Jalees A K Tareen - Rise Of A Barefoot Boy

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Prof Jalees A K Tareen

EMERALD PUBLISHERS

Rise of a Barefoot Boy - An Autobiography

Prof Jalees A K Tareen

Emerald Publishers, 2018

First Published 2018

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Published by

Olivannan Gopalakrishnan

Emerald Publishers

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Price : INR 149.00

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ISBN : 9788179664933

Cover Painting : Prof Jalees A K Tareen

Printed at : Aruna Enterprises, Chennai.

Dedicated to my mother, my family and my extended family who made me what I am today

We are a living link to the past.In the words of Alex Haley, In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

Our individual life stories may not seem important, but the reality is that they bind people across race and cultural barriers even though our specific histories are rooted in different time contexts. At no point inrecent history have we witnessed such rapid transformation in our lives and life styles across the globe than what we have seen during the last fifty years. My generation, which was born in the 40s and 50s, was a privileged lot that has not only seen the stages of these transformations, but has also enjoyed the fruits of unprecedented technological revolutions. The post-world war dynamics of global political repositioning has also directly or indirectly impacted every ones life in some form or the other. My generation has gone through the pleasant as well as unpleasant shocks of such rapid changes that swept societies across the world. Unfortunately, our parents did not live to experience the pleasant comforts that became available and affordable to most of us. They lived a simple contented life without much greed, ambitions, and expectations. They were happy writing a post card to communicate or cooking food on charcoal and wood fuel stoves and travelling on a bullock cart, or in rattling buses or on slow steam engine trains.

The contrast between then and now is before our eyes. While my parents have seen the two world wars and oppressions of colonialism, we have seen the cold war between super powers, the disintegration of Soviet Union, a series of occupations and aggressions by these powerful nations, either driven with sheer pride of supremacy or expansionist craze fraught with vested interest. These aggressions have resulted in the new phenomenon of global terrorism of various sorts. The home grown terror and militancy fanned by discontent of people and further supportedby covertactivities of neighbouring countries has not spared India from the terrifying activities of organisations like the ULFA, the BODO militants, the Naxalites, Maoist, the Muslim outfits like the SIMI and the militancy in Kashmir. The right wing extremism and aggressive Hindutva outfits have also been showing their divisive designs more frequently than ever before.

I consider my generation to be an important bridging generation, which connects the two extreme life styles of the 40s and 50s in contrast to the present. India as the worlds largest democracy with the worlds highest youth population has also its own share of challenges, which are inherent in the worlds most diverse societies. It is ridden with caste politics and consequent polarisation, discrimination, and bias at different levels. Yet, an adequately large population of freethinking, liberal and rational civil groups and the free media intervenes appropriately to check the crossing of limits. The biggest challenge before India is maintaining harmony and tolerance in this diverse society besides the problems of reducing population growth and poverty. Yet, the bright side of Indian society is that it has been steadily growing economically, reaching nearly 7.5%GDP growth and has technologically positioned itself as an emerging super power of the coming years. I have chosen to write my autobiography to remind and assure the youth of my country that even in such a complex and problematic society as India, a barefoot boy and an orphan at the age of 7 can still rise to be a Vice Chancellor of three universities, in spite of the hurdles and potholes along the way. The difficulties that life offers can often be turned into stepping stones to reach ones goals.

A proud Indian and a devout Muslim

Why our divided nation should heed Dr Tareens words

In a male-dominated society, it is by now widely accepted that whatever women do, they must work twice as hard and do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. In India, this rule does not apply to women only. Sadly, even though we have one of the worlds most enlightened constitutions that proclaims equality of all its citizens, and even though our Constitution prides itself in enshrining secularism as one of its preambular principles, the rule applies to Muslims as well. Muslims, even educated Muslims, must work twice hard and do twice as well as Hindus to be thought half as good to deserve positions of importance and eminence.

This autobiography is by one such eminent scientist and academician who had to overcome all the disabilities of being a Muslim in a Hindu-majority India and yet succeeded, on the strength of his competence alone, to become the vice chancellor of three universities (two public and one private) and succeeded, also, in effecting a remarkable turnaround in each of them. It is the story of a man who defied many odds in his life the loss of his father at the age of seven, crippling poverty in schooling years, discrimination for being a Muslim during his career as a first-rate mineralogist and geo-chemist, lack of adequate recognition for his research even though his colleagues from the majority community who were inferior but well-connected with many laurels and yet served the cause of science and education in India for nearly five decades with exemplary dedication and some striking accomplishments.

What is more, he did not allow bitterness and rancour to corrode his personality. On the contrary, and this is his far greater success, he distilled from his varied experiences many positive lessons about life and the world around him. This precious positivity has enabled him to give some sound and bold advice to the Indian state, which must revitalise its secular roots, and also to his own Indian Muslim community, which must abandon its mindset of victimhood, modernise itself in the light of the true teachings of Islam, and encourage its children and youth, especially women, to gain all-sided education.