A Teacher in The Court of Rome, Italy

When we brothers came to Lahore City from our village to get education, our father gave us a house which was on Flame Road. Akhtar Sherani lived there. Since I was a first year student, I was not that familiar with his name or his work, but my elder brothers knew him and respected him very much. However, among the many other kindnesses our father had done, he also provided us with a cook who cooked our food. His name was Abdul. Abdul had two great passions in life. One was to speak English and to study English, as nowadays English is considered knowledge and there is a fight for acquiring English. Abdul was also very fond of it. The other was that he had a great passion for good communication. So sometimes, when his brother would send him a letter to post, he would say, "If you give me your bicycle, I will go with great pleasure." When we passed by his bicycle, we would greet him, but we had never touched it. So, he was always kind to Abdul and he would take a bicycle to GPO from Fleming Road to post a letter to him and according to my calculations he would return in four and a half minutes and in that state his breath would be heavy and sweat would be on his forehead.

I was very happy with his diligence that he used his vehicle so eagerly and with such diligence. Once, it happened that I saw him returning from the market. After posting a letter from GPO, he was holding the handle of such a bicycle in his hand and was running with it very fast. He was not riding on it. So I stopped him. I said, Abdul, what did he say? He started saying, I came back quickly after receiving a letter from Bhai Baji. I said, I had taken the bicycle. He said, yes. I said, why didn't you ride it? He said, I will take it for the sake of respect. I don't know how to ride a bicycle. So even today, our situation is almost the same as Abdar's. When he got leave, he would go to an English film. He used to go to see movies. There were two cinemas on Mar Road where English films were shown. He was very crazy about learning English. His passion for learning English was not only great then but also then. So when he came back after watching a movie, my brother would ask him how it was. He would say it was amazing. There was a miss in it and she was swimming very well. She was very beautiful. But he would make predictions after watching movies, but he did not have enough ability to understand a single word of English.

He could not understand it. Neither could he pronounce it or describe it. But one day my brother asked him, "You waste so much time, you waste so much money, and you have spent your life with this attention and dedication. If you could tell me four letters of English?". I will give you a full rupee for the full four words. He said, "Metro Golden Mir." He said, "It's not four, it's three." He said, "Oh, he paid for the fourth one." The English he knew was like this. Now, yes, we are still trying, and some people are stuck in English. They are beating the lion's carriage. English doesn't work. That was the thing that came up in the way. I didn't want to talk about my topic today. Professor, you are here today. At that time, I was a lecturer in Rome. I was a lecturer at the University of Rome Italy. I was the youngest professor. Universities had holidays. It was summer. I had to broadcast Urdu on the radio station in the afternoon. I was returning. So, ladies and gentlemen, in Rome, everyone used to do kellala in the afternoon. They slept until four o'clock. The streets of Rome were almost empty.

The corporation had made arrangements for them to wash the streets there with water. And by evening, the streets also became cool. It was pleasant. They also become clean seeds, so they were washing the roads. Suddenly, a traffic vehicle was passing by. I was driving my car. Now, look, along with man, a country-like temperament walks. Wherever a man goes, I was driving. I saw that there was a circle. I will go around it and then I will turn towards my house. This is a very absurd thing. Let's walk in the middle. At that time, who is watching? It was noon. So I passed through the middle. There was a soldier standing there. He saw me and he didn't care. He didn't let me go. This young man doesn't care. When I saw him in the mirror, he turned his neck and I remembered him a little. I smiled, partly over my own face, partly over my success. I threw a flower of a smile at him to celebrate. When he saw that he had honored me, he whistled and stopped. Now, blowing the whistle there was like death, and even stopping was like stopping. I stopped and he moved on and stood forward. Did you salute first? It is a custom in the province that whenever you are being chased, you should first salute and say, "Oh, I am trembling inside." I lowered the window and he asked me for my license. I told him, "I don't know the language." He said, "You are talking nonsense." I said, "I don't know. You are lying like that." He said, "No, give me your license." I said, "Suppose someone doesn't have his license, then what should he do?" He said, "No problem. I will give you a challan. Tear up the slip and take it with you and pay the fine." I was asking for it like that. I said, "I made a mistake." He smiled and said, "It was a mistake. Let's go." Without asking me, he took out a coffee and gave me a challan. The challan was also very stiff. I took the slip and said, "What should I do with it?"

