The One With The Bakraa
June 24th, 2006 Posted in Aligarh Memories, AnecdotesA.M.U. not only gives you a degree but it also gives you a name (called ‘title’ in Aligarh lingo). More often than not, the new name sticks with you for the rest of life. More on A.M.U. nomenclature system sometime later, but right now I remember a very interesting anecdote about a person whose ‘title’ was (yes, you guessed it right) bakraa.
His actual name was Nafiis meaning exquisite. I don’t know how and why he was named bakraa. What I did hear was that he was not very popular among the students during his earlier stint as the Proctor. A couple of years ago he was appointed the Proctor again. He hadn’t exactly endeared himself to the students during this duration and obviously the title was still the same, bakraa. It has been the tradition of A.M.U. that high officials always offer their Eid and Bakreid prayers in the main mosque of Sir Syed Hall. Once during Bakreid prayers Nafis saahab was sitting near the Imam while he was delivering the Khutbah on the suitability of the sacrificial bakra during Bakreid. According to eye-witnesses, the Imam used the exact same words and used it forcefully and repeatedly:
qurbaanii kaa bakra to nafis hii honaa chaahiye (The sacrificial goat should be exquisite).
Needless to say, the audience was in splits and the Imam was clueless.
3 Responses to “The One With The Bakraa”
By Mosi Lager on Jun 25, 2006
That’s hilarious! We also had a bali ka bakra in class who would get blamed by us whenever something went wrong. Well one day we got caught because he wasn’t present and we still blamed him.
By Mohib on Jun 27, 2006
Glad that you like it.
By Saif on Dec 6, 2006
I heard another version which went something like this:
There was a meat shop (I think on Medical Road) that had a banner which said “Yahaan par bakray ka nafis goasht milta hay“, and someone later changed it to “Yahan par Nafis bakray ka goasht milta hay.”
I’m not sure if either of the stories is true, but they’re both funny.