High School Education at Jhang and Lahore

Ruchi Ram Sahni describes three eventful years during which he left Dera Ismail Khan in order to finish a high school education—first in the town of Jhang, more than a hundred miles away, across a waterless desert, then in Lahore. Part of the chronicle involves his adventures getting to and from Jhang, first by boat and then on camel-back; on another occasion walking the entire distance in order to save money; and on a third almost being drowned on a boat crossing the River Chenab. After his favourite teacher retires from the school in Jhang, Sahni runs away to Lahore to seek a more challenging education. Much of the narrative relates to his education in Lahore—his teachers, his increasingly cosmopolitan schoolmates, and a growing awareness of his nature as a ‘social rebel’ who challenges Hindu religious practices and superstitions.