Dateline January 20, 2015 I'm never really an early riser. PT was supposed to start today at 5:59 and 60 seconds. Before sleeping last night, I had set five alarms on my phone: 5:25, 5:30, 5:35, 5:40, 5:45. The funny thing is, I woke up naturally at quarter past five in the morning. Lying in bed, I began waiting for the moment when the phone alarm would ring. I knew I was awake; I knew I'd get up, because I had to get up, but I wasn't leaving the bed. I can't explain why. I neither got up completely nor fell back asleep. With drowsiness in my eyes and unseen dreams clinging to my face, I kept waiting. For what? I don't know that either. Remember the movie 'Tere Naam'? When the mad bell rang, everyone would gather in one place. The PATC runs on bells. Ding dong... ding dong ding... The clock struck half past five then. This arrangement was to wake us up. Everyone woke up, put on white tracksuits and white shoes and socks, and stood in the PT ground before six o'clock. What a wonderful sight it was! It felt like a flock of white cadets had gathered in the early morning like a gaggle of swans in that rose garden, chattering away. When everyone in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' gathers in white clothes, flailing their arms and legs while chatting merrily, that's exactly what our whole group looked like in this early morning light. The walk began on the 2.2-kilometer track. Passing in front of the auditorium, I saw the shrub-like trees had wrapped themselves in mist. A mysterious atmosphere seemed to beckon me there! Walking along, I noticed some cottage-like structures shaped like greenhouses. Climbing plants hung there. Below, some cane sofas were spread out. I felt a strong desire to play Kitaro at low volume and spend an afternoon lazily gazing at the water in large earthen pots where shadows of creeping vines danced, sipping thoughtlessly from a coffee mug. When the track ended, we came and sat on the tennis ground. There, Mr. Hazarika introduced us to the instructors. I saw they had all done their honors and masters from various public universities. Very cordial and friendly in their manner. When we all get together in PT dress, we feel like nothing but schoolboys; we even start behaving like children. For instance, just as children ask the next question without letting you finish speaking, we were doing the same with Hazarika sir today! Lucky that sir is such a good-natured person. Like the blind in Saramago's 'Blindness', we too have developed a common instinct. We are all people close to one another. All our madness is our personal treasure. We won't listen to anyone about this. PT ended at 7:10. We had to shower, have breakfast, and get to class by 8:25. On the way back to the room, that rose garden delayed me again as it does every day. Whatever name we call a rose, it remains a rose. But why call it by any other name? What wonderfully beautiful names they have! Each row of roses has name plates written below them. I naturally walk slowly when passing by the corridor. Today I see the dahlias have delayed me too! How many colored butterflies are flying around whimsically above them. I began to think, ah! Dahlias can be so beautiful too! When flowers bloom on plants that mother has planted, she smiles like a flower in her joy. How wonderful mother looks when she smiles! I remembered mother. Oh! I could have brought mother to this garden! I returned to the room at 7:25. Coming back, I thought, well, I have plenty of time. I can shower and leave around eight. It takes 3 minutes to get to the dining hall, 5 minutes to have breakfast, and then I can easily reach class on time. I've always been an eleventh-hour person my whole life; but my roommate is a very punctual person. He finishes tasks well before their time and asks me to do the same. Getting such a punctual roommate is truly a matter of luck. Having someone like that beside you saves you from many troubles. By half past seven, he was ready and said to me, "Brother, let's go." I said, "You go ahead, I'm coming." As he was leaving the room, he said, "Brother, if you keep doing this, you'll get into trouble someday." I laughed. After he left, I got ready, set off, finished breakfast, and reached class right on time.
Half past eight. The Rector came to take our class. The first session was about: What is Foundation Training, and why—on that topic. Sir is a highly experienced, learned man. Today too he held us spellbound. After the class, I realized how fortunate it is for juniors like us to hear the experiences of a Secretary. I believe many high-ranking government officials are far wiser than we imagine. I’m sharing some thoughts from today’s class in my own way:
# If you always keep the bad things you’ve witnessed in life at the forefront of your mind while trying to learn something good, then the good things won’t be able to influence you as much as you’d like them to.
# People don’t follow laws, they dislike rules. Yet, following laws makes people great—those who do follow them are the ones we remember most.
# CSP Officer Manzurul Karim topped the East Pakistan Board SSC examination in 1956 with record marks. The very next year, in 1957, this appeared as a translation question in the SSC exam: “Manzurul Karim topped the East Pakistan Board SSC examination in 1956.” What rare honor this is—how can someone who hasn’t experienced it understand? (When Sir gave this example, I was reminded of Jasimuddin’s poem ‘Kabor.’ While he was a first-year student at Calcutta University, his poem ‘Kabor’ was included in the matriculation syllabus. How many poets are blessed with such honor at such a young age?)
