A Good Samaritan, Hatim Tai, and Formanite
By Manzur Sangam Gill One day in 1958, a young mother wanted to wear her favourite jora [set of clothes]. She searched for it everywhere in the house, but could not find it. When her young son returned from college she asked him about this favourite jora. He sheepishly told his mother that he had given it to the college mali [gardener]. The mali had pleaded for good clothes for his daughter’s wedding. The mother’s anger turned into mother’s love for her benevolent son. On another occasion, he came home from college without his trousers and jacket – it was winter and he was shivering. On the way home, the boy had felt sorry for an old man and had given his warm clothes to him. The mother has many similar stories about her son. As a second year FSc student, this young man got into an argument with another student and was ready to hit the other boy with a spanner. Dr Sheets, the Vice Principal, tried to intervene, but was told by the angry young man, “Get out of the way, Doctor”. You can well imagine what happened next: the young man was expelled from college. His father, bedridden because of backache, came to the college and pleaded with the Principal Dr Ewing, “Please give my son another chance otherwise he will become a vagabond.” The Principal reinstated the young man and kept an eye on him. That youngster of the 1950s is Dr Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed, President of the Formanites Alumni Association, and a benefactor of his alma mater – Forman Christian College. Many years later a fellow Formanite’s wife was terminally ill with cancer in California, bedridden but wanting to be in Pakistan, the land of her husband’s birth. I was that Formanite, and my wife Susheela could not travel by international airlines because of her condition. Thanks to Dr Chaudhry Sahib, she was flown by PIA to Lahore in comfort, and taken directly to Shalimar Hospital for medical care and to recover from jetlag. I have had the good fortune to have been associated with Dr Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed from 2004 to 2012, the years FCC was recovering from nearly 30 years of nationalization. He gave selflessly on countless occasions: counsel and contacts to the administration, financial help for needy students and building renovations, a leading player and donor in organizing yearly Alumni Reunions. He has been an extraordinary spokesperson for his alma mater. In biblical language he is a “good Samaritan“(someone who helps a stranger in dire need without knowing the person’s caste or creed and with no thought of reward) and a “Hatim...
27 Years at FCC
by Aroon Datta Our family moved to Forman Christian College campus when I was five and I left when I was 32 years old. In 1953, my father, T S Datta, joined the faculty as a professor of English. It seemed like we had moved into a beautiful state park or, better still, a beautiful, extremely well-kept garden. The meticulous lawns, the trimmed and manicured hedges, and the sports grounds were all extremely well-maintained, and as green as they are to this day. Everyday, for ten years, I rode the FCC bus to Cathedral School — that bus with its distinctive blue color and its unmistakable smell of leather seats. Our gang generally occupied the rear of the bus, by design, of course. This habit of mine persisted in college, university, faculty meetings later on, and all during my professional life. In 1964, I joined Forman as a student of the sciences and proudly wore the blue college blazer and the badge (emblem) that read “By love serve one another”. The four years that followed were some of the best years of my educational career. I had the most fantastic teachers who inculcated into the minds of their students a love for the sciences and languages. I fell in love with chemistry from the very beginning and graduated from college in 1968 with a major in chemistry. It was a very proud moment for me, and also for my parents, when I was asked to join the chemistry faculty in 1970 after I received my MSc degree from the University of the Punjab. Actually, it was an unbelievable offer, one that I could not refuse, because up to that point I had only dreamed of teaching some day. After coming on board, I realized that all of a sudden my former teachers had now become my colleagues and I could “hang” out with them in the cafeteria at Lucas Centre!!! For years after that, I would get up from my chair every time one of my professors entered a room. And, by the way, it’s a pretty cool thing when your own father becomes your colleague. Rest assured, that needed some major adjustments in my everyday behavior as a young lecturer. I proudly served Forman Christian College from 1970-80 and then decided to move to the United States with my family. In search of more “enriched” bread and butter I made some career changes and chose to go into neuroscience research eventually–a bit different from organic chemistry at the end of the day. I may add here that due to my passion for chemistry, I have maintained my adjunct...
