Soumya profiles Amir, a brat, a cause of worry to his father, Khan Sahib. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Khan Sahib was a happy man. At the fag end of his career, he was posted to his hometown where he was a noticeably big man and lived in his large colonial-style bungalow.

All his older sons were well settled, daughters married, and he was looking forward to a well-earned retirement with a terrific pension and handsome bank balance.

The only worry was his youngest son, Amir, still in school and a perfect brat.  

He was studying in the best school and had private tutoring at home, as well as a maulvi, who taught him his roots, Arabic, Urdu, and the Koran.

Indifferent Student

But Amir was an indifferent student and an abominable unbeliever, not interested in his culture at all.

On his way to work, Khan Sahib passed a school every day and saw a pundit teaching maths with great dedication. Impressed, he hired punditji to teach maths to Amir.

Poor Amir, on returning from school, had to face the maulvi and the pundit, while his friends were out playing. This put him off religion for good and he hated Arabic with passion.

With the pundit, there was a worse problem. The teacher had halitosis. It was torture for poor Amir.

But his fertile brain found a solution. He got a table fan and placed it facing the teacher and put it on full blast.

A Luxury

The teacher was really moved. He did not have electricity at home and the fan was a luxury he enjoyed at the student’s house. When his solicitous student let him enjoy the full benefits, he was touched.

When at month-end, he met Amir’s father to give his students progress reports he declared, “Your son is an ideal student. He revered his teacher. Such a student will go far in life as they are people of character.”

An incredibly pleased and surprised Khan sahib was relieved that his prodigal son had turned a new leaf.

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Soumya Mukherjee

Soumya Mukherjee is an alumnus of St Stephens College and Delhi School of Economics. He earns his daily bread by working for a PSU Insurance company, and lectures for peanuts. His other passions, family, friends, films, travel, food, trekking, wildlife, music, theater, and occasionally, writing. He has been published in many national newspapers of repute. He has published his first novel, Memories, a novella, hopefully, the first of his many books. He blogs as well.

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