# Occasionally step out of your office and notice carefully whether any poor, helpless person is standing outside your door. Perhaps your peon hasn’t let them into your room, or they lack the courage to approach you. If they need your help, listen to what they have to say, try to help them. Even if someone calls you over-enthusiastic for this, let them. Once, a woman was crying and wailing loudly in front of my room. No one was allowing her to come to me. I called her into my room. Talking with her, I learned that her elder brother suffered from epilepsy. This morning, while pulling a rickshaw, he died in an accident. She needed 500 taka to take his body back to their village home. Just think—500 taka means nothing to you or me. If we asked for a loan, there are people who would lend us 5 lakh taka. But there are many poor, helpless people who don’t have anyone willing to lend them even this 500 taka. The people of our country are poor. Their needs are also modest. It’s not very difficult to satisfy them. Never waste an opportunity to make someone like this happy. The satisfaction you’ll get from it will keep you physically and mentally healthy.
# A person dies twice. Once when they retire. Twice when they actually die. Always respect retired people, help them. Once I helped a retired gentleman with some work from my own office. He remembered this. Later, when I needed the Secretary’s help for some work, when I mentioned this in conversation with him, he wrote something on a small piece of paper and handed it to me, saying, “Show this and speak with the Secretary.” I took this to the ministry. The Secretary was then busy in an urgent meeting with some foreign investors. I gave the paper to his PS and asked him to give it to the Secretary. Seeing it, he immediately left the meeting, came out, and made a phone call to get my work done right then. I later learned that the Secretary was that retired gentleman’s son-in-law.
# Always keep a cool head while working. When ill-natured people want to take unfair advantage from you, if they can’t get it, they’ll try to instigate you in various ways to extract bad behavior from you through tactics, and then use that very behavior as a weapon against you later. Once, a journalist angry with me called and said, “You’re a terrible person. You’re a monkey.” I thought, if I react now and behave badly with him, he might record it on the phone and later use it as a weapon against me. I said to him calmly, “Brother, you seem a bit angry right now, let’s talk later, okay?” Saying this, I hung up.
# Learn to lose in life. Some defeats are more honorable than victory. (I really love a dialogue from the movie ‘Baazigar’: “Kabhi kabhi kuch jeetne ke liye kuch haarna bhi padta hai…aur haar kar jeetne wale ko baazigar kehte hain…kya kehte hain???” Abdullah Abu Sayeed Sir also says, “If you want to win, don’t always go to win.” I have my own saying: “To fail successfully is an art.” To be victorious in life, losing the wrong battle at the right time is very important.)
# I had a boss who got third division in matriculation, third division in intermediate, and passed degree as referred. His mentality was extremely poor. I was a first-class graduate from Dhaka University; I used to teach at Rajshahi University. But I never got into any kind of conflict with him. I thought, his greatest qualification is that he joined the service before me. One must respect the boss. You can’t let him understand that you know and understand more than him. Don’t go to criticize your boss. An intelligent man never makes his boss furious.
# In the Malaysian Civil Service, it’s said that a civil servant has four main qualities: loyalty, faithfulness, honesty, professionalism. Notice, merit is not mentioned anywhere here. It’s the same in our country.
# When you get someone to do some work, you can expect better work from them than you could do yourself, but if they can’t do it that well, you can’t punish them. Not everyone can do everything. If you’re a manager and can’t understand who can do what, which work should be given to whom and how—that’s your failure. Let me tell you a story. A boy was very quiet by nature. He couldn’t mix with anyone. He hardly talked with his father-in-law. One day, informing the boy’s father about this matter, he said, “Brother-in-law, our son-in-law is good in all respects, but he doesn’t talk with me at all. That’s the problem.” The father scolded his son and told him to chat with his father-in-law. The next day the boy went to his father-in-law and tried to start a conversation… “Dad, are you married?”
# The other day I read a girl’s writing in the paper. She wrote, “Our understanding wasn’t working out properly, so we couldn’t stay together. But he’s a very good person. His mentality is also very good.” There’s much to learn from this girl’s generosity and morality. Be generous, people will respect you.
# When you buy 1 kg of jujube, give a few jujubes to the boy standing by the roadside who keeps staring at your packet of jujubes. Perhaps he can’t afford to buy them, but he wants to eat them. The satisfaction he gets after you give him those jujubes—from that you’ll earn the reward of Hajj or the merit of Gaya-Kashi. Try doing this, you’ll find peace of mind too.
