My dear readers you might have noted how the State System worked with marvelous speed and efficiency. The only means of communication was telephone. There were some 80 plus forts in the State, all of these connected to the capital by telephone. I left home early to run away from Saidu. My family thought I might be in School. My elder brother was told about my absence. He went to my father’s office and informed him. So my father, on impulse calls fort at Kota to search me in my Uncle house and send me back immediately. So the sepoy could trace me as our family was known in that area. So, I request the readers to take notice of the socio-economic and governance of that period also into consideration. It also signify the force of law of the State.
We had coeducation almost from the very start of Shagai School. It might have been since long because when I joined school in 1950 probably, we had grown up girls in upper classes. But no one ever thought it awkward or unusual.
Sex was a taboo. I never heard someone talk about sex until I was deprived of my brother’s company. He was adjusted in A section of class 8th and I was sent to class B. Then I heard strange phrases about human body. Even there was no incident of sexual assault until a boy from Saidu was found kissing a girl behind the School. In order not to scandalize the matter, the boy was sent to Mingora High School at Banr, Mingora.
Then the issue of a separate institution for girls was needed and a great, splendid and modern school for girls was constructed in Saidu near Central Hospital with boarding facilities on two floor and many residential quarters for female staff.
Sodomy was commonly mentioned when boys quarreled with each other but not beyond this. We used to swim in the Saidu Khwarh ,totally naked but never felt shy or devilish, with no negative feelings at all. Purity of soul and body still remained, especially in our circle of boys living in Afsar Abad.
Leaving my brother in section A, i am going to remember some very hard days of our life. Now we had four brothers in School.
My father was running the house in a state called from hand to mouth. Wali Sahib still kept my father’s times refusal the offer of Tehsildarship. So he was denied further promotion. His colleagues became Subedar Majors, like Delaram Khan of Ghalegai, Bakht Biland of Saidu, Ali Haidar of Matta etc.
To Be Continued…
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