Tareef Hayat Khan

Someone said everybody will have his/her own 15 minutes of fame at some point in life. I am sure all the people around have their own. Mine was the moment when I found my name at the ninth position in Dhaka Board merit list in HSC 1986. I have many friends, known and unknown, who have far better achievement than that, but for me, it was the ultimate achievement. I could never do anything more than that, that's what I thought at that moment. But that was not an overnight success. Besides my efforts, and constant family support, I believe all my tutors contributed to my achievement to some extent. So, let me list them out and recall some memories.

Note: SSC = O Level = Grade 10; HSC = A level = Grade 12

1. Pijush Sir (Late)

My first tutor at Year 8. He was originally engaged to teach my sister (2 yrs senior to me) to prepare for her SSC, I was probably put there to give her company. He lived as lodging teacher in famous movie star Anjana Rahman's father's house (Anjana was not there of course. She eloped long before). That place was one minute walking distance from our Motijheel flat. He was a very easy-going person, and taught us with passion. One of my achievements that I still remember today while studying there was to do how many maths in one single page. Once my tutor brought magnifying glass to read an answer. Anyway, I am totally grateful to him for my basic foundation in math. And my sister secured the first position in Dhaka board from Home Economics, which was quite an achievement and we gratefully remember him for his contribution.

2. Anwarul Karim Sir

Eventually that put an indirect pressure on me to do something big in my SSC. I promised myself to try my best on one condition that I will never read in the afternoon sacrificing play time ;-) At that time, I was in Nazrul Shikkhaloy (NS), usually fighting for the top position with Dorin (later became an academician as well). But somehow our Head Sir gave my dad an extra bit of advice indicating that if I need to do really well in Board exam, I have to fight with the best (no pun intended, NS has its pride too). Okay, what does it mean? It meant I needed to go to the best, so I have to try to go to Govt. Lab. Well, lucky for me and my dad, I somehow got a chance at the end of Year 9, just around 1 year before the all-important SSC. I did not have much time to settle there, but at least understood that physics is the one I needed to work most. I had to pick one teacher as tutor, and I chose the one who was spectacular in the class...Anwarul Karim Sir. Well, like many other Sirs, he did not have any vacancy for me. But my dad was persistent, and I got a sit at 6:30 am batch. Sir must be too tired of teaching in the school or by conducting two parallel batches at the same time, so we had plenty of time to chat and gossip during the 90 minutes. Probably I used to pick up my classmate Rinku (Shahed Shafi) on my way. I don't remember the others but definitely remember Ehsan Karim Sumon (from St Josephs School), who I still remember, was a great fan of Mats Wilander at that time. I also peeped in the other room to see who were in the other batch, and there saw a future prodigy in the making. His name as our contemporary friends would all know later, was Iftekhar Anam, Russel :-) To me, he is still the Sachin Tendulkar of our batch, and all of you know why (because of his outstanding achievements during grad and post-grad life, and later contributing as academician back home). Anyway, the best thing during this lesson was if madam opened the door for us with a smile. 

 3. Ashok Sir

SSC was not the greatest achievement for me, but at least gave me the idea where my position was in the bigger perspective of the whole country. Somebody told me that HSC is tougher, and most students can't realize that as the two years pass so quickly. So, if I have to make a mark, this is the time. So, fight for it. Well, I went to Pijush Sir for help again. He was busier in his job in the bank by then. He did not immediately say no, and actually he came for few days. But then he asked me if I can have his younger brother Ashok as my tutor, as he was having problem with managing time. Ashok Sir was a 3rd yr medical student at Mitford (Salimullah Medical University) at that time. I started my hardship to travel there 3 times a week, and to my utter disgust, all were afternoons. Well, apparently my diligence worked as to my astonishment, he covered both 1st and 2nd-year syllabus by December 84 (in just three months into the college life)! I still don't know how. Then my job was to keep pressing and practicing as I had plenty of time to do that :-)

