the image of David at once came back to my mind and before my eyes. Eversince I had come to know that our head of the department was a Jew, whenever I talked about him, I at once visualized a Jew having a typical appearance. I could imagine a thin and lean man, with a typical Jewish beard on his face, a small white cap on his head, clad in a long cloak, , moving his eyes very rapidly, talking in a careful and calculated manner and having a rosary in his hand. But the sight of Sir Isaac slightly jolted my firmly rooted views about Jews. He was a robust man with a bearish appearance, more than fifty years of age, clad in a fine precious dress, wearing thin spectacles and talking in a very soft tone. As soon as I saw and heard him, the childhood image of David the Jew no longer remained in my mind and it was replaced by a new image. But there was one resemblance between the two. Sir Isaac too had a small rosary in his hand. Perhaps, according to his habit, he sometimes rolled it in his hands or put it into his pocket. This new class of Economics consisted of 35 students in which the number of girls was more than that of boys. At last sir Isaac started his highly impressive introductory lecture. First of all, he gave his own introduction and then briefly mentioned some important principles of Economics. Afterwards, he talked about the discipline of the University, and finally, invited us to introduce ourselves. I had been allotted roll # 17 and on the very first day, I came to know that I was the only Muslim student in the class. When it was my turn of introduction, I stood up, told my name and religion. The moment I told that my religion was Islam, I felt that a strange sort of silence prevailed in the whole class for a few moments. Perhaps, it was only a whimsical idea on my part, because, the very next moment, Sir Isaac asked about my previous academic career and degrees and invited the next student to give his introduction. When the introduction of all the students was over, Sir Isaac ended his preliminary lecture with these concluding remarks: "My dear students, from the beginning of the world till the present moment and perhaps, till the end of the time, the world's finest ideas have always been bitterly opposed by the people having average minds. Remember, he who has never made a mistake, must never have attempted to do something new. I, therefore, advise you never to be hesitant in formulating and presenting new ideas. We must rise above the fear of mistake and opposition from average minds. I once again, welcome you all to this institution. From tomorrow, we shall start our regular classes. Good day." Sir Isaac came down from the stage and all the students banged their desks to welcome the views expressed by him in his first lecture. The fact is that I was also considerably impressed by his views and a smile appeared on my lips when I remembered Kamran who had cautioned me to beware of Mr. Isaac. Kamran had promised to pick me up at noon but there were still two hours left before his coming. As I came out of the hall, I looked around to see where to go. Then, I saw a number of benches placed at some distance from one another on the bank of a canal that passed from the centre of the University. This canal was a branch of River Thames. At the same place, I could also see flocks of birds. Time and again, they came there flying, picked up the grains of food that had been thrown for them by the staff members and students sitting on the banks of the canal; and then flew away. I decided to spend those two hours in the same isolated corner of the University. I went there and sat on one of the wooden benches and became busy watching the playful activities of the birds and the water in front of me. After some time, I saw an old man coming towards that side. He had a hat on his head and was wearing a long overcoat and a muffler and was carrying a big paper bag full of grains to be thrown for the birds to eat. As soon as he arrived there, he started throwing the grains of food towards the birds and within no time, his paper bag was empty. Having thrown the empty bag into the nearby dustbin, he turned around to go. But then, he saw me and came to me. With his hand held out he said, "I'm Joseph. Are you one of the new students?" I caught his held out hand and replied, ""I'm Hammad, a new student in the first semester at the Economics Department." He shook hands with me with a smile and remarked, "O I see. But Youngman, why are you sitting here alone? Are you afraid of the ragging of the senior students?" "No," I said with a smile and added, "I'm only afraid of myself. But at this time, I just wanted to talk to myself and this desire brought me here." With some interest, Joseph looked towards me and said, "Well gentleman, you want to talk to yourself? I've never thought of such meetings, the meeting of a person with himself." I moved a bit and vacated some place for him to sit on the wooden bench. As Joseph sat down beside me on the bench, I began to speak, "Such meetings never require any particular attention. In his whole life, a person never talks to anyone else, as much as he talks to himself. He bears himself more than others. Perhaps, no one else has the power and capacity to do so. Man is his own best friend and worst enemy. All the external friendships and hostilities are temporary and short lived." Joseph was keenly observing me. "You seem to be very much annoyed with yourself; but there must be some genuine reason behind it. It appears as if some furnace is burning inside you." I decided to change the topic of the discussion. "Besides your name, you haven't told me anything about yourself as your introduction." "I've already told you my name," said Joseph, after taking a long breath and continued, "I'm Associate Professor at the Fine Arts