Class ended. Another one would begin. During this time we go to freshen up in the washroom. At PATC we do everything standing in line—we even go to the washroom in a queue to “relieve ourselves.” Today the toilet tissue had run out in the washroom. Some were saying, “The tissue’s finished. Why didn’t they provide tissue? How will we manage?” Someone said, “Why, brother? Didn’t they give you a tie? Pull the tie down a bit and make do with it.” Ah! Bengalis are such a humorous people!
Then came the class of a distinguished-looking gentleman. He’s a Joint Secretary in the government. About 30-35 books by him have been published. He speaks quite amusingly. Let me share a couple in my own way:
# If anyone feels sleepy in my class, they can fall asleep. But there are two conditions. One: No snoring while sleeping. Two: While sleeping, you can’t fall on the person next to you and disturb their sleep.
# Don’t curse the British. Their laws are still in effect. We couldn’t even create new ones or amend them. Because their laws are still in force, for crimes that should fine you at least 50 thousand taka, you’re getting away with paying just 200 taka. They’re still saving us money. (Hearing this, I felt like laughing out loud like crazy!)
# My wife, I mean your dear sister-in-law, is a “highly productive” lady. She handles the children’s studies. My younger daughter is about three years younger than my son. Since she started studying at an early age, we had to add a year to her age during the matriculation exam. My over-intelligent wife cleverly added about two years instead of one. Later, calculating, we found that my daughter is two and a half months younger than my son. How is this possible! Fortunately, none of our acquaintances know about this. (Sir’s sense of humor is truly of a very high standard! His words reminded me of an incident. Once we went to Bandarban for a trip. While going to Nilachal, my friend’s wife told my younger brother, “It’s drizzling outside. Your camera doesn’t have a protector, mine does. Leave your camera at home. I’m taking the camera. Yours won’t be needed.” My brother, thinking something, still took his camera along. Later, when taking pictures at Nilachal, sister-in-law discovered she had forgotten to put batteries in her camera. I say, you have to listen to all of women’s wisdom, but you have to work with your own intelligence.)
Next came Bhupen Hazarika Sir. A class on Nutrition and Physical Fitness. Sir’s manner of speaking today was like Utpal Dutt in the movie ‘Dhanoraj Tamang.’ He spoke with the most peculiar gestures, moving his entire body as he talked. There was a distinct simplicity in his words; just watching him made you want to feel good. Let me share some of Sir’s words in my own way:
# Don’t make your children fat. Recent research shows that even if fat children become slim later, they eventually grow up to become fat fathers.
# Our childhood was very happy. Our mothers would check whether we had eaten lunch. After that, we’d roam around all day doing whatever we pleased, and our mothers had no headaches about it. We just had to be home before evening. Nothing more. Though sometimes they’d hold a cane in front of our eyes and say, “Go to sleep! Right now! Close your eyes, close your eyes!” That was it. (Humayun Ahmed’s childhood was somewhat like this too. My own childhood was spent this way as well. I used to roam around outside while mother stayed home absorbed in Uttam Kumar films.)
# Have you noticed how much your pace increases when you leave class and head toward the cafeteria? Among those of you who go to the canteen for rice lunch, there are two types of people:
One. They usually rush to the canteen very quickly. Upon entering, they’ll take extra rice on their plate, quickly check which piece of fish is bigger, take 3 spoonfuls of vegetables instead of 2 when no one’s looking; then they’ll see which table’s dal pot hasn’t been grabbed by anyone yet. They’ll sit there and take quite a bit of salad on their plate. They’ll take more of the thick part of the dal. They don’t chew their food—they swallow it. How the food tastes isn’t their concern. They have no complaints about the food; being able to eat is enough. They can gobble down lots of food. Their absorption capacity is very high. Such people are friendly and cheerful. If someone teases them, they don’t take it to heart. They can absorb teasing too.
Two. They come to the canteen at a leisurely pace. They check how the food smells, what color it is. They look for the same piece of fish they eat at home. When they don’t find it, they take any piece on their plate and sit down to eat. While eating, they check if the salt-chili-turmeric-spices are right, slowly mix the rice to understand the curry’s taste, chewing and chewing as they eat. They don’t swallow—they eat. They complain about the food.
# Try to eat moderately. If you feel like eating more, have puffed rice. Another thing—to prevent getting fat, take fewer helpings, don’t feel sad often, stay cheerful. People sometimes overeat from depression too.
