We, as sophomores, had recently
passed the examinations, and I had reasons for worrying about my achievements. The
most difficult subject for me was the Principles of History, taught by Prof. Farooq
Etemadi. I had no doubt I would have failed in that subject. I had not understood
anything during several sessions from his lectures.
But why couldn’t I understand his
lessons? Prof. Etemadi was one the best and most famous professors in the
University of Kabul. There were, at least two main reasons I could not fallow
what he was teaching: first, he had a special pure Persian dialect of Kabul,
while I had recently come from the far most western province of Herat. Even though
I had friends and classmates, from Kabul, in high school, the Professor he was
delivering lecture in a quite different dialect. Moreover, he was speaking too
fast. I was begrudging some of my classmates who took notes quickly and had not
problem of understanding. I could not
take notes because I had nothing in mind to take notes.
So when I was told that Prof.
Etemadi wanted to see me in his office, I was really appalled. I had no doubt
of his remorse, blaming and ironies that how could I have been a first degree
graduate with such illiteracy. Even I thought of leaving the university and
going back to Herat, but Kabul was not a place to be left easily. Then, as we
say in Farsi, I told myself: let be what it may be! So I walked toward the
Professors office. Dr. Etemadi welcomed me open-face smiling. Still I thought
he was ridiculing me, but he offered a chair for me to set and thanked that I
had written a good paper. He added that only another student, Atamorad Oimaq,
had written a better paper. But he also added with a meaningful smile that albeit
I had not written according to his teaching, but he is content with my paper. To
be honest, when I sat at the examination table, I wrote what I knew, but not
what the professor had taught in the class, because as I mentioned before, I
could not understand his lectures. All I wrote, and the Professor had liked it,
was the product of my childhood readings, from available journals and papers,
in Herat.
My purpose in writing these words is to throw
light on the educational situation of some children and youth in Herat, half
century ago. In our relevant families as well as similar communities, youngsters
and children who could read were fond of reading and tried always to get or
borrow new readable materials, like newspapers, journals and books. We, a few
number of children in a complex of old and attached houses, started our reading
with the books we could find on the niches and shelves in empty rooms, which
seemed almost abandoned. It’s worth mentioning that prior to governmental
school most of us had attended privet learning sessions, held in mosques and
homes. So before entering governmental elementary schools, most of us could
read books and magazines. One of the
most popular books on those days was One thousand and one nights, that we
called it Alif Laila, derived from Alf, means thousand and Leil, means night. The
book was a collection of lovely stories told by Shahrzad the queen of a cruel
king who had killed his previous consorts after hearing their stories, Shahrzad
had managed never to put an end to her stories, thus we always prayed for
Shahrzad not to be killed. Another popular romance was Amir Arsalan, and
adventurer champion, whose beloved darling was named Farrokh laqa and we still
remember the names of many heroes and heroines, mentioned in that romance. A few other romances also were available in
most homes. But the problem was that our elders believed that those ones and
likewise book should not be read because they would bring adversity and
disaster to readers. So we had to read those books far from other’s eyes.
First complete journals we read were
two almanacs, printed and published around 1933 AD, in Kabul and Tehran. Regarding
the printing techniques, as well as informative and educative contents, Kabul
Almanac – Saalnaama ye Kabul - during those few years, seemed a unique pattern,
not only in Kabul, but also in the region. In addition to the world news, the
Almanac had different long chapters on history, geography, science, art, and entertainment.
It had also a beautiful and attractive calendar of the year. Its photos in
relevant chapters were not only informative but also beautiful and artistic,
which could be framed for hanging on the walls. There in the almanc, were many
calligraphic art pieces which still are being regarded as unique samples.
Unfortunately that was the culmination point for the Almanac of Kabul, and it
traversed a declining route for decades without an improvement. Iranian Pars Almanac – Saalnaama ye Pars –
was not as attractive to us as the first mentioned was, but it had educative
and instructive subjects for us who were thirsty for more information. I
remember that for the first time, in that almanac, I saw, and uselessly tried
to know the music notation. I also remember in this almanac, which also was
published around the year 1933 AD, there was some tricks printed inside the
calendar chapter which were very interesting for us, and we tried to implement
those tricks practically; for example, how to thrust an egg into a bottle by
soaking it in vinegar, or how to make a magnifier with a small hole in a paper
and dripping a drop of water on that little hole. Moreover, in some relevant
families, there were bunches of bound magazines and journals from past years,
which we could borrow and read. In
addition to these occasional readings, the youngsters of a few families had the
opportunity of a regular reading and having almost an up-to-date knowledge of
the news about the region and world. Some of those families had subscribed one
or two magazines or journals, which were available to all literate members of
the families and relatives. In these magazines everybody had his or her own
particular topics to read. Someone liked news while some other wanted to read
serial stories, which would continue to several coming issues. Some liked
cartoons and humors while some others read only the page of poetries and other
literary works. All these journals and magazines came from Iran. There were two
main centres that distributed Iranian journals and magazines: one was Omeedwar bookshop and other was an
intellectual gentleman called Mr. Nojoomi. Both would borrow the publications to
acquaintances, who could not subscribe them. So a great numbers of readers
could have them without subscription.
Herat had one newspaper, named Ittefaq
e Islam, and a monthly or quarterly journal named Majalla ye adabee ye Herat
(Literary journal of Herat). From Kabul seldom came a journal to an occasional
subscriber. Of course, when we were studying in high school, encouraging by the
school’s office, we would subscribe a journal published by Afghanistan Radio,
under the name of Pashtoon zhagh that means the voice of Pashtoons or the voice
of Afghans. During last years in high school, I was fortunate to have many
important literary and artistic journal, which I borrowed from my dear teacher,
famous letterman and historian of Herat, late Ustad Fekri Saljooqi.
I
wrote these words for youngsters who don’t read Farsi materials, to throw light
on our childhood reading in Herat in half a century ago, that helped us make
more progress in Kabul during the university years. Of course in Farsi version on me pages one can
find more details
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