DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 27 December, 1998
The old school - 2
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
GRATIFICATION! Messages have come in during this past week from Old Virbaijeeites scattered around the world expressing their happiness at having read about their old school. Those who studied under Mrs. Dinoo Mistri have asked me to convey to her their gratitude for what they learnt under her good guidance.
Respecting seniority, I submitted to the admonishment of an octogenarian. You ungrateful man, he said, you forgot your grandfather Fakirjee Cowasjee. You omitted to mention one of his finest acts of benevolence wrought just before the end of the World War. Fading memory, I wondered and politely interrupted to remind him that my grandfather had died in 1939, just after the WW2 broke out. "What a fool I was, what a damned fool, to think I was the earth and sky." He was talking about WW1.
Towards the end of 1918, when taken around the school by Principal Rustom Dastur, my grandfather noticed that some boys did not carry much in their Tiffin boxes.
He forthwith announced that as of the next day none would go hungry. Meals for the needy were to be provided at his expense. He created a trust fund in commemoration of his parents, Cowasjee and Virbaijee Variawa. The 'Bhojan Fund' till exists to feed those BVS boys who need to be fed. I wonder why it is, the Old Boy went on to ask, that Nawaz Sharif does not feed the hungry and the poor of his country before filling his own stomach?
One message came from a Virbaijeeite who has been away from Pakistan for 30 years and has settled in Canada. He said he would now like to return and teach at the BVS. Another from one who was in the US working with Moody's. Whilst wishing the old school well, he expressed his distress at the fiscal rating of Pakistan. The graph just dips, dips, and goes on dipping.
A Hindu from Hong Kong e-mailed expressing his gratitude to our community, as he had read and benefited from education received at the Bai Avabai School at Bulsar. Seemingly apologetic, he mentioned that his school had taught just one politician, a man of quaint and orthodox views, but, as we all acknowledge, of the greatest integrity and honesty - Morarji Desai - who rose to be the Prime Minister of India. Another Hindu who read the column corrected my Gujerati in my quote about the donkey. His father had taught him: "Gadheda ne bey var salaam karvi, khoob vali, vali ne." Translated, this means: The bigger the donkey you meet, the lower you must bow and salaam.
One Old Virbaijeeite asked me if I could find any logic in Nawaz Sharif. With all the power he has, why does he want more power? Why is he fiddling with the 15th Amendment? May I suggest that he e-mail Nawaz Sharif ('primerminister@pak.gov.pk') and ask him himself.
This same suggestion goes to all who transmit messages asking me to explain to them the mindset of our Prime Minister and his acolytes.
Another OV e-mailer expressed his hope that in future the school will be lucky enough to keep up its record of not producing politicians and debt defaulters, and that it will continue to turn out men who give to society more than it gives them.
Reproduced is one message received from a Pakistani, a Muslim, an Old Nedian, settled in the US:
"What a wonderful way to express your gratitude for the source of a solid foundation of your life. I would like for you to write about NED as well. Were it not for the Parsi community and the benevolence of the people NED would not exist, and if it were not for NED Pakistan would have been lost without engineers. I am not sure what complexion NED has taken now, but during my tenure there as a student (1966-70) it was an extremely nice place, in cramped quarters, and a great education it delivered.
"I would say that there are very few graduates of NED who have left Pakistan for higher education and not made a very good life for them abroad. I truly enjoy your opinions. It makes my day since I read them before I [venture] into the mad world of business in the great metropolis of Houston, Texas."
In the second decade of this century, Sindh needed engineers. So the citizens of Karachi rallied, donated funds, a college was founded in 1921, and named The Prince of Wales Engineering College in commemoration of the visit to India of the Prince, the future Edward VIII.
In 1924, the four sons of Nadirshaw Dinshaw - Hoshang, Monocher, Faredoon, and Dinshaw - gave substantial amounts for the building, development, and running of the college and it was renamed the Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw Engineering College. With the passage of time, post-Partition, the college converted itself into a university, the NED.
After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over what was left of Pakistan at the end of 1971, his greed for absolute power and patronage led him, amongst many other disastrous acts, to nationalize schools and colleges.
Those that escaped nationalization suffered in other ways - their premises were taken over, they were harassed, and so forth. The universities became hotbeds of political, ethnic and religious strife. The days of armed student bodies began on our campuses, when kalashnikovs were carried with greater pride than books.
At the end of 1994, the Chancellor of NED, Governor of Sindh, Mahmoud Haroon, prevailed upon me to be his nominee on the Syndicate. My reluctance was countered by him. The university is named after your children's' maternal great-grandfather, he reminded me. It was mainly founded with funds donated by your community. Merely moaning and groaning won't help.
After attending my first Syndicate meeting, I was disgusted enough to write to Mahmoud Haroon on January 2, 1995: "You nominated me as a member of the Syndicate. I find myself sitting with certain members the working of whose minds I am unable to fathom."
It had just been discovered, after their having completed their finals, that two students had gained entry on forged certificates. Nevertheless, the Senate wished to give them their degree certificates. How can this be done, I asked? Simple, I was told. By a Syndicate majority vote which included that of the vice-chancellor.
That same day, Mahmood Haroon wrote to the then VC forbidding him to issue the degree certificates. Matter ended.
We jump to April 27, 1997, and to what was written in this newspaper under the heading 'Academic Fraud.'
"Every institution of this country has been well and truly mutilated, subverted, or snuffed out. Can we not at least start cleaning up and curing those institutions that educate and heal?
"Willy-nilly, whether they be discredited politicians, seat-warmers, favored friends, army generals, strongmen or shrinking violets our governors are the chancellors of the universities of their provinces. They dole out honorary doctorates to undeserving friends, and preside over the ceremonies looking highly incongruous and their predecessors' mortar boards. On the whole they are ineffective and do little good.
"The one right thing done by chancellor Kamal Azfar was to appoint, entirely on merit, Engineer Abul Kalam, as vice-chancellor of the Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw University of Engineering and Technology. On taking over in December 1996, Kalam found on his table the case of 64 students who had been fraudulently passed. He asked the chancellor to hold an inquiry. The chancellor then did wrong in appointing me, a member of the NED Syndicate, to inquire into the affair, later compounding it by having a message passed to Kalam via another member of the Syndicate asking him to pour water over the findings, whatever they be....
"Now, the chancellor is our new governor, Lt-General Moinuddin Haider, reputed to be a strong man. He is pondering over the matter."
Believe it or not, the affair of the 64 students has still not been resolved. Four days ago, on December 23, I wrote to the same chancellor: "By a process of manipulation, the majority of the NED Syndicate members have managed to resolve that degree certificates be issued to those fraudulently passed. The vice-chancellor and the minority (which includes me) do not wish to be a party to the fraud..." High time he fired his gun.
The good news is that Kalam still arrives at his desk each morning at 0825 and has ensured that his faculty members do the same, and that they also do some work, which, after years of indiscipline, they are loathe to do. A semblance of order has been restored and disrupters are sternly dealt with. In the face of tremendous political pressure, the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, which was nationalized by Bhutto (to get at the industrialist Dawoods more than for any other reason) has just been disaffiliated by the NED, as it neither followed university rules nor discipline. Unqualified students were being enrolled on payment of Rs 2 lakhs per head to the college administrators. It has been so far estimated that Rs 20 crores have slid into the pockets of these functionaries.
For the Texan Nedian: This is how matters stand. If fraud and corruption can be curbed, we can rebuild.