Prof Pharma and the Girls Hostel.
By Naghmi Shirin

We had another interesting personality of our college days, she was Prof. Bilquees Jamal Zafar popularly known as Madam Pharma. She was one of the best teachers, who made pharmacology not only understandable but interesting as well. There can be no two opinions about that, but today I am going to discuss some interesting aspects of her personality.

She was appointed the warden of our girl’s hostel. She shifted with her family to the newly constructed bungalow for the warden within the premises. Every morning we woke up to a loud roaring sound and we knew that some servant was being targeted. Her cursing vocabulary was quite wide and we learnt quite a few colorful Punjab words. However, I admit that she was a good administrator. She brought a revolution in the girl’s hostel. Her discipline was strict and no wrong doings by servants or girls escaped her notice.

She was fond of animals and kept a large Alsatian dog and some deer as well. One day the deer came out of the cage and the dog ran on and on after it. The whole lot of servants was running to stop the dog but neither one nor the other gave a heed to anyone. At last, the deer collapsed with a broken leg.

We in the hostel, tried to avoid confronting her. But some people liked to get her attention. She was the guardian of a number of female foreign students. She had appointed some of our class fellows who were in her good books to teach them. Though how much it helped them, is questionable...

Madam had a great collection of exquisite Saris. When we attended her class, the first thing we use to notice was her sari of the day. We really loved them. I think she never wore the same sari again.

She had a strong personality. She was often found taking a walk in the gardens of pharmacology department. Students considered that area a Red Zone. Once we went to her office for some problem. We saw a nice well-suited gentleman sitting there. She introduced him by saying 'Well girls meet him, yeh mere shauhar honey key dawadar hain' and he smiled sheepishly. Later we learnt that poor gentleman was her husband, Prof Zafar Hayat, the renowned Principal of Nishtar Medical College.

Early Years at King Edward Medical College

The professor was wearing a white coat and making drawing of some type of circles on the black board. In the front row of the big lecture theater, about 20 girls sat, most of them also wearing white coats were listening intently to what the professor was saying. A good number of them were taking detailed notes. It was early in the morning. The weather was beautiful and I was tired from being up late the previous night. I was drifting in and out of consciousness. Every now and then, I heard the words ‘osteoblastic type of cells and osteoclastic type of cells.

After the lecture, my friends and I headed for the cafeteria which seemed to be like an oasis in a desert of dry lecture theaters. I remember thinking to myself how the knowledge about osteoblastic cells will help me ‘heal the humanity’ and more importantly how was I going to survive here, if I could not pay attention to the lectures.

The year was 1978. I had finally made it to King Edward. It was a new place and yet it felt like home. After all, most of my friends from Government College Lahore (GC) had also made it. Shahid Bashir, Sohail Kiyani. Tahir Majeed from S-4 (there were seven sections in Government CollegeS1-7) were all there. So were some other friends like Agha Arif, Tajummul, Aquil Haider and Afzal Saeed. I also knew Kamran Hussain, Naveed Yazdani and others. And then from my Iqbal hostel there were Aamir Ali, Qayyum, Pervaiz Iqbal (Roll #1 of GC) and Ijaz Mahmood of Chichawattani (I remember that was name on his door at Iqbal Hostel).

The elections for Class Rep (CR)

Those were exciting times. I remember how we were sitting in the cafeteria when the topic came up. There were 72 people from GC in King Edward. The second largest group was from Cadet College Hasan Abdal with twenty something. We knew if we all supported one candidate, we had a good chance. Agha and Sohail were both very popular. They were particularly liked for being funny and smart. I remember that during a ‘strategy session’ it was decided that Sohail Kiyani would be our candidate and Arif Agha would tell folks that he is also running. Later he would withdraw his nomination in favor of Sohail. I remember Agha telling people that he was running but somehow either people found out or he spilled the beans. So that strategy did not pan out. However Sohail did win and was from that day on referred to as the CR. Although I do not believe girls had a separate representative but Atifa Naheed was called GR.

Popular Names

Speaking of popular names, I remember a few to this day. Athar Usmani was called Ghora, Aamir Ali was Bumba. But no name was as popular as ‘Bhindi’. Sofia Ismail was taller than most other girls and also very articulate. The name spread like wild fire. You could be talking to someone in Allama Iqbal Medical College and they would know who Bhindi was. One day I saw our CR being confronted by Sofia. She was saying ‘Kaya maen Apa ko Bhindi nazar aatti hun’. Sohail was all red and looking at his shoes.
‘Quadratus Kinnairdus’ was a name given to a group of four girls from Kinnaird College. One day in Anatomy Hall lockers we all found a poem addressed to the girls. I still remember that the first line was ‘Battain Humary Ghor Se sun Loo, Chamak chulo, Chamak chulo’. One of the mysteries for me to this day is ‘Who was the author? Or perhaps it was a group effort. Perhaps my readers can enlighten me. It is okay. We are all grownups now.

I stop here for now. My cat is knocking on my door and it is time to go to work. I have a lot more that I remember. I may write about it if you guys want to hear it. I apologize to anyone who feels I need to apologize.

Thanks for listening.