I have been wanting to write about my beloved alma mater since my last board exam....
COVER STORY
By Abdul Moiz Alizai
Fine educational institutions and picturesque landscape is what jumps to mind when one thinks of Abbottabad. And folks, we don’t have to remind you that Abbottabad produces valuable human resource for Us in terms of writers and artists that hail from this beautiful ‘City of Pines’. This week, Abdul Moiz Alizai shares his love for his alma mater, Abbottabad Public School with Us. Read on and feel free to write about the educational institutions you belong to, folks, that is, if you are as passionate about your school/college as Moiz is.
I have been wanting to write about my beloved alma mater since my last board exam. Leaving Abbottabad Public School was not easy; the memories still haunt me. A part of me did not want to let it go, and the other part realized the need to move forward. Then, there was the pressure of taking entrance tests! Needless to say that the preparations for the entry tests, and then joining university kept me very busy, too. All these things combined to stop me from penning down my ode to my alma mater for a while. Things were happening so fast I barely had the time to fathom the reality and plan how to react.
I will keep it simple. Six years is not a short time. It’s long, its demanding and above all: it’s impactful. Only if you spend six years of your teenage in a boarding school, would you know what it is like. Yeah, first it seems hard. Seventh grade is always hard. You feel bad, leaving behind your family and all. You miss your family, friends and home, but at the same time you start accepting the place as the new-normal. You make friends, you laugh together, you cry together and in short, become “Institutionalized”. And that’s exactly what happened to ‘Me’. To “Us”. It hard to explain, but you need to feel what it is like to live in a boarding school. For us, that was our world. Beyond the gates, there was nothing. And inside the gates, we were the bosses, and everyone family.
Students living in a boarding school have a different perspective of happiness and a different set of concerns. Those living outside the gates may never understand it. All-boys school is a different hell and a wonderful heaven. For a junior, being late for the call-out is the biggest worry.
That’s his hell. And the mere thought of biryani on Friday would make us joyous. We failed our exams just on purpose. We do every "juggar" out there just for-fun. We sleep at 1 AM in the morning and are up before fajr.
We can change our full uniform thrice in the time a normal student may just finish buttoning his shirt.
And then it all ended. We always knew that it was going to end and that soon we would all have to follow our own different paths. That we would play in the hands of life and tackle whatever Fate has to offer. But at APS, it was like a not-to-mention thing. We always knew, yet we never spoke about it. And then it happened, with a BOOM. After the physics paper, there we were, packing our bags for the last time, never to return again. We never wanted to go; I knew I did not have the will to do it, but there was something deep within me that told me I had to do it. That life moves on, and so must we. That there is so much more that life has to offer us and that it’s not yet over.
The coming months, I never knew, were going to be the hardest time I had in my life. Yeah, I agree preparing for the entrance exam, going through all the “paper ka darr” and “raaton ko der tak parhna” (pulling all-nighters) was tough but still I didn’t really have much time to get accustomed to my new life and fight the melancholy of having left everything … my life and every person who mattered to me then, and always would. But as soon I was free of exams, I missed being at APS. I missed being with my friends. I missed our teachers and I could not understand how I was going to live for the rest of my life. And the truth is, no Old Abbottonian ever does. It is said an Abbottonian asked another Old Abbottanian: “How do you manage to live on with the nostalgia still holding you back?” The Old Abbottanian replied, “It’s hard and we don’t know the answer, nobody does.”
The real struggle continued as I joined my dream medical college, and a part of me was happy and proud of this dream-come-true. The other part was afraid. Was shy. For I was trained differently. Different than the rest of them. “Character is destiny,” they told us. “You are second to none.” And I wondered how it would turn out. A new world. Was I going to fit in? Would I make friends as close to my heart as I previously had? What about girls? What about them? What is it like sitting in a class full of girls? What would it feel like to be in a hostel with no rules?
And now, almost comfortable with my peers, in a new college, with a bunch of new friends, I can tell you this: APS is the best thing that ever happened to me. Do I miss Aps? Definitely. Do I cry missing it? Never. What do I do then? Cherish the beautiful memories I made there.
To all my batch mates out there: keep smiling and keep visiting each other. I know we all have a special place in our hearts for each other. No matter how far we are, no matter how hard life gets, the mere thought of those golden days would be enough to cheer us up. Looking forward to a get-together, to bring all the beautiful moments back to life someday.
To my seniors: thanks for being there. Getting up early morning for PT seemed hard, but how else would we have disciplined up? Your ‘hangers’ seemed rude but now as we look back, we miss them, really.
Wondering what ‘hanger’ means, readers? Well, the story behind hangers is really an interesting one. This is a trend, a legacy that has been in practice since forever, in all the cadet colleges and old English Public schools. A senior house prefect (A boy from 2nd Year) is allowed to "Charge Hangers" (Beat with hangers while the student is in bent-down position) to the juniors if the junior is found violating any rules of the house like show-up late in the fall-in or be late for any activity.
Though, for the outsiders, if probably seems awkward but, believe me, it’s a pretty normal thing in cadet schools. We hate them as juniors, but we realize its importance pretty soon. And, to maintain discipline and carry on the legacy, we ‘Charge Hangers’ when we become prefects!
To my juniors: enjoy all you can. Make your days count. Last but not the least, my dear teachers: you are awesome. The beacon of your light shines through us and would continue to grow for a long time to come. Thanks for everything.
Long live APS!
Abbottabad Public School is a prestigious institute located in the heart of the city of pines, Abbottabad. This alluring piece of 55 acres of land was initially chosen by National Education Commission, in 1958, to stress the importance of establishing boarding schools. It was initially named "Pakistan Railways Public School". Later, Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan changed the name to Abbottabad Public School. Admission is granted to students from Pakistan and abroad in 7th grade, on pure merit basis. Along with curricular activities, school gives great emphasis to co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. The school has been turning out graduates that have done the country proud, notable among these are Ex-PM Shaukat Aziz, Caretaker prime minister, and judge, Justice Nasirul Mulk and the Chief Secretary KP, Shehzad Arbab.
