September 4, 2004

“Oh! again you are wasting your time on this useless task. How many times have I told you to invest this time in some other useful activity? You can’t be a social reformer, you can’t raise the rate of literacy by teaching only this Masi, dear,” Tariq said slightly irritably.

“God bestows blessing on those who impart knowledge, therefore, it’s not a useless task, bhai,” Shazia responded patiently.

Tariq was Shazia’s elder brother. Shazia was the student of class VI while Tariq was studying in class IX. Both of them were good students and paid serious attention to their studies. Whenever Shazia managed a free hour or two, she’d spend it teaching their maid’s daughter, Sakina, who helped her mother to carry out different household duties. Shazia, who was a very kind and gentle girl, had often seen that poor girl, Sakina sitting idly on the floor. Once she talked to her and came to know that the girl was interested in studying but being poor her parents couldn’t bear the expenses of school. This aspect of Sakina’s life distressed Shazia deeply.

She thought how unlucky those people were who were living in the darkness of illiteracy. We the literate can get knowledge and information not only through books but through different signals, sign boards, advertisements, etc. while the illiterate people just move across them as though they were blind. Keeping all of this in mind Shazia decided to teach the little ignorant girl, Sakina, and whenever she found some free hours she spent it teaching Sakina. Sakina, too, was an intelligent girl who easily understood what was taught to her.

Thus through Shazia’s effort the poor girl began to receive some education. Shazia’s parents always appreciated her gesture, but Tariq never appreciated her teaching the little girl, it seemed to him a fruitless task. Therefore he often persuaded her to enjoy her free hours in some playful activity instead of burdening herself with such a foolish activity which would not benefit her at all.

Once Shazia asked Tariq to show Sakina how to write the letter ‘S’ as she had got a call from her friend at that moment. But Tariq refused to do so by telling her that he couldn’t spare any time since he was going to play cricket. Thus, he never gave a moment to Sakina and always disapproved of Shazia teaching that girl.

One evening they were sitting in their lawn and chatting over different matters. Tariq started telling Shazia some incidents of his school but was interrupted again and again by Sakina, who was coming there to show Shazia the exercises that she was assigned. This irritated Tariq so badly that he once again started arguing over the matter, “Oh, Shazia! how many times have I told you to stop wasting your time teaching this girl. Your teaching would be totally useless as she will forget all her lessons as soon as she loses interest. She can’t learn anything, she is doing all of this for fun. You can’t make her a doctor, engineer or anything else.”

At this Shazia told him that she was doing all this not to make her some highly qualified person; it would be a great reward to her if the girl would at least be able to read and write. Then she brought a book and read out a poem:

Do all the good you can,

By all the ways you can

In all the ways you can

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can

To all the people you can

As long as you can.

— John Wesley

Moreover she also showed him a saying, i.e. “Goodness is the only investment that never fails” and told him that she believed firmly in this. To her, it was an act of goodness to teach a poor, helpless girl. But this long discussion annoyed Tariq who left the place instantly.

A few days after this incident, Tariq got a project. It was an assignment for which students had do a lot of research, for this they had to visit different libraries. They had been given the whole week for its preparation. Tariq started searching in different libraries but couldn’t get enough material and information regarding the project. He couldn’t get the books prescribed by his teachers as other students had already got them issued. He also consulted his IT teachers in this regard, but couldn’t draw out satisfactory answers.

He had got first position in the last project, so this time too he wanted to maintain his position. But this time his work was not of the same standard. Therefore, he was seriously worried as only two days were left. Although he found the prescribed books in a library near his house, he couldn’t borrow them as the library issued books only to the members.

At night he remembered that one of his friends, Imran was a regular member of that library and might be able to help him in this regard. He called Imran and told him his problem. Imran listened to his problem and promised to help him by borrowing those books. However, at that time Imran was in a great hurry as he had to go somewhere, therefore he couldn’t note down the names of those books. He assured Tariq that he would take the names of those books before going to the library the next day.

But due to sheer bad luck Tariq forgot to leave the names of the books at home and went away to attend his IT class in the evening. There he suddenly recalled that he had forgotten to leave the names of the books for Imran. He tried to call Imran but got to know that Imran had already left. Tariq then called home so that he could leave the names at home for Imran to collect. However, unfortunately no one except for Sakina and her mother were home. Tariq was in utter despair. It was Sunday the next day, the library would be closed and he was supposed to submit his project on Monday. Suddenly an idea struck Tariq — Shazia had said that Sakina knew how to read and write, may be she could note down the names and hand it over to Imran.

He called up once again, “Hello! Sakina can you note down some names if I dictate it to you,” he uttered hurriedly.

“Hmn! It depends, Tariq Bhai, I will try to write it,” said Sakina.

“All right, note down.” And then dictated the names slowly and asked her to hand over the information to his friend.

He was still doubtful whether she had written it correctly or not. All his doubts washed away in evening when Imran came to him with the books and gave him that piece of paper on which all the information was written correctly. “This means Sakina had written it correctly,” Tariq thought. And then he got busy with the books preparing his project work.

A week later when the result was announced Tariq once again held the number one position in his class. He was very happy as it was a matter of great honour for him. He thanked his friend Imran due to whose cooperation he got access to the reference books needed. Later on he went to that library with Imran to return those books and submitted his membership form as well.

However while passing through the reading section he found something inscribed on one of the cupboards. He went near that. For a little while he pondered over it and then seemed to be satisfied.

At home while chatting with his sister, Tariq gratefully acknowledged Sakina’s help of jotting down the names of the books successfully. “Though it seemed to be a matter of little importance, yet it has great value for me as it became the source of my success,” he said. “I can now realize that your investment was not useless, it’s beneficial for all of us,” Imran admitted whole heartedly.

He further said, “It is really an act of nobleness to impart knowledge. It is just like making a blind man see. This noble deed is just like an enlightening candle”. He also shared the quote that he had read at the library; it said: “As one lamp lights another, nor: grows less. So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.”

Having heard those lines Shazia too was deeply moved as those were the inviolable words of the great poet James Russell Lowell.

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