The professor repeatedly informed the cop of his profession, but that only confirmed the policeman’s assumption that he had picked up an easy prey
Professor Sahab was visibly shaken. He hardly spoke for a week after the nightmarish encounter. His integrity and honour had been unquestioned by all and sundry. The suddenness of being pointlessly roughed up by the denizens of law at a police checkpoint, and then the ironic process of redemption through the arbitration and recommendation of a wayward youth, who happened to be his student, shook him to a state of semi-muteness.
That was a bit too disturbing for him because he never thought that a time would come and that, too, in his lifetime when a teacher who teaches his students to be law-abiding citizens would require the help of one of his students who had no respect for the law, because of his connections. To him, teachers giving recommendation letters and character certificates to their students were an acceptable practice. But the realization that things could go the other way round upset him terribly.
He was the epitome of decency and good citizenship. Five and twenty years of uncompromising dedication to his chosen profession — teaching — had earned him the respect of the most cynical and wayward of youths, who had the good fortune to call themselves his students. The much-berated and maligned students of his college, who had neither much regard for rules, order or authority, deliberately steered clear of annoying him, for even such had that shred of common decency to recognize honour and dignity, and give it due respect.
Professor Sahab commanded neither muscle power nor financial clout, or access to men in the corridors of power. The respect he enjoyed was attributed entirely to his famous abilities as a teacher and his old-fashioned sense of morality.
Coming back from a friend’s place late at night, he was stopped at a police checkpoint. The whole episode was a nightmare from the word go. The first shock was the police officer’s demeanour as he approached him. He walked up to him with an amused and somewhat lazy gait, as if he had laid a smart trap for a very slippery crook.
The cop did not question his innocence; his guilt was a forgone conclusion. First, his papers were scrutinized and then a brief account of his business so late in the night was demanded, in a tone loaded with suspicion. Soon, he found himself being frisked to the side of the road and roughly body searched. His car was, meanwhile, intently searched, as if it was a truck carrying contraband goods.
The professor repeatedly informed the cop that he was a teacher at the local university, in the belief that this information would clear up any misunderstanding. But instead, this piece of information worsened the cop’s attitude, as it confirmed his assumption that he had picked a defenceless man and as such could go after him with impunity.
While Professor Sahab was in a fix, a big, flashy car suddenly screeched to a stop. A young man with a ponytail and an earring on the left ear alighted from the car and swaggered up to the cop with remarkable nonchalance. The young man condescendingly draped his arm around the policeman’s neck and whispered something into his ear — probably informing him whose son he was. The cop was visibly impressed and when the rakishly clad lad returned to where the professor stood, he announced in a voice loud enough for all to hear, that he knew Professor Sahab and could vouch for his character.
The young man’s casual recommendation in favour of the professor’s character was as weighty with the cop as an honourable judge’s solemn verdict. The professor’s papers were found to be in order and returned to him. Without further ado, he was granted permission to go.
The young man, in response to the professor’s profusion of words declaring his thanks and lifelong gratitude, revealed that he was one of his students. As they parted ways, the youth dropped a card into the shirt pocket of the professor, saying that if he ever got into a tight corner, he should telephone him.
The most disturbing aspect of the incident is that life for the professor has been losing the appeal and charm of the days of yore, albeit the satisfaction he derives from teaching his students and the respect he receives in return still persuades him to slog on. But something inside him is still pressing him to leave this profession, as it has lost its respect.
