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Life is a strange phenomenon. One lives in this world, one lives in ones mind and one lives in the minds of others. The world of one’s mind is a stranger place, very different form the real life itself. The real life is here and now, the mind’s life is then, now and then. It jumps from the past to the future without touching the present or pulls the past to the present without the reality of both or conjures up future without having been there yet.
Professor Khawaja Masud produced many a brilliant students and befriended many an intellectually bright people. He influenced lives that in the worldly terms rose to the heights of their chosen careers. He guided many a youth inspiring them to enter the world of politics and ideology. He also produced some Nalaiq students like me. I never existed in KM’s real or mental world, perhaps I did not achieve the status to qualify to be there.
When I joined Gordon College and took Mathematics as one of the compulsory subjects I was scared to death of KM’s math period till one day soon, KM asked me a question and I gave wrong answer. I always preferred to sit in the last row of the staired class room even when there were rows upon rows of empty seats in front. KM looked at me with amused look and said “Oye toon hisab chad day taray coloon nian hona” whatever my answer, he helped me get chemistry which to me was equally difficult and boring; but I somehow managed to pass.
Those were the hay days of Ayub Khan, he had successfully managed to ‘defeat ‘ Miss Fatima Jinnah in the elections. Like every Nalaik student I had gone canvassing for Miss Jinnah in the villages around Rawalpindi with other students like me, and was picked up by police late in the evening while waiting for a bus to bring us back. The police loaded us on their jeep and dumped us deep into the wilderness from where no transport was available. We walked major part of the night to get back onto GT road. When KM heard about it the next day he called us and told us that it was not a sensible thing to do. Staring at me he said “you should focus on you studies”. In my heart I said “Kahwaja Sahib Ayub Khan kay haath bick gaye hain”
Some thirty six years later I alogwith my Nalaik friends went to attend Centenary Celebrations Planning meeting of the college. Khawaja Sahib was there. After the formal speakers had given their suggestions, I took the dais on the stage of Jubilee Hall and gave my suggestions in a rather concise manner which I think those present there liked. After the meeting I went to Khawaja Sahib to say salam. . Kahawaja Sahib with his pursed lipped smile asked “were you my student?” I said, “I could not be” slightly surprised he asked,” what do you mean”? I narrated what had happened thirty six years ago. His smile deepened adding that typical spark in his eyes and said, “Aren’t you happy that I told you to give up maths?”
I met Khawaja Sahib on several occasions after that, and always wondered if he had recognized me and he always smiled and asked how I was.
Why did I have this intense yearning to be in the good books Khawaja Sahib when it mattered nothing to no one.
I think I will miss Khawaja Sahib, perhaps more than some of his Qabil students.
Farooq says:
January 31st, 2010 11:20 am (from Adil Najam’s blog)
Khawaja Sahib was my teacher too when I studied maths from him at Gordon College. He was indeed an institution at a time when Gordon College was full of some great teachers.
I remember one day at the end of the lecture he got all excited about the idea that mathematics was actually poetry and good poetry was mathematics. His eyes twinkled (they always did) and he talked on and on giving examples from both maths and from poetry. I must confess most of us did not understand most of this, but his passion was always infectious. I remember, all that year it became a running joke amongst us students about maths and poetry.
I am sorry to say I never met him afterwards. Hearing this sad news today made my eyes well up. He was a good man and a great teacher. May he rest in peace.
Samra Ali says:
January 30th, 2010 11:35 pm (from Adil Najam’s blog)
JZK for giving this tribute to one of my greatest teachers ever! Sir Khwaja Masud taught my O levels Maths class of ‘89 at Islamabad Grammar School. He had previously been my Father’s Teacher at Gordon College as well.
We loved to hate not attending his class, it was needless to say never boring. He did give us the love of math along with the will to live a life better than what we had been given..and to make the world a better place.
Sir Khwaja, I pray you are resting in peace, and will be rewarded the highest place in Jannah for all the students you have taught.
