The Sutlej, 1959
Grub Street, Narrenhaeuser.
22nd June, 1959.
Dearest Teufelsdroeckh,
Many congratulations on your failure in M. A. examination. You have done the next best thing to passing in the third division, though, by universal consent, that would have been most ideal thing, that you or your forebears (myself not excluded) could ever hope to do. I am particularly glad over your (what some cynics might call) negative achievement, that you have successfully avoided a first or a second class. A first or a second class would have undoubtedly landed you into the odious necessity of realizing your limitations, and you have ended up as a retailer, or, if luck favored you, (as it is reputed to do in the case of a particular type of homo-sapiens) as a wholesaler in the mart of intellectual swindling. I am glad you have escaped that disreputed contingency. Now you have endless vistas of opportunities open to you.
There is, you remember, a saying about a dog and his day, and yours, I am sure has at long last dawned. I violently disagree with the somber picture that you have drawn of your future. Actually, there is no future, it is something that is still unborn and is only for fools: the past is irretrievably dead and charms only the effete the present alone matters for the virile. Take care of your present and the future will take care of itself. Do not forget, my son, the elemental laws of life in nature and show thereby the inferiority of your stock, for the fruit, says Biology, inherits the qualities of the stem it springs from.
You have, therefore, in all your actions not only to build up your own reputation, but also safeguard whatever of that commodity is left to me. You must be accused of sheer sentimentality, when you say in your last letter that you ‘honestly’ feel all avenues of success barred to you. I must bemoan such puerility and begin to have a feeling of my own worthlessness in being your sire. You have, I must confess to my discomfiture, improved upon my own unimaginativeness in expressing gloomy forebodings of a darksome brain. In feeling as you do, you are not honest, you are only stupid. Banish from your thinking, my promising son, all traits of a bourgeois mentality and do not get stuck up in the mire of senseless honesty and creaking conscience. Be progressive, be modern, swim with the tide, revise your Biology for the laws of survival, and you will make a name for yourself in the contemporary annals of your blessed motherland, though the quality of the name I hesitate to vouchsafe. But I assure you, you will be in good and respectable company.
Whereas you have at long last done the right thing in failing in the M. A. examination, and given me great hope about you, I find it difficult to free myself from bitter regrets over some of your earliest lapses. I wish the light that dawned on you in that blessed examination hall of Dummheitskammer had revealed itself on earliest occasions.
What on earth would you ever do with your merit scholarships or even your first divisions in the earlier examinations. Where had your wits deserted you then? Why did you elect then to shun the great galaxy of successful worldly-wise men in India and ply your lonely furrow, though only to realize more desperately your need to fall in line with the current code of morality and success? Well, better late than never.
This new cade, my son, is on trial in India. The world is watching with animation and suspended breath the working of many things in India, for instance we are told we are the greatest democracy on the globe, though, I have been told no good authority, astute observes have sensed a doubtful strain in this complement. A German writer has used the expression ‘The Indian Miracle’ to denote what we are alleged to have achieved since the Independence.
But greater than all this is the new code of morality and success, that we are successfully trying in India, and it is, my son, the bounden duty of all true sons of the soil, from Kashmir to Cape Comorin, from Saurashtra to Shillong, to see this code through. It is our distinctive contribution to world pragmatism, native to our genius, wherein our soul has rediscovered itself. Nothing equal or similar was wrought even in our greatest ages. Many of us have shamefully failed to answer, through sheer rigidity, (which is the sign of death) the crisis of the moment. We have been found lacking in flexibility and adjustment and are becoming discordant notes in a crescendo. The law of life will soon obliterate these di-harmonies.
But we shall not be sorry, for we will hereby have contributed to the unopposed success of this great adventure here in India. You must not fail where we have fallen. The success of this code will have far-reaching effects and consequences in many fields all the world over. In the field of literature and lexicography, for instance, revised for alternative definitions of words and ideas like morality ethics, conscience, principle etc. shall have to be devised, or the nations of the world shall have to lose our company, which through sheer self-interest they can just not afford to do, for, where else will they find a competent keeper of their conscience?
It is an exhilarating thing this new code of morality and success, and your natural curiosity about the full details and implications of this great idea I shall try to satisfy in my next letter. I await for the benefit of the two other young hopefuls in the family the full details of the preparations which led to the desired result in the M. A. examination. Or if you could arrange an official tour to this place in order to visit us, we shall be able to get the whole thing ‘from the horse’s mouth’. A truck carrying some gift furniture for the newly built bungalow of a V. I. P.’s bailiff had one of its tyres punctured while passing through Narrenhaeusar. Could you not make an ‘on the spot’ enquiry of the grave occurrence, an occasion for visiting us ?
Your mother sends you her fond wishes.
Yours affectionately,
‘Demogorgon,
—M C Sharma
——
Professor M C Sharma has been a very popular teacher in his times at Government College, Ludhiana ( Now Satish Chander Dhawan Govt. College, Ludhiana ) .
( Here is a extract from a book on him from a book titled :
Professor MC Sharma and his Hundred Glorious Years by The author, Mrs Sangeeta Sharma )
” Education, multilinguist, simplicity and saintliness are an ideal combo for a peaceful and contented life in today’s fast paced life. Though it seems so simple and easy on the face of it, getting all these three virtues in one individual is rare though not impossible. Multani Chand Sharma was Godly blessed with all these virtues to lead a happy, healthy and satisfied life for 4 months short of 100 years.
Prof. Sharma started his educational career with initial postings in what is now Pakistan before he moved to Government College, Ludhiana for an eventful innings teaching English and German languages.
A dedicated educationist, widely regarded for his life’s principal of Work is Worship and an epitome of simplicity, honesty and integrity, Multani Chand was an exemplary personality widely regarded and respected in Ludhiana, whole of Punjab and Chandigarh for his contribution to education, initially for English and later on for development of two prominent foreign languages, German and French in the industrial town of Ludhiana.
It was a rare feet to see him walking thru the streets of Ludhiana at times when his students would emerge from nowhere to touch his feet and seek his blessings. He carried enough warmth and had a divinely aura all his life till the time he bid Goodbye to his beloved family for commencement of his final and eternal journey on 26th February 2017.
Such was his love for the great institute, Government College, Ludhiana that he repeatedly used to say that his final journey must be thru this College which we all as his loved descendants ensured before he was consigned to holi flames.
Legends never die and …………….Professor Sharma was one such legend.
About the Author from whose book informatuon has been taken as above besides artocle for The Sutlej ( 1959 ) : The author, Mrs Sangeeta Sharma has a long teaching experience of over two decades in reputed Bal Bharati Public School, a Delhi based chain of schools to impart quality education to students. She has done her graduation in Science from Delhi University followed by B.Ed and Post graduation in Sociology.