Socrates In My College,2nd Edition, Flowers In Flames Poem by Matloob Bokhari

SOCRATES IN MY COLLEGE
MATLOOB BOKHARI
Seeing me standing sad in the lawn of my college, Socrates asked 'What ails you that you are so sorrow stricken.'
I replied: 'Socrates! I am a teacher, a dreamer, I am a rebel bard
Living with gross inequality, extreme injustice and deep ignorance.
Grown weary seeing the heaviness of the suffering of the poor of my land.
Here education is soulless, mechanistic and non purposive.
Here classrooms are in the grip of dogmatists.
Here learners grow up in an authoritarian environment.
Here education is instilling fear and blind obedience.
Here the wonder and joy of learning have no place in the classrooms.
Here students have no capacity to see the seven colours of the rainbow.
Here learners memorize the abstract theories and ideas unrelated to practical life.
Here minds of the born explorers are closed by rote learning.
Socrates, we have fallen in the abysmal depths of ignorance,
In moral decay and intellectual stagnation.
We are still living in the ancient golden age of the legendary emperors.
Here children of laborers are reduced to despair.'

Replying, Socrates said: 'O dear dreamer, you can not create an ideal society with imperfect people.
You cannot get rid of non perfect models in an ignorant society.
No power is greater than education to change the society.
Education will breed change, bring peace and teach respect for others.
Fathers, mothers and teachers can make your country a nation of beautiful minds.
O teacher! Start a war on ignorance in the four walls of classrooms.
Make your academic institutions an abode of high thinking scholars.
Your classrooms mainstream should be interesting debate, new ideas and creativity.
Light a candle in the dark caves of minds of your students.
Teach them that the flame of light cannot be borrowed from others.
They will have to torch the light of learning by themselves.
Teach them to dance in time, be in synchronized rhythm with events.
And to evolve with the movements of history.
O lyrist! Teach them to destroy the very foundation of the corruption.
Ask your students to awake, arise and kneel before truth.
Teach them not to walk on the path, established by others
Teach them to ponder on the well ordered and firm structure of universe.
Make your students free to discover truth, urge them to harness the stars.
Encourage them to think deep about life, truth and justice.
Encourage them to reflect on the wonderful creation of Allah.
Encourage them to take risks, make mistakes, imagine and daydream.
Teach your students the lessons of humility, kindness and discipline.
Teach the sons of labourers the universal principles of human rights.
Inspire them with the vision of dignified existence.
Teach them to work for the good of mankind on this planet.
O reflective practitioner, be an ocean of compassion and tender like a lotus-petal.
Teach your students to love all those who bow in
mosque, kneel in temple, pray in church.'
Saying this, the teacher of the ancient wisdom went back to the mountains of Greece!