A Dream Come True
by Humza Bin Masood I would love to share my story as one of my dreams has come true. I got admission in BS (Hons) in 2011. I joined RCYG in my Freshmen year as a Coordinating Officer. In that year the Red Crescent Youth Group (RCYG) offered a 15-day Medical First Responder Course in collaboration with Rescue 1122. After that training, I came to know that when my brother died he needed CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation] but at that time no one one knew it. By the time he reached hospital it was too late. It was a challenge for me and it was the dream of the founder [M Shafiq] of the Emergency Services that there should be 24/7 Emergency Services and a place where such service could be provided. Today, when Mercy Health Center was inaugurated, I was glad that I kept the promise I made to myself and the Founder of Emergency Services. The challenge which I accepted when I came to know that my brother required CPR at his last moments had been completed. At first people laughed at me asking how it could be possible that FCC would take such an initiative as it an institute whose priority is education, not health. Today I can say that it is possible and hard work is the key to...
Winner of February 150 Quiz: Irsa Mazhar
Congratulations to Ms Irsa Mazhar (roll number 13-29014) for scoring the highest number of points in the February 150 Quiz. Ms Irsa Mazhar got all the answers right. Her score was followed closely by those of Sunita Salamat and Fatima Khan. Please contact the Communications Office, N Block, Room 222, to claim your...
February 150 Quiz Answers
This is the third in our series of quizzes to celebrate FCC’s 150th anniversary. This quiz looks at some of the flora and fauna at FCC. Here are the correct answers for the February 150 Quiz: 1. Azadirachta indica is the botanical name for which species of tree growing in FCC? Answer: Neem 2. The Natural History Museum at FCC contains a specimen of a tuatara (Sphenodon punctatum), a reptile sometimes called the three-eyed lizard. Now an endangered species, approximately how long ago did it evolve? Answer: 200 million years 3. The elephant whose skeleton is now in the Natural History Museum was named Benazir for its remarkable qualities. The dead animal was bought in 1958 and buried in the Botanic Gardens before being exhumed and reassembled. How long was it buried? Answer: 1 year 4. The FCC elephant is of the subspecies Elephas maximus indicus. How many pairs of ribs does it have (or should it have, given that one of its floating ribs is missing? Answer(s): 18 pairs if based on Benazir; 19 pairs if based on the subspecies. Both answers are considered correct. 5.The jaman tree is widely grown on the FCC campus. The fruit, seed and leaves of this tree are used to treat a number of diseases in traditional medicine. Which disease is it NOT used to treat? Answer: Leprosy 6. Topiary is the practice of clipping the foliage of trees or shrubs to create a clearly defined shape. From which shrub on the entrance road from Zahoor Elahi Gate is the topiary with the letters F, C and C created? Answer: Orange jessamin (Murrayan exotica) 7. The banyan tree in D Ground is one of the largest and oldest trees on campus. Where does the root (no pun intended) of the word “banyan” come from? Answer: Banya, or merchant, who sat under these trees 8. The long-tailed shrike (one of the many birds sighted at FCC) is known for its hunting instincts and for impaling its prey on thorns. For this reason it is also called by which other name? Answer: Butcher bird 9. The Botanic Gardens is just one of the facilities available to FCC students for hands-on learning. Which of the following are ALL included in the area. Answer: Palm, fern, waterlilly 10. Scientists in FCC’s Department of Biological Sciences have developed a transgenic cereal with increased iron and zinc bioavailability. Which cereal is it? Answer:...
My First Day of Teaching
By Dr Rehan Siddiqui I came here in 1962, and at that time I was just 22 years old and much thinner than I am today, I weighed just 110 pounds. I was interviewed by Professor E J Sinclair who was the principal, and a very well known teacher and administrator. He asked me, “Rehan, will you be able to control the class? You know, you’re so thin.” I replied, “Yes sir, I can do it.” The day before my first class, I went to see the lecture room and it had these blackboards where you wrote on the lower part and then pushed it up. I tried to push it upward and I couldn’t, so I knew this was something that would be a problem. I remember I was up the whole night preparing. I was going to give my first lecture, and there were about 60 strong students, including some East African students, very smart, who were at FC at the time. When I started teaching, I filled the lower part, and then I started erasing it. Somebody at the back said, “Sir, you can pull it up.” I knew that I could not, so I said, “Wait a minute, you can copy whatever you want to, and then later on I will start writing the next part.” Professor Zia-ul-Islam, who is now Head of the Biology Department in the Intermediate side, was in my first class. Anyway, it was a good experience, and I enjoyed teaching from 1962 to 1966. This was the first period of my life at FC...
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