4. Sumona Khala

Well, Ashok Sir covered Maths, Physics and Chemistry. But one thing he could not help was Statistics. If I remember correctly, that was the first time statistics was introduced as a 'fourth subject' in HSC, and I merrily chose it instead of Biology. Iftekhar Anam chose Psychology, so some of us were tempted to follow him at the beginning. But anyway, at the end statistics proved to be not too bad. But the textbook (I don't remember the author, probably Motaharuddin) was totally horrible, and I wonder how come it was the only book at that time. We had Khijir Sir at Dhaka college, and though he was a very good person, we had some problems to understand things in the class, maybe because we were too naive. He still remembers me, and I met him in Dhaka when he has taken over as a Principal in a local college after retiring from Dhaka College, and I have no regret for having him our teacher. His son probably studied Architecture in BUET as well. Anyway, the only tutor I found at that time for special help was Sumona Khala, my sister's class friend Hamijia Apa's aunt (Architect Arshia Botul apa's aunt as well). Well, she had her office at 9am, so the only time she could give was at 6:30 am, but I was happy to ride rickshaw from Motijheel to Wari at that time. Anyway, I was introduced to Mia-Mian authored statistics book there, which was much better. Unfortunately I had to end this part prematurely as she could not give time anymore.

5. Sabur Sir

Meanwhile, pressure was building up for me to get tutors for other subjects for preparation of HSC. The first one to choose was Chemistry. Not many options were there in Dhaka College. Probably Sadek sir was better, but I chose Sabur Sir because he was the Head, and those who know would agree that there might be some extra privilege in the 'practical' part of the exam, if we are personally acquainted with the teachers. Again the time was 6:30 am, because he had his lectures at 8am. The first day I went there, I saw my Gov. Lab. classmate Pavel peeping from outside. Well Pavel, as I understand now, was coincidentally looking for an option to enter Sabur Sir's tuition on that same morning. And as it happened, that was the start of my many tutorial sessions along with Pavel, and actually my closeness with him that lasted during the college life. I also remember Kalkini House owner Salahuddin was there in the group. Unfortunately, there were no girls in our batch, asSabur Sir intentionally separate boys from girls in batches.

6. Azad Sir

However, that was compensated by Azad Sir's batch. The only reason to choose him was again because he was the head of the Department of Physics at that time. Pavel probably had much more knowledge than me about who to go and which batch to choose. Azad Sir also had parallel sessions and to our great delight, the other batch with us was girls' batch. We never complained even if Azad Sir could not give us time at all. Anyway that house at Bashiruddin road was a good memory. Probably we had Swapan, Abu, Milton and many other who I never met again.

7. Shibly Sir

Pavel and my friendship continued with joining one tuition to other together. For the maths, the concept of joining the head of the department does not apply, as there is no practical part in the maths exam, and therefore getting acquainted with the head is not a real necessity. So, Zaman Sir, the then head, was not our automatic choice for Maths, as he seemed to be too smart for us. Another option was Morshed Sir, who was a severe critic of Zaman Sir. The logic might be there, but that attitude discouraged us. Luckily, there was another option. We were captivated by the personality of mild spoken extra handsome Shibly Sir, who had a pleasant appearance in the class compared to Zaman Sir and Morshed Sir. So, one day Pavel and I finally went to look for a vacancy in his tuition. Luckily he had, and he put us in one batch. Here I met Mahfuz Imam (my ols classmate from BAF Shaheen School) again after long time. He previously impressed me as the one of the brightest student in the class, and now he impressed me even more, with his riding XL motorbike and proudly putting his helmet besides while we were trying to solve some boring statics and dynamics. I forgot exactly for how long we went there, but Shibly Sir's house at Green Road was a wonderful chapter. He surely knew how to encourage ensthusiastice students like we tried to be, and it looks crazy, but he allowed Pavel and I to continue higher math even after HSC (???) for a while. 

8. Latif Sir

We were increasingly worried about our statistics and was desperately looking for some serious help for us to prepare for HSC exam. To our great relief, our Gov/ Lab classmate Mithun came up with a solution. Jagannath Collge's Statistics Head Latif Sir happened to be known to him, and he asked us if we want to join him in Sir's batch. Sir's flat at Mirpur Technical was a pleasant journey for Pavel and me. Going by bus or minibus from college, and then walking through the green during lonely noon hours was a great experience. Moreover, Sir's elder daughter also gave us good reason to be motivated. A popular way to have a chance to see her was to ask Sir for water, and if we got lucky, Sir's daughter could be the one to bring it for us. But apart from that, Latif Sir was really good. We were so mesmerized with his teaching that we followed him even when he changed his house to Dania (Shanir Akhrha) to trace him, which is totally at the other side of the city. I still remember the journey we had to find his new home. Wow! we had energy those days. And moreover, his teaching almost motivated me to even write a book on statistics. Anyway, somehow I could not finish that yet.. :-)

9. Shaheen Sir

After trying tutions on Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Statistics, there was only Bangla and English left to take care. I always argued that Bangla shouldn't be tutored (as if we are automatically competent in all aspects in mother language, which we surely are not). For English, we found Shaheen Sir. Again, the source was Pavel, who had his neighborhood friends studying under him, and proposed me to join his batch. That gave me another chance to roam around during lonely noons at Residential Model School to reach his tuitions, followed by after-tuition walking with Pavel through the green and cool Agargaon colonies to reach his home.  Spending sometime there, I started my long journey back to my house at Motijheel from Agargaon by bus. It was Shaheen Sir's very impressive notes that I believe helped me to climb up the ladder in the combined merit list in HSC, especially when all others are equally competent in Physics, Chemistry, Math or Statistics, and Literature become more important to separate the best among the bests.

10. 'Friends' Coaching Center

Achieveing ninth position in the combined merit list in Dhaka Board HSC was the eventual reward for all my hard works, assisted by the tutions. If that was 15 minutes of my fame and glory, I searched for more. The goal shifted towards another big goal...to get admitted in BUET, and pursue long term aspiration to become an engineer. We needed to get through the tough BUET admission test successfully, for which the  highest scorer in Physics, Chemistry and Maths along the whole country competed. There were some famous coaching centers at that time for us to get the best preparatin for the test. Sunrise, or some other were very famous. But Pavel and I, still together, stayed humble, and chose 'Friends' coaching center, that was familiar to usas it was on our daily route during our college days. It was not bad either. I remember we had Shibly vai (Civil) as one of the tutors. There I met Md. Salahuddin, my textile engg. friend, who bacame quuite close to me at later days.

11. Utpal vai

The last one was quite anti climax. All I prepared myself was for enginnering (main target: Civil engg). I did not choose to give any other admission test in any Universities axcept BUET. Someone gave the advice to have at least one alterantive. Since BUET is the target, architecture was the only other option. I needed a little direction to prepare jus the minimum. My Wills Little Flower friend Manzur, with whome I played cricket every afternoon during breaks after HSC,  gave me the contact of Utpal vai, three years our senior, who might be interested to teach us some drawing technics. There we had a couple of months training is his hostel room, where Manzur and I used to go together. Architecture was available only in BUET at that time in thewhole country, and the competition was among students from the whole country. I don't know how, but I was totally amazed when I found my name at the top of the list in Architecture admission result, and I can tell you that was a bonus 5 minutes of fame in my life. Well, I did a miracle according to my own standard in the Engg test as well, since I was placed sixth in the admission test. But the architecture result was too much for me to shake it off, and I decided to spend my next nine years there (actually the rest of my life to be honest)....



It is the end of the story. Probably it will not pass as a piece of literature, but for blog, I think it can pass. I respect all my tutors, and I enjoyed all the friends I had during the lessons. I cherish my efforts during this period of my life. Whether they have brought Fame or not, Glory or not, these moments were precious to me, like all have their own precious moments of life. That's all.