Encounter with the Grim Professor

After a long boring philosophy class me and my cousin Sheraz decided to visit the nearest departmental store. Whether it was long list shopping or just to grab a chips pack for the long walk to the bus-stop. This large store was our favorite place to visit before we hit the road home.  

As always Sheraz wandered around while I indulged in search for my favorite brands straight. I was about to collect a few more things from the second aisle when Sheraz runs to me and babble something with wide-open eyes and mouth in shock. He waits for a response, I frown at him and thought to myself how men can be so anti-shopping creatures.

“Just saw Professor Rafique in the first aisle” Sheraz uttered in a soft hushed tone this time.

“What! No way” I yelped in alarm and made all the other customers stare.  

Professor Rafique was a retired military man, a wing commander to be specific. The man who cared for rules, etiquette, discipline and many other conducts to complicate one’s life. On the bright-side he was the only teacher who saw us as professionals. We very much enjoyed his fun filled, trill and military like classes. He treated us like executives and expected us to act like CEOs of Multinational co-operations. And that was the only reason we were disinclined to confront him.

The problem now was we were in the second aisle and we had to cross the first aisle to reach the counter.  So we the smart, future CEOs started to play hide and seek with the professor. Few minutes later Sheraz guessed that professor must be at the end of the first aisle by now so we could cut through the mid way and sneak out.  We rushed to the mid way and came face to face with Professor Rafique. Thanks to the pathetic planning of my partner we meet in an unavoidable awkward situation.

It took us a few seconds to convert our astonishment into more pleasant surprised looks. We greeted the professor with wide smiles and expressed how pleased we were to see him. Professor on the other hand was actually pleased as he instantly started a conversation. After many questions about our plans for future he told us about resigning his job as a teacher. I gave a laud shriek as if I didn't already know.  He slowly nodded and there fell a short pause. Then we excused him as we were to catch the bus.

Before our goodbyes he addressed me by my name and asked why I was holding all the products in my hands, where was our trolley. I felt the lecture coming, as I struggle to clutch on products to keep them from a collapse. How negligent, retroactive and poor conduct for professionals! I could read his mind. More than that, old teachers tend to own their students and how they behave. One the other hand students live simple, pick stuff in hassle, drop them on counter, pay and rush for home. Unfortunately Professor Rafique did not believe in sweet and simple.

I gave an uneasy short laugh which died instantly as he gave me the fierce interrogatory stare. I told him it was just one-item shopping. I was holding more than six items when I said that. Blame it on the impulse buying initiated by the self-service stores these days.

He gave me an unacceptable behavior kind of a look. I and my cousin surrendered ourselves to penalty and public humiliation that we could sense coming. To our surprise Professor shook his head and smiled. After farewells we rushed off with hysterical laughs all the way home.