Department of the same University." I immediately apologized to him and said, "I'm sorry sir. Perhaps, I've talked to much. But your style doesn't seem to be that of a teacher. Otherwise, I would never have talked so frankly." "No need for any apology," he said with a big laugh. In fact, I myself intentionally avoid from giving my full introduction to the youngsters, otherwise, they become careful and respectful and I lose the opportunity of mixing with them. I wish that we should always meet and talk to each other with the same frankness and familiarity. You are a different young man and meeting you has really been a unique experience for me." Joseph stood up to leave and shook hands with me. "Hammad, I believe that we'll soon have another meeting which would lead to several other meetings." After a warm hand shake with me, Joseph went away. In the meantime, it was time for Kamran to come. I also bade farewell to the transparent water and the cluster of birds and went to the outside gate, passing through the long corridors of the University. Kamran's car was already there. I looked around in search of him. At last, I found him standing near a pop corn machine, observing the hands of two English girls, like a palmist. He was assuring them that very soon, a handsome Asian young man would come into their life; and his advent would bring about revolutionary changes in their life. I had always been envious of this quality of Kamran. Not to speak of an unknown girl, I was always reluctant to talk even to an unknown boy in the first meeting, till at last, that stranger himself would take the initiative in talking. In contrast, Kamran was capable of stopping and talking to anyone, anywhere and at any time for hours. Perhaps, I had always been afraid of being rejected, while Kamran had never known any such fear. On seeing me, Kamran at once waved his hand to me, gave his card to the English girls, got their phone numbers and walked towards me with a smile. As we got into the car, I glared at him and said, "You will never mend your ways." Kamran laughed and remarked, "My dear, "standing outside the University for the last fifteen minutes, I began to feel boredom and thought of killing the time by having a look at the hands of these girls." "Kamran, as far as my knowledge is concerned, I've never heard of any palmist in the last seven generations of your family." Kamran still had the same mischievous smile on his face. "Let it go my dear. Tell me what's your programme for the lunch? I'm feeling terribly hungry." I loosened my seat belt a little bit. "I'm also feeling hungry. Take me wherever you like." Kamran accelerated the speed of his car. "Let's go to Piccadilly. I've heard a lot of praise of a newly opened restaurant there." Travelling on the wide transparent two way and four way roads of London, our car turned to the right from in front of the Big Bang. Then, we drove past London's famous bridge of towers and turned towards Piccadilly. I have always liked these wide roads of London. I have read somewhere that at the end of the 18th century and at the start of the 19th century, in an attempt to deal with the frequent popular uprisings and riotings, European officials widened all these roads, so that the government and armed forces could easily keep the violent mobs under control at one place. As we turned to the left from the Piccadilly Circus, we saw a silent and desolate road covered with rows of trees on both sides. In a wide roadside drain, the water of melting snow was flowing in a rhythmic manner. As soon as Kamran and I turned towards this road, we at once became silent, as if the immense beauty of Nature had deprived us of our speaking power. As the wind blew, the leaves on the wet road were waving and fluttering and it appeared as if a Pathan cloth seller from Kabul, had been sitting there with a sheet of silk spread in front of him, bringing out new and colourful rolls of cloth and waving them in the air. At times it seems as if we pass our whole life again within a few moments. Our journey on the road bordered by trees and covered with yellow autumnal leaves was also one of these few moments. For a while, we completely forgot that we had come here to have our lunch at a newly opened restaurant at the end of this road. At last, like every good thing in the world, this road also came to an end. We had the lunch of our choice at the small beautiful wooden restaurant. When Kamran asked me about the University, I told him about Sir Isaac's lecture and about the silence of the whole class during my introduction when I revealed that I was a Muslim. On such occasions, Kamran always behaved like an illiterate villager and had no control over his anger. He banged the glass on the table. "These damned Whites! They are all---." With a great deal of difficulty, I brought him under control but he was still in a very bad mood. In order to change his mood, I told him a joke. "A White woman was once attacked by a biting dog. A passerby risked his own life but saved the woman from the dog. The next day's newspapers carried pictures of the man saving the White woman from the dog, with the headline "An English hero saves a woman from a dog." The man telephoned the newspaper office and reported that he was not English. Another headline appeared in the next day's newspaper. "A foreign hero saves a woman from a dog" The man again telephoned the newspaper office and revealed that he was a Pakistani Muslim and not a foreigner. A different headline appeared in the next day's newspaper under the same picture. "A dangerous terrorist attacks a pet dog." For a moment, Kamran looked towards me in astonishment and then, both of us laughed spontaneously. The small restaurant was echoing with our laughters and the people sitting all around were looking towards us with surprise.