Hamid says:
January 30th, 2010 10:25 pm (from Adil Najam’s blog)
Khawja sahib was a family figure for us — he was a colleague of my father, when my father used to teach at Gordon College and before he started at QAU and he also taught my mother at Gordon College — Khawja sahib will always be remembered in our family, and many other families, for his beliefs, his passion and commitment to not only the causes that were most dear to him, but to the profession of teaching — as the profession of teaching continues to lose its grace and dignity in the hearts and minds of Pakistanis, people like Khawja sahib will be sorely missed for their passion and professionalism.
By Beena Sarwar (from a post on January 18, 2010 at Dr. Sarwar’s blog)
We were sad to learn of the passing away of Prof Khwaja Masud on Saturday, Jan 16, 2010. The well known educationist, newspaper columnist, Marxist intellectual and writer died in Islamabad after a brief illness, aged 88, leaving behind two sons. He played a good innings.
According to an obituary note in Dawn on Sunday, he was born in Campbellpur (now Attock) in 1922. He attended Scotch Mission School in Daska, graduated from Murray College, Sialkot, and had a Masters degree in mathematics from Government College, Lahore (1944), after which he joined Gordon College, Rawalpindi, as lecturer. Appointed principal of the college in 1972, he retired in 1982.
He played a leading role in setting up the Progressive Writers Association in Rawalpindi, was an active trade unionist, and a founder member of the Islamabad Culture Forum and Islamabad Philosophical Society. He was associated with progressive writers and intellectuals like Sajjad Zaheer, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mohammad Hussain Ata and Sibte Hassan. The obituary note draws from a Dawn report of August 11, 2007, ‘Khwaja Masud — a teacher par excellence’ by Ashfaq Saleem Mirza commemorating Prof Masud’s 85th birthday.
NOTE: The Dawn note is somewhat inaccurate in its mention of Prof Khwaja Masud’s association with Democratic Students Federation and the Pindi Conspiracy Case. Prof Masud did not “join” the DSF although he “certainly mentored DSF activists in Gordon College, including Abid Minto”. (Also, the DSF launched in Karachi at least was not “the student wing of the Communist Party”). Prof Masud was also not part of the Pindi Conspiracy Case, “which was in any case manufactured to snuff out the nascent left and the Communist Party” (S.M. Naseem).
Condolence reference to pay homage to Comrade Jyoti Basu and Prof Khwaja Masud
Bradford February 4, 2010
South Asian Peoples Forum in collaboration with Indian Workers Association held a condolence reference of veteran communist leader of India , Comrade Jyoti Basu, and Prof. Khawaja Masud of Gordon College Rawalpindi, both expired on the same day. The meeting was presided over by Prof. Nazir Tabassum of SAPF and Comrade Avatar Sadiq of the Association of British Indian Communists was the Chief Guest. The proceedings of the meeting were conducted by Comrade Sarwan Singh of IWA.
Eminent Journalist Zaffar Tanweer highlighted the contribution of Prof. Kh. Masud, a career academic, Mathematician and General Secretary of the district Rawalpindi Communist Party of Pakistan till it was banned in 1953/54 by Liaqat Ali Khan at the behest of American Imperialism. He said that the leftist intellectuals and workers of Pakistan , many of which were academics, were the most vulnerable lot as the state was functioning as an American satellite and it had zero tolerance for the leftist politics. Most of them ended up in the world’s worst concentration camps like the one in infamous Lahore Fort. Kh. Masud was persecuted by the worst of Pakistani dictators, General Zia-ul-Haq when he was Principal of Gordon College Rawalpindi. As a result, he preferred to As a result, he preferred to resign from this post and started anew as a freelance journalist. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/17140
January 27, 2010 at 7:05 am |
Life is a strange phenomenon. One lives in this world, one lives in ones mind and one lives in the minds of others. The world of one’s mind is a stranger place, very different form the real life itself. The real life is here and now, the mind’s life is then, now and then. It jumps from the past to the future without touching the present or pulls the past to the present without the reality of both or conjures up future without having been there yet.
