Major Geoffrey Langlands
(May 2010)
A Man for All Seasons
In 2002, in an interview with Philip Sherwell of The Telegraph, the legendary Major Geoffrey Langlands, a crusty Britisher through and through, who had come to our part of the world almost 55 years back at that time and dedicated his life to educating the young, replied when asked about the esteem in which the locals held him, ‘I tell them that all the qualities they admire in me stem from my Britishness.’ And he added, ‘I’m never going to change that.’
Geoffrey Langlands is not another teacher but an institution who has by personal example inspired generation after generation which passed through his able hands, to rise above themselves and lead lives that mean something in the final sum game. His life, led by principles that cannot be swayed, is like a beacon to most of us who are tossed on uncertain seas all their lives. He is the kind of man that inspires the most jaded amongst us to pause and think for a moment. His life is truly unique and inspirational – the stuff legends are made of. Declan Walsh of The Guardian writing almost seven years after Sherwell memorably said, ‘he has scraped through several wars, been kidnapped in Waziristan, educated world-famous cricketers and taken tea with princesses, several prime ministers and a ruthless dictator,’ to which one might add, ‘and an inept one as well.’ Pakistan’s saviour for nine long years was persuaded to part with Rs.50m in 2006. He could have doubled that amount by choosing not to stay at the Dorchester but then we are talking quality cheese and third class chalk, aren’t we? I would also add that Langlands also touched the lives of many others – thousands in fact and he taught them all, the motto that has held his Chitral school together, ‘There is always room for improvement.’ Against all odds, he has carried on regardless. He is 92 and is finally ready to hand over command but who will Pakistan find that would fit those famous boots? I cannot think of a single person in this nation of teeming millions that would choose a life far away from creature comforts in an area known for its remoteness to teach young Chitralis, boys and girls alike, the meaning of life. I regretfully say that in spite of Langlands’ sterling example, we have learnt nothing much from that. The loss is entirely ours.
During my brief and rather pointless stay teaching at Aitchison’s Prep School in the year dot, I was fortunate enough to often chat with the crusty Major. He was forever herding trainloads of young Aitchisonians up the perilous slopes of Pakistan’s forbidding northern highlands and he took wet-behind-the-ears kids and returned with young men. Even then he was something of a legend, his name evoking great respect and awe amongst the boarders and day scholars alike. But the Langlands saga had begun even years before that. Orphaned at the age of 12, Langlands was sent off to India and at partition time found himself in the midst of a communal bloodbath, the worst and bloodiest exodus known to mankind when thousands died violently and unnecessarily. He must have been shaken to the core seeing the butchery first hand but rather than return to a safe England, stayed on in Pakistan. In 1954, he found himself in Pakistan’s prestigious Eton, Aitchison College, where he was to stay for the next 25 years, doing what he loved most. Teaching. When he retired instead of rushing back to England and his twin brother – the two have met four times in six decades, he decided to opt for Chitral instead, that forbidding valley high in the mountains, famous for polo and one should add now, Geoffrey Langlands.
There for two decades and more Langlands has taught and run a school in the most difficult of circumstances. Most good men would have quit years ago. Not Langlands who is made of sterner stuff than what is on display in the world these days. The school perched on a plateau with the famous Trich Mir peak at 7700 metres towering over the valleys, is extraordinary. Over 900 pupils study here – over 300 of them girls and towering taller than the Trich Mir peak is the Major himself. At 92, he is understandably frail but then he is British, cast in the old mould and they don’t make those any more. He runs the school with the kind of discipline the British were known for and the last traces of which kept this otherwise chaotic part of the world in some order. As the years have rolled on, this commitment of doing the ‘pucca’ thing has all but vanished from our lives. You see it in the 100 goofy ministers and uncountable advisors, in the sleepy hordes that infest the National and Provincial Assemblies, in the corruption-ridden businessmen, shady operators that pop out like ninja cockroaches and the indestructible slimy bureaucrats who serve the people much in the same manner that cannibals serve tourists caught in the bush. Other vermin of indeterminate ancestry now pock mark a once fair and promising country. A single Langlands, given the authority would have sent most of this lot packing and made this country more than the apologetic look-at-what-the-cat-brought-in nation that it looks like now but there aren’t any like him around and we have to make do with what was yesterday’s dregs and is now today’s scum. The new Pakistan.
Today the school he built faces a crisis of survival. It needs funding and soon it is going to need leadership. Neither are available to the school. Where will the great donors come from? There are men and women here who with one signature can change thousands of lives, particularly of an area like Chitral that has had more than its share of deprivation, but would they step forward? The government has funds for fountains and national monstrosities like that cabbage in Islamabad, Musharraf blew millions on or some grandiose and convoluted caper, but mention Chitral and they lose their conversation. Perhaps the funds will come forth but replacing Langlands who has been promised board and lodge at his old college, Aitchison, is another problem. Will another mad Englishman go out in the midday sun? There is talk of a gentleman Brian Games who is game enough to take up the challenge. He is British. Naturally. For the Chitralis who love and revere this extraordinary man, his staunch support for the people of this remote area has meant the world. In their eyes, he can do no wrong and without his guiding hand they will feel marooned. We have paid lip service to the ‘development’ of the northern areas but many of us know what the real score is. The Aga Khan network has worked wonders but is there one amongst us ready to replicate his great contribution? Or indeed that of one man soldiering on? The answers are sad.
To the best of my knowledge and whatever research I could do on the net, Major Geoffrey Langlands who was awarded an OBE in 1983, has never received any award from our many governments which distribute these by the kilos. Some truly undeserving men and women have received the highest awards for the lowest contribution. Some have more than three of the top awards. If Mr. Holbrooke can saunter off with our highest civilian award, what about a Nishan-e-Haider for the Major? The last person in the world who would covet such an award would be the Major himself. Perhaps it is just as well he is in the more respectable ranks of those who are not worth giving awards to. That would make a great deal of sense to Pakistanis.