August of 1992 was when I first walked in to the premises of the Karachi Grammar School, a vast space and facade which provided me with a character building experience for 13 of the 26 years of my life. The red-brick walls, the freshly-painted sophisticated desks, the aroma of new books in a new classroom. I loved it!

The first day came with singing the anthem and the school song which became a ritual for years to come. It surely served a purpose, I always felt something, but at that point I guess none of us knew.

Lining up rigidly in the assembly line, patiently for at least 15 minutes with a daily ‘pin drop silence’ and a bagful to the ears through random speeches was all part of the discipline the school stood for.

The classrooms were made to invite all sorts of creative activity and of course, misbehavior too, but it was all a part of the entertainment and learning. It was the unique process of activity including the discipline that came with it which the school believed in. A music class every once in a while gave students the opportunity to explore sound through different instruments and cherish an hour of creativity. That the school has certainly produced some talented musicians, speaks for itself.

The school regularly gave us an hour of an extremely ingenious art class to be playful and constructive. I learned more about art mediums in school than I ever did in my whole life.

The time and effort that was put in by the administration and teachers to teach us the disciplines of cooking, clay-modeling, wood work and even stitching was what the school stood for. It created citizens who could provide solutions. It was the punishment that we got every time we were, late, untidy, or just wrong that made us understand the difference between good and bad, and right and wrong.

The school shaped one of the best sportsmen of today by literally forcing us into every sporting activity so they could channel energies into something constructive. And yes, the spirit that students had on the field, and then the perfection and precision with which an annual sports day was presented to hundreds of parents was an event to never miss.

The compulsion of every single student to be a performer for an annual play brought the whole school together for a challenge to deliver to the parents a night to remember.

It was this Karachi Grammar School that opened its doors to all of us and took us in for an experience worth remembering. We enjoyed every moment of it because it never failed to provide a sense of security and belonging. No one ever bothered with the world outside. If one was in school everything was fine. The building and the ground itself was so colossal amongst all other spaces in the area that it defiantly and fearlessly always stood strong in the face of any darkness. Never did anyone have to worry about any kind of pollution, or noise, or traffic outside, or suspicious people outside the walls of the school, or random activities happening beyond. It was literally just the school and you.

So now in 2010, out of the blue I hear there is a party out to obliterate everything that Karachi Grammar School ever stood for. This party has developed a word called ‘Noman Castello’ with the notion to develop a million rupee high rise towering the school with all that it is going to bring with itself during and after construction. How the school’s spirit will be lost is plain and simple and has already been put forward to the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) along with major protests. What is important is that society realises that it wasn’t the name and its high profile students, ex-students and parents that the school stood for and still stands today. It was the principles it believed in and held upright and enforced upon to produce the refined students who are the hope for a better tomorrow. It was and is, a space of experience and opportunity which should be safeguarded and not allowed to be ruined by a high rise that will overlook into the school’s premises.

Hasaan Haider is a Multimedia Content Producer at Dawn.com

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.