SRINAGAR: Beloved teacher. Exiled soul. Hirdey Nath Koul, former principal of Islamia High School in Srinagar, is gone. He died Sept 10 in Hyderabad at the age of 93. He was once of Bana Mohalla near the Jhelum, but carried Kashmir with him until the end.Tributes poured in, led by Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who wrote a detailed obituary. “His contribution in nurturing generations of students at Islamia School with a keen sense of commitment to them will always be remembered and respected,” Mirwaiz said. He recalled the legacy of Kashmiri Pandit teachers in Anjuman