Mr. Abdul Qadus Saggu's message to his students
Monday, 08 January 2007 09:20
Mr. Abdul Qadus Saggu is an English teacher at Cadet College Hasanabdal. Recently, he underwent a surgery for the excision of a Parotid Tumour. he has received a large number of messages of good-will and best wishes. As it is not possible for him to reply to them individually, he has asked us to allow him the benefit of the website to send the following message to all his students:
Dear boys, I wrote an email from Lahore to only some of my students who are closer to heart saying that I was to undergo surgery for a Parotid Tumour called Pleomorphic Adenoma. I must hasten to add that my bond with all my students is that of deep affection but of course we live in a physical and spatial world in which things are arranged spatially, some near, others far; and this thing definitely shapes our perceptions. One apprehension that I expressed in that email was that during the surgical procedure my facial nerve might get damaged and that usually results in paralysis of the face. Unfortunately, the right side of my face (forehead to chin) the side from which the tumour was excised is now completely paralysed. The surgeon Riaz Ahmed Warraich apologetically explained to me that the facial nerve got iatrogenically (unintentional mistake of the surgeon) cut just at the point (trunk) from where it sends out six branches, temporal, zygomatic, upper buccal, lower buccal, marginal ma! ndibular, and servical branch of the facial nerve.
The surgeon claims to have anastomosed (joined the nerve ends) it and hoped that the nerve would regenerate in 6 to 8 months. At the moment the irritating problem is that of the eye. My right eye remains open and light and dust cause redness and non-stop tears. Dr. Mumtaz Choudhry s/o good old Faqir Mohammad Choudhry, will take care of that problem. They live in Wah. Mr. Fakir Mohammad is in good health but the advancing age does take its toll.
During these 25 years at CCH, including 2 wonderful years at Beijing, China (where ever dependable Tahir Andrabi O/W gave a huge boost to my confidence), I have fine tuned my accent and teaching skill to such a point, by setting personal standards and goals, that now every day is a joy for me to put up a peak performance in front of groups of brilliant students. It saddens me a little to think what if I don’t get my expressions back and instead of the resounding energetic bass voice that I had there’s a voice that has the lisp of escaping air to it due to the sagging right lip-corner. The smile of half a face is no smile, it is an ugly contortion. Will I get my smile back, I wonder. My determination to get my expressions and voice back is very strong, but I do depend a lot on Abdalians, apart from my spouse and children, for geeing up my spirits as I too during my 25 years have so often uttered words of solace, support and encouragement to them when they needed them.
Basically, I am writing this email to thank a lot of boys who have sent me emails, some called me on the phone (0304-5303215)and a few visited me in the hospital and one wonderful parent Dr. Ehsan Ghani of RGH rang me a day before my surgery to lift up my spirits, which he did.
Mind you, I am not depressed. Depression doesn’t dare knock at my door, but natural feelings should not be blocked. My strong faith in the bond of affection for Abdalians makes me turn to them as the needle turns to the pole.
The second apprehension was that the anesthetists (as they do in our Pakland) might send me to push up the daisies for ever. Mercifully, they didn’t, and as a healthy 51 year old man I shall be roaming on the roads and in the lush green grounds of dear old CCH for a few more years, savouring every moment of it. Meanwhile, the bad news is that Mr. Rauf has passed away in Gujranwallah CMH. As a fellow faculty member of the English Deptt, he shared with me all the jokes he cut in the class and the dramas that he created. What a lovely man he was! He used to kick up a shindy and then wink to show me how much he enjoyed creating fuss just for nothing.
Keep sending me your good wishes and prayers.
God bless you all!