Professor Khawaja Masud produced many a brilliant students and befriended many an intellectually bright people. He influenced lives that in the worldly terms rose to the heights of their chosen careers. He guided many a youth inspiring them to enter the world of politics and ideology. He also produced some Nalaiq students like me. I never existed in KM’s real or mental world, perhaps I did not achieve the status to qualify to be there.
When I joined Gordon College and took Mathematics as one of the compulsory subjects I was scared to death of KM’s math period till one day soon, KM asked me a question and I gave wrong answer. I always preferred to sit in the last row of the staired class room even when there were rows upon rows of empty seats in front. KM looked at me with amused look and said “Oye toon hisab chad day taray coloon nian hona” whatever my answer, he helped me get chemistry which to me was equally difficult and boring; but I somehow managed to pass.
Those were the hay days of Ayub Khan, he had successfully managed to ‘defeat ‘ Miss Fatima Jinnah in the elections. Like every Nalaik student I had gone canvassing for Miss Jinnah in the villages around Rawalpindi with other students like me, and was picked up by police late in the evening while waiting for a bus to bring us back. The police loaded us on their jeep and dumped us deep into the wilderness from where no transport was available. We walked major part of the night to get back onto GT road. When KM heard about it the next day he called us and told us that it was not a sensible thing to do. Staring at me he said “you should focus on you studies”. In my heart I said “Kahwaja Sahib Ayub Khan kay haath bick gaye hain”
Some thirty six years later I alogwith my Nalaik friends went to attend Centenary Celebrations Planning meeting of the college. Khawaja Sahib was there. After the formal speakers had given their suggestions, I took the dais on the stage of Jubilee Hall and gave my suggestions in a rather concise manner which I think those present there liked. After the meeting I went to Khawaja Sahib to say salam. . Kahawaja Sahib with his pursed lipped smile asked “were you my student?” I said, “I could not be” slightly surprised he asked,” what do you mean”? I narrated what had happened thirty six years ago. His smile deepened adding that typical spark in his eyes and said, “Aren’t you happy that I told you to give up maths?”
I met Khawaja Sahib on several occasions after that, and always wondered if he had recognized me and he always smiled and asked how I was.
Why did I have this intense yearning to be in the good books Khawaja Sahib when it mattered nothing to no one.
I think I will miss Khawaja Sahib, perhaps more than some of his Qabil students.
February 6, 2010 at 3:53 pm |
Farooq says:
January 31st, 2010 11:20 am (from Adil Najam’s blog)
Khawaja Sahib was my teacher too when I studied maths from him at Gordon College. He was indeed an institution at a time when Gordon College was full of some great teachers.
I remember one day at the end of the lecture he got all excited about the idea that mathematics was actually poetry and good poetry was mathematics. His eyes twinkled (they always did) and he talked on and on giving examples from both maths and from poetry. I must confess most of us did not understand most of this, but his passion was always infectious. I remember, all that year it became a running joke amongst us students about maths and poetry.
I am sorry to say I never met him afterwards. Hearing this sad news today made my eyes well up. He was a good man and a great teacher. May he rest in peace.
February 6, 2010 at 3:54 pm |
Samra Ali says:
January 30th, 2010 11:35 pm (from Adil Najam’s blog)
JZK for giving this tribute to one of my greatest teachers ever! Sir Khwaja Masud taught my O levels Maths class of ‘89 at Islamabad Grammar School. He had previously been my Father’s Teacher at Gordon College as well.
We loved to hate not attending his class, it was needless to say never boring. He did give us the love of math along with the will to live a life better than what we had been given..and to make the world a better place.
Sir Khwaja, I pray you are resting in peace, and will be rewarded the highest place in Jannah for all the students you have taught.