He said, "You can deposit it at the money order window in any of your nearby shops. You don't have to go to the court there. You don't have to be pushed around. You just got fined. You gave it to the shop. When I got the challan and went home, I told my wife, 'My challan has been issued.' She said, 'Yours.' I said, 'What should I do now?' They made us feel like a big criminal was living in our house.' She told her daughter that the professor had been issued a challan. She had an old mother and a mother-in-law. She told her too. They all came to me crying. I was very scared. Oh God, what is this?" They said, "You seemed like a noble man, from a good family. You seemed like you were from a good house. We even rented you a room, but you didn't turn out like that." Well, they didn't ask you to vacate the house. The old mother, who was his mother-in-law, said, "Yes, you have been issued a challan, but don't mention it to anyone. It's a matter of neighborhood policy." If they find out that he has been issued a challan, people will be very embarrassed. It will be known that I said no, I will not let it be known, my carefree nature was 26 years old, I put the challan in my pocket and went out to meet friends. The next day, I had to submit it, but I forgot. Then the whole day passed. The next day, I should have submitted the rules. So I changed my clothes and stayed in the old court. In the evening, I received a telegram saying, "Respected Professor, your challan was submitted at such and such a place, on such and such a lamp. This is the number of your challan. You have not submitted the challan money anywhere yet. This is a big order. Please submit it. It would be a great kindness of you.

The telegram was worth about 21 rupees. I forgot all the words. I counted all the words. I made a mistake that I forgot again and another telegram came from them. If you still do not submit the money, then we are sorry that we will have to present it in court. I made a mistake and could not go. Then I received a summons from the court to appear in court on such and such a date. I have to appear and this is what you have done to the Delhi government and broken the law. You will be given full justice. Those who spoke in shock, the Roman law has gone from there. So in great detail, now I am scared. My city is gone. The city is gone. I am worried that now I am in a foreign land. There is no one to support me and help me. Whom shall I make my own guardian? My doctor was Dr. Bal. His name was Jawan. I asked him to make me a lawyer. He said, I have a friend. Let's go to him. I went to him. He said, "This will be a little complicated if I go to court. It is better for the professor to go and file the fee himself. Please tell the court that since I did not know this law properly, I am a foreigner here. Please forgive me.

I will not do such a thing." I said, "Okay." So I went away, afraid. If you happen to go to Rome, the Palace of the Justice is a very large and vast palace of the Roman era. We searched for it and reached the judge's room. I was sitting there, I was called in order, so I left. Now I have no soul in my body at all, and I am afraid, and I don't even dare to tremble because I feel like I have a seizure. Because the situation was like a fever, they ordered you to stand in the dock. Now the court asked me that you have been issued a challan and you were ordered to deposit these 12 rupees in the post office. Why didn't you get it done? I said, "Oh my God, I have failed. I should have done it, but I did." He said, "How much time was wasted by the staff, how much by the police, now how much by the justice system, and you should have realized this. We will punish you severely for this." I said, "I am a foreigner here, a foreigner, as we pretend, I don't think it is very polite. I am not familiar with the law, so please be kind to me." He said, "You speak the language well. You are explaining what you do." So I stood silently. Then he asked, "The court is asking you who you are and what is your profession?" I said, "I am a teacher, a professor at the Roman University." Then the judge pushed his chair aside and stood up and announced, "Teacher." As the announcement is made, the teacher in the court and they all stood up, the secretary, the police officer, the officials, and he ordered that the chair should be brought for the teacher. A teacher has come to court. Now that little bench, I am standing holding it. Bring that chair. It was ordered that you, the teacher, cannot stand. Then he sat down and started reading. The judge said, "O respected teacher, O teacher who gave knowledge to the world, O most respected person, O respected humanity. You have ordered us to be a judge and to be just. You have taught us this knowledge. And it is because of you that we are in this place. Therefore, according to your order, we are forced to check you under the rules established by the court. Despite the fact that we are ashamed of this and we are extremely saddened that we are trying a teacher who is no more respected than anyone else in our court. And this is a very painful occasion for any judge to be in the courtroom. A respected and honorable teacher should be tried and now I am ashamed in my place, oh God, what is this starting? I said, Sir, whatever your law is, knowledge or whatever your rules are, I am here. They said, We are very ashamed, very sad and with deep knowledge, we are imposing a double fine on you. It is one and a half rupees. Now when I got up and tried to get out of this chair and get out of this courtroom, the judge, his staff, his secretary, all of them, and the teacher, were going to the court. We are respectfully sending you off. I said, "Leave me alone, what will they do to me when they get out?" They left me standing there until I started my car. Now when I returned, I understood, oh God, I am a very respectable person and I also told the people of the neighborhood that I had gone like this and this happened there.