After saying this much, the class timekeeper rang the bell. PATC runs on bells. The timekeeper’s job is to ring the bell 5 minutes before class ends to alert the teacher. After class ended, I went to the dining hall. On the way, I noticed that today was the first time in these 4 days that the sun had come out. I was stretching my hand to touch the sunlight, wiggling my fingers. Today I sat with the women at the dining table. I was eating with my head down while paying attention to what they were saying. The amusing things women can say! Most of their talk was about their husbands, children, stories of hanging clothes to dry, why the color doesn’t come out right when cooking recipes from newspapers, sari color matching, what so-and-so’s son-in-law is like… and many more things like this! Of course, they also talk about things we men discuss; but there are always some stereotypical feminine conversations!
I came to class at quarter past two. The Course Director Sir very hesitantly pointed out some of our minor faults in a dignified manner. Sir felt so embarrassed while telling us our mistakes that we ourselves felt ashamed. At that moment I remembered the line: “When the punisher weeps equally with the punished…” Sir speaks very little. What he says carries great weight. In the movie ‘Rambo,’ Sylvester Stallone gives only a few substantial dialogues, but each one strikes deep into your head. Sir’s words have similar weight. Next came the Course Coordinator Sir. He’s a BCS Admin officer from the 22nd batch. I haven’t seen many people who can speak in such a wonderful formal yet convincing way that keeps everyone mesmerized. His smartness and personality are striking. Sir came to set up our committees. Mess Committee, Cultural Committee, Souvenir Committee, Environment Committee, ICT Committee, Audit Committee. Committees were formed with great enthusiasm. Each committee got one President and one Member Secretary. The Mess Committee President is called PMC (President of the Mess Committee). The Mess Committee handles everything from market shopping to all dining-related responsibilities. Other students can write various complaints about food in the complaint book as an evaluation of the PMC’s work. The Course Coordinator Sir shared some funny experiences from previous batches’ mess committees. In the 55th batch (our batch is the 58th), some amusing comments came about food menu selection: “Why are there so many bones in the koi fish?” “Why are we being fed so much beef? Let the good cows graze in the fields!” Later it was discovered that committee members themselves were convincing others to write such things to scold the PMC. Why? Their complaint was that the PMC gave them less attention.
I’m also in a committee. That’s the no-committee. I mean, I’m not in any committee. Why? I’ve decided that during the 6 months of PATC training, I’ll do only 2 things. One: what absolutely must be done; like passing exams. Two: what I enjoy doing; like writing ‘PATC Diary’ daily (if I have time and feel like writing). Nothing else. My roommate is in the Environment Committee. Therefore, I have no worries about room cleanliness. Ah! One less task! Peace!
I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse. Okay? I want you to leave it all to me. Even thinking about our Course Advisor Sir’s speaking style reminds me of Don Corleone from The Godfather. Today, Course Advisor Sir came last to class. Sir came and discussed our various problems with us. Someone was talking about problems with his pillow. He has neck problems, so he needs a soft pillow. Sir suggested that if he has spondylitis problems, using the side pillow that 3-4 year old children sleep with under his neck might give him some relief. (I really wanted to ask, “But Sir, will the 3-4 year old child agree to give up their side pillow?” I couldn’t ask. Ah! How many mischievous impulses one has to swallow and digest!) One thing Sir said was incredibly good. “Whatever anyone else tells you, I’m saying, Enjoy your six-month stay here. Don’t ruin your days worrying about Rector Awards and getting into the top thirty to travel abroad. As long as you’re here, enjoy your time, try to learn something, learn to build your life.”
You have to clap a lot at PATC. Why? Because everyone else is doing it. But after hearing Sir’s words, I was unconsciously laughing heartily and clapping very loudly. Those were exactly my own thoughts. I didn’t come here to prove myself; I came here because this training is required for the job, a certificate is needed. I came here to change my perspective, to develop emotional intelligence about work and life. Nothing else. Hearing Sir’s words, my respect for him increased tremendously.
At 5 o’clock I went to sports. We were sitting like a herd of polar bears on the fog-covered field. Bhupen Hazarika Sir organized our sports teams. Everyone was divided into 8 teams, each named after rivers. The interesting thing was that the women’s teams were named after main rivers, like Padma, Meghna, Jamuna; and the men’s teams were named after tributaries and sub-rivers, like Karatoya, Kapotaksha, Payra, Tista. We were sitting in rows. As Sir called out names from the first row, when he said the name of the team before ours—’Gorai’—I quietly said, “Yes Sir, Goran.”