February 6, 2010 at 3:55 pm |
Hamid says:
January 30th, 2010 10:25 pm (from Adil Najam’s blog)
Khawja sahib was a family figure for us — he was a colleague of my father, when my father used to teach at Gordon College and before he started at QAU and he also taught my mother at Gordon College — Khawja sahib will always be remembered in our family, and many other families, for his beliefs, his passion and commitment to not only the causes that were most dear to him, but to the profession of teaching — as the profession of teaching continues to lose its grace and dignity in the hearts and minds of Pakistanis, people like Khawja sahib will be sorely missed for their passion and professionalism.
February 8, 2010 at 3:16 am |
Prof. Khwaja Masud: Another Comrade Passes On
By Beena Sarwar (from a post on January 18, 2010 at Dr. Sarwar’s blog)
We were sad to learn of the passing away of Prof Khwaja Masud on Saturday, Jan 16, 2010. The well known educationist, newspaper columnist, Marxist intellectual and writer died in Islamabad after a brief illness, aged 88, leaving behind two sons. He played a good innings.
According to an obituary note in Dawn on Sunday, he was born in Campbellpur (now Attock) in 1922. He attended Scotch Mission School in Daska, graduated from Murray College, Sialkot, and had a Masters degree in mathematics from Government College, Lahore (1944), after which he joined Gordon College, Rawalpindi, as lecturer. Appointed principal of the college in 1972, he retired in 1982.
He played a leading role in setting up the Progressive Writers Association in Rawalpindi, was an active trade unionist, and a founder member of the Islamabad Culture Forum and Islamabad Philosophical Society. He was associated with progressive writers and intellectuals like Sajjad Zaheer, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Mohammad Hussain Ata and Sibte Hassan. The obituary note draws from a Dawn report of August 11, 2007, ‘Khwaja Masud — a teacher par excellence’ by Ashfaq Saleem Mirza commemorating Prof Masud’s 85th birthday.
NOTE: The Dawn note is somewhat inaccurate in its mention of Prof Khwaja Masud’s association with Democratic Students Federation and the Pindi Conspiracy Case. Prof Masud did not “join” the DSF although he “certainly mentored DSF activists in Gordon College, including Abid Minto”. (Also, the DSF launched in Karachi at least was not “the student wing of the Communist Party”). Prof Masud was also not part of the Pindi Conspiracy Case, “which was in any case manufactured to snuff out the nascent left and the Communist Party” (S.M. Naseem).
February 9, 2010 at 6:15 am |
South Asian Peoples forum, Bradford, UK
Condolence reference to pay homage to Comrade Jyoti Basu and Prof Khwaja Masud
Bradford February 4, 2010
South Asian Peoples Forum in collaboration with Indian Workers Association held a condolence reference of veteran communist leader of India , Comrade Jyoti Basu, and Prof. Khawaja Masud of Gordon College Rawalpindi, both expired on the same day. The meeting was presided over by Prof. Nazir Tabassum of SAPF and Comrade Avatar Sadiq of the Association of British Indian Communists was the Chief Guest. The proceedings of the meeting were conducted by Comrade Sarwan Singh of IWA.
Eminent Journalist Zaffar Tanweer highlighted the contribution of Prof. Kh. Masud, a career academic, Mathematician and General Secretary of the district Rawalpindi Communist Party of Pakistan till it was banned in 1953/54 by Liaqat Ali Khan at the behest of American Imperialism. He said that the leftist intellectuals and workers of Pakistan , many of which were academics, were the most vulnerable lot as the state was functioning as an American satellite and it had zero tolerance for the leftist politics. Most of them ended up in the world’s worst concentration camps like the one in infamous Lahore Fort. Kh. Masud was persecuted by the worst of Pakistani dictators, General Zia-ul-Haq when he was Principal of Gordon College Rawalpindi. As a result, he preferred to As a result, he preferred to resign from this post and started anew as a freelance journalist. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/17140