Mr. Titus

He was a short heighted person with gray moustache and dark complexion. He told my father that he was the House Master of Tipu House. He further assured my father that good care would be taken for his son who he was leaving behind at the boarding school in Murree. The famous and traditional ... Lawrence College.

His name was Fredrick Titus and he was my House Master. Once I look back I remember a lot of things that I feel like sharing with everyone. I will share my experiences of how he shaped the personalities of the students and how passionately he undertook his work in some later posts. I would share later as to how the boys would mimic him and how he would many times only smile and let go of a naughty boy with a warning only. He would write in his personal capacity to the parents discussing with them the progress of the students and exchanging ideas how the boy can be groomed further in debates and athletics etc.

But today something different. It is one thing that has been ringing in my memory for all these years. It is about an incident that involved his nephew who was also a student and our class fellow. He was in my House (Tipu) and we shared the same dormitory. As he was Christian so as a young boy of class V we saw him becoming a target of rebukes and jokes that were only hurled due to his religion. We had many other roommates and some of them had no better understanding of Islam than any of the other young boys around them. Rather the central characters in the story were those who would often bunk the evening prayers which the college rule prescribed them to observe as part of the daily schedule.

When we used to go to the dining hall many would prefer not to sit next to him as there were some sly boys who would whisper that we should not be sitting next to a non-Muslim while eating. Often this was said by the same kids who would otherwise skip on the compulsory prayers. Interesting thing was that when the poor boy would not eat his share of butter in the breakfast and would offer it to any one, they would readily take that and eat it too. At that time eating butter from a non-muslim would not disturb their belief. As I look back and reason out with myself as to why the boys were doing all this, I presume it was a misguided  mischief of some naughty boys.

This state of affairs continued for a few weeks. Initially it was a minor irritation as many of the kids in my house did not participate in this campaign and would talk and play with the non-muslim as usual. But with the passage of time the campaign grew stronger and many of those boys started giving in to the propaganda where they would prefer not to talk to the boy.

Obviously this became difficult for the boy also as he faced increasing isolation. I believe the boy complained to his uncle; the House Master. I thought, like many other boys that now we would face the cane and the House Master would thrash the hell out of those who had been leading this mischief. But nothing of that sort happened. Rather the whole of my Dormitory was invited by the House Master to his house at a nice party. We all went and were treated with cookies and other snacks. The family of the House Master entertained us; his two sons sang and played the guitar which they played well. I thought as a kid that in the end he would at least say something about this "special treatment" to his nephew, but he said nothing.

We came back from the party and nobody talked about what we were feeling in our hearts. I am sure like myself, everyone would be feeling ashamed and touched at the same time. Ashamed of the ridiculous behavior which many of us have maintained towards the house master's nephew and touched at the care with which the house master has handled all of us. The result was instant and the negativity subsided. He could pass his time with relative ease.

But today after almost thirty years here I am remembering the lesson and the way it was conveyed. With the experience of life burdening me, now I see the actions of my House Master Mr. Fredrick Titus in a very different light.

Now I want to say that persecuting minorities on the basis of religion or ethnicity is very wrong. I further feel indebted to my Christian teacher who taught me the prefect Islamic lesson of humanity, love and tolerance through such an effective medium of care and love. He did not use his cane which he could have easily as the House Master but he left behind life long lasting impressions which the cane could never had.

He taught me how we need to use our position to correct something that is wrong.

I want to tell Mr. Titus that he was a great man and the time has made him even greater in our eyes.

But with this lesson of love and tolerance that I learnt from him, makes me speak loud about all minorities in the world that are persecuted on the basis of religion, cast or creed.

I am reminded of Rohingyas of Burma, Muslims of Assam and Gujrat and many more. But I do not want to give any license to the majority of my own country to kill, prosecute or harass the minorities . As I am no one to grant license or to revoke it but I can understand this thing for myself and make a promise to myself ; may be to my House Master also that I will be just, tolerant and caring towards those who are in a position of weakness in my presence due to their cast or creed.

Let me ask all of my friends , to remember the down trodden of their own communities in all the places where they are in a minority and then treat the minorities near them in the manner they feel just for their own kind.

While I promise in my heart to change, I feel some body smiling at me from the corners of the blue sky, just behind the silver lining of the clouds. Yes I recognize him and how can I forget my House Master Mr. Titus.






 Prep School- Lawrence College