Its always a tough task to write about oneself. I really on the horns of dilemma but I had to add this page to my website on many special requests by my friends. To start with, I would go back to the early days of my childhood, when I was not even a school boy.

My traditional education started at home, a combination of both traditional and religious trainings. My first teacher in my religious training was my Father, and in traditional schooling, my uncle. I remember the day when I finished the first book of my life, the alphabetical understanding of Urdu - called Qaida. I was triumphantly jumping, dancing and screaming - I had started a long journey which has not ended so far and probably would never end. My Uncle was happy at my achievement as I was able to finish the lessons of first book in amazingly short time. He told people at home that I was brilliant in studies and that made me open up my chest with pride. He still remembers that he was the one to teach me my first lessons of traditional schooling.

Before I started school properly, I used to go to school with my elder brothers and sisters. I remember that I went to their classes for more than two years. Therefore, going to school had become my habit and when I went to my own class (class one) for the first time, I did not cry unlike other children. I was first admitted to an English Medium school which was the first English Medium school of my city. Later on, my father decided to put me in Government school like my other brothers and sisters. I remember few incidents of that English Medium school where I studied less than two months. Once I was feeling headache, so my class teacher took me upstairs and I slept in the office of School Head Mistress. After school time, when my brothers and sisters were not able to find me in school, they informed my father that I was not there. My father ran over to school and after search of several hours, he found me sleeping in upper storey of our school. I remember that I used to wear a uniform with red and white checkboard shirt and grey knickers. At this time, my age was merely under three years. After this, my father decided that I was too young to attend my own classes. I started going to my eldest brother's class who was studying in class five at that time. I went to his class for complete one year after which my eldest brother left the primary school and went to high school. I remained in the same school where my immediate elder brother was also studying. We both would go to school together, play together, and do everything together. We lived in the same room, wore similar clothes, bought similar toys, and made common friends. In fact, all of his friends became mine but reverse was never true.

He left my school when he passed his grade-5. I spent one year in the same school and joined him in Govt. High School (Pakpattan) the following year. Now we were riding bi-cycle he was the one to do the job. I was starting to seriously focus on my studies although I found it difficult to grapple with maths. When me and my brother - Badar - were in grade 7 and 8 respectively, my dad became keen to send us to an Army Cadet school. During those days, it was a craze in our society to send the kids to Army Cadet Colleges. He made us study hard, gave us tuitions, arranged an expensive tutor for us, and did everything he could so that we could prepare well for those entry exams. I guess we worked hard and did things that grade-9 boys would do. We went for exams of Cadet Colleges but could not succeed for either of it. My dad was obviously disappointed but he kept encouraging us. I now have quite a lot of friends who graduated from those Army colleges we had once aspired to enroll in. However, I still do not know until today how people get into those cadet schools and why those cadet schools are superior in the first place. My friends who graduated from those colleges are just normal human being. Not many of them outperformed in Engineering University. Only later when I was in the university and became friends with many folks who studied in those cadet schools, I realized that it was the best thing that happened to us that we did not make to those schools. Well, I remember when our father would teach us with a little bit of scolding. He would teach us some complex engineering formulas which would not have a chance to be useful for the exam. He would also go to lengths to make us memorize the algebraic equations, geometrical diagrams, etc etc. It was very nice that he put so much effort to send his kids to army, despite the very fact that he himself used to be terribly busy with business. In grade 8, I used to memorize essays from the books of my elder sister who had just finished her Higher Secondary School.

Though I could not get to the army school, I learnt a great deal from this whole preparation. My grades in school soared. I started working hard and my teachers recognized a significant change in me. I attracted their attention and quickly earned a repute for being a studious and

Time slowly passed by when I found that I was in grade-8 and was selected for Board Examination. I was among the few in the selected boys of my school who were asked to sit in the Board Exam instead of just going through the normal school exam. If I correctly remember, this was a time when I started paying a serious attention to my studies. My sister 'Nahid' was the one to help me with things I was not very good at. She taught me some techniques about working hard and studying well. I worked hard for Grade-8 exams and managed to secure good marks, though not among the top 3.

[To be continued]