Begum Nasra Wazir Ali started her school from her garage. She later shifted to a new campus, where the Neem tree around which the school was built still provides shade to at least half of its courtyard. PHOTOS: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
The cozy two-room apartment still looks the same. There is a small dining table, a bed and collages of family pictures smiling down from the walls. Yet its most essential component is missing. The woman who made it a home. The woman who made the building an institution.
The apartment is located on the first floor of The Nasra School's main campus building. It was in this apartment that the school's founder and principal, Begum Nasra Wazir Ali, spent the last years of her life.
Begum Nasra, who dedicated her life to educating young minds, left behind a void in the hearts of thousands of students, faculty members and staff when she departed from this world on August 26, last month. Her legacy, the Nasra School, lives on.
What started as a small-scale educational centre from her government-allotted house by the name of 'Frobel School', soon became a renowned institution for primary and secondary education. A few months later, the name was changed to Nasra School, which has five campuses today. Almost 65 years after the first campus was started, the Neem tree around which the school was built still provides shade to at least half of its courtyard. Such was Begum Nasra's vision.
Early life
Born on May 28, 1922, Begum Nasra was the youngest of Malik Maula Baksh's seven daughters, a landlord hailing from Gorali village in Gujrat, Punjab. She was married to Malik Wazir Ali, right after graduating from the Lahore Women's College.
Read: Why 25 million children are out of school in Pakistan
Begum Nasra came to Karachi on August 14, 1947, with her first daughter, Shahnaz Wazir Ali. Her husband, a civil servant, had stayed on in Delhi on official duty. The family was allotted MES bungalow No 2, Bunder Road Extension, by the government.
When Shahnaz was of school-going age, Begum Nasra started looking for schools. Finding none to her satisfaction, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Soon enough, other children from the neighbourhood enrolled in the makeshift school that she started in their garage.
Three months later, the main portion of the bungalow, comprising three bedrooms and a living room, was converted into a school. The family moved into the garage. The first student, Begum Nasra's own daughter, Shahnaz, shares warm memories of that large room where the school originally started. "That room was meant to be the living room and dining hall but ammi took out all the furniture and converted it into a school," she recalls fondly. "She had everything planned to perfection."
The making of a school
Begum Nasra wanted an activity-based school for middle-class parents that would not only teach the younger generation but also educate them and enhance their capabilities, she remembers. "I remember her buying a piano just after she set up the tables, chairs and a blackboard," she says, looking towards her younger brother, Tahir Ali, for confirmation.
The dream, however, hit a temporary setback as the bungalow was government-property and they were soon asked to find an alternative space for the school. Begum Nasra and her brother, Zafarullah Khan Malik, started looking for land and, ultimately, with the help of her husband, they managed to procure a small house, '55, depot lines', where the main campus stands today. By this time, the Nasra School had been formed into a trust. Though they had bought the land, there was no money to build a proper school building. Thus, the old Roman-style house was turned into a school. The furniture was brought in from the old makeshift school. And there was no looking back.
At the time, the four classrooms accommodated almost 300 students. But the need soon arose for a proper functional building. While the old structure served as classrooms, a new wing was slowly but surely coming into shape.
The building where Begum Nasra breathed her last was built in the early 90s. She shifted into the apartment after her husband passed away in 1993. She insisted on living on campus, close to the dream she had built from scratch. Even as she fought illnesses and the effects of old age, students remember the elderly figure sitting in the gallery on the first floor, beaming down at them while they played in the courtyard.
"Even at the age of 93, she took a keen, active interest in the school's affairs," recalls her son, Tahir. "Keep your feet on the ground and eyes on the stars," he quoted her saying.
Read: Under lock and key : Ready-to-use school remains closed since 2009
A legend
Begum Nasra represented Pakistan at the Girl Guides World Conference in Holland in 1956 and held the title of International Commissioner of the Girl Guides. She was an avid music-enthusiast, with her only frustration in life being her inability to sing. She loved poetry and had memorised Iqbal's 'Shikwa, Jawab-e-Shikwa' by heart.
"If I had to describe my parents objectively, I would call them both feminists," chuckles Tahir. "They believed in equality, which is one of the major reasons why it was possible for my mother to chase her dream."
Fond memories
Nusrat Zaidi, the school's academic coordinator, who has been associated with the institution since 1969, remembers Begum Nasra as a genius in mathematics and a wonderful writer. "Her life was not just about educating but also about simple living and aiming higher," she remembers. "She treated everyone as family, which is why the faculty never thought about leaving."
A former mathematics head, Imtiaz Shafique, reminisces Begum Nasra's love of flowers. "I usually brought flowers for her every time I paid her a visit. She always brightened up at the sight and placed the flowers on her table."
Asma Rafiq, another teacher at the campus quoted Begum Nasra as saying that, "We are born to serve others. Religion, caste, nationality and everything else is secondary. What comes first is humanity." The gatekeeper, Abdullah, grieved that he could not see her for the last time at her funeral. "For me, she was everything," he says morosely. "Since she passed away, there is no life in the campus grounds; no one to enjoy evening tea under the Neem tree with us."
The oldest employee of the school, still affiliated with the main campus, is 68-year-old Muhammad Zareef alias Shareef Bhai Canteen Walay. "I used to set up a small stall selling edible items outside the school premises in 1969 after I completed my school, when one day Begum sahiba spoke to me about setting up a canteen inside the premises," he says. "I used to live inside the school premises from 1971 until 1983. Today, I spend at least 10 hours here every day. It is my second home now and Begum sahiba was more a mother to me than my birth mother could ever be."
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2015.
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