There are two Pakistans?
The experience of visiting Harsukh School and meeting the students studying there
Their eyes spoke a language that was alien to me! The dilated pupils showed hope, even in the worst of circumstances, courage even though life was not fair, and patriotism despite questions about what Pakistan gave them in the first place. Their eyes gleamed a ray of optimism that we fail to fathom with the restricted vision we have. THEY ARE THE REAL FUTURE OF PAKISTAN
We had prepared for this ‘expedition’ for days. Everything was meant to be fairly straightforward with no potential obstacles as our plan was meant to be full-proof. All we had to do was go, meet some kids, teach them whatever we had planned for according to the lesson plans we made and it would be our golden ticket to claim that even we ‘volunteered’ for social work. If I am to be brutally honest, I was not entirely convinced with the idea that we go ourselves just to teach some kids as I thought there are easier ways of being more useful to society in general rather than going to teach on a Friday morning, that too for a school that is almost thirty-odd minutes away from our university. Nevertheless, with a leap of faith, I decided to sacrifice my precious holiday 10-hour sleep and got dressed for visiting Harsukh School located at Bedian Road.
The gigantic gate, welcoming our delegation instantly reminded me of a Mughal-inspired structure that I came across during my visit to Delhi some years ago. Once entered, the building no way looked like a school but was rather an architectural masterpiece! An artist must have created the extravagant structure for some local landlord or maybe government officer, yet now it was a roof for numerous students who came to acquire quality education.
After meeting Mr.Sohaib, one of the many energetic fellows managing the school, I was informed that a combination of classes 6 and 7 was waiting for my friend Mashal Abbas and me. As we entered the classroom, we got to see almost a dozen young kids who were eager to greet the strangers coming inside their classroom to teach them. They greeted us energetically and made us feel welcome! Their response uplifted our energy and attitude towards the lecture we had to deliver, and we were ever so determined to make sure the kids do not regret listening to some students from LUMS teach them something that is not up to the standards they may have had in mind.
Our lesson did not begin in the manner we had hoped for with us struggling to not only control the class but also failing to decipher how to speak some of the common English terms in Urdu. Yes, this is super embarrassing, but this was a major dilemma as teaching global geography became very difficult. Nevertheless, with the help of google translate and praying that the kids understand what we were saying, we got through our first lecture. The classroom depicted immense enthusiasm in answering all of the questions we asked and also depicted skills of teamwork when we divided the class for group work. After that, we firmly believe in the concept of learning things even outside the classroom, and on the insistence of the students, we agreed to play cricket. However, upon deciding the teams, all of the boys in the class grouped and refused to add the girls to their team. We don’t blame them but gender stereotyping is a prevailing issue and we decided that it is the perfect time to show them that the boys were wrong. Therefore, all the girls in the class were teamed up with us teachers against the boys.
To be fair, in terms of talent, the opposing team outweighed ours when it came to talent and skills, however, they lacked the one thing that is necessary to win a team sport. They lacked teamwork and were playing selfishly! Our team, on the other hand, played as a team with everyone willing to let the other perform and coordinate their play. As expected, our team won and that provided us with an opportunity to enlighten them about the key points they lacked that prevented them from easily winning the cricket match. Upon pondering over the results of the match, the class realized the importance of teamwork, putting the team ahead of your personal wishes, coordination, and how bad gender stereotyping is! Important to mention, that the next time we visited, the same team, won against our team as they masked all of their weaknesses with the advice we gave them a week ago. Their star batter was one of their teachers! She single-handedly smashed the most runs, and the kids acknowledged how they were wrong the last time they played against us.
We visited them once again, and this time, we decided that the class should be involved in dramatics and acting to further build upon their confidence. We assumed that they might struggle with this venture, yet they showed us once again how wrong we were. Surprisingly, every time they proved me wrong, a strange smile came across my face as my belief in their bright future only strengthened! Their acting, in a play based on “bullying”, was one to watch! They were meant to show that a group of bullies made life difficult for innocent bystanders and how they were confronted by other people on their bad behavior. The students were even more enthusiastic than us as they were the ones who not only created the whole script but also improvised on their acts and only made them better! We later got the opportunity to perform in front of an audience, and their performance made us super proud. Some of the kids were natural actors, and their voice modulation and confidence made me think that maybe I should take lessons from them for acting myself. I mean, even I do not possess that much confidence and have slight stage-fright.
“Teaching was something I always wanted to do. The Harsukh trips were something I was excited about because it was one of the few practical activities that I did in undergrad.
Going to Harsukh Friday morning was therapy. I think I learned more from the children than they did from me. They were bright and full of life and they didn't let their situation dictate their life. It just kept reminding me of how we have everything they want and yet we don't have the happiness and hope they possess in life. It'll definitely be one of my fondest memories of LUMS”
-Mashal Abbas
The name Harsukh meaning “every blessing”, is truly a blessing for those who know about its existence. I always used to wonder that what retired Justices of Pakistan end up doing and having first-hand experience of the venture of former Chief Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, I can say that the school is nothing but mesmerizing. Under-privileged families send their children to this school, only to be provided with excellent education across various fields. The beauty of this school, in my opinion, lies in the concept of outdoor learning which is rare for mainstream schools in Pakistan. I was a student at TNS Beaconhouse and loved the idea of having music classes, dance practices, and special sports activities but was disappointed when I transferred to LGS, only to find out that the only time you leave class is for a once-a-week Sports period. We got an opportunity to meet students of class 9 as well and they told us about their various activities that astonished me! They even had the opportunity of performing at Al-Hamra? I haven’t even visited that place yet? They showed us a glimpse of what they had performed and that was just amazing.
One takeaway from our visits there was the way some of the kids described Pakistan. “Aik Ameer ka Pakistan hay aur aik ghareeb ka” (there’s one Pakistan for the rich and one for the Poora) exclaimed several students. If you think about it, their statement is not wrong in any way at all. Their argument is a fair reflection of the situation at hand. The gap between the rich and the poor only tends to increase globally and the struggles of these two different categories are completely opposite to the other. Only if we are able to bring these two categories together, bridging the gap, can we grow towards a better world, let alone Pakistan! The school, almost ten minutes away from one of the most expensive residential areas of Pakistan, was making an effort of removing the barriers between the “two Pakistans”. However, it is important to realize that one mere school is insufficient to bridge the gap between the two. While it is good if you take out time to donate for charity, we should all try to aim for higher targets! We should aim for first-hand experience of interacting with various people and then deciding what should follow. I learned a lot of new things that I was not aware of by simply going to teach a class for two hours. I fondly remember how after the Semi-Final exit of Pakistan against Australia, I was super sad and dejected yet the kids provided me with hope as one of them stood up and said, “It doesn’t matter if we didn’t win today. I will grow up, play with Babar Azam and win it for Pakistan”. Although there are quite a lot of barriers between Hassan ending up in the Pakistan cricket team, the sheer enthusiasm, patriotism, and optimism, even when things were not so bright made me learn not to be sad.
It was unfortunate that the Lahori smog restricted me to bed, which halted my visits to Harsukh. If you are in Lahore and want to make a difference, go and visit Harsukh! Trust me, it would be a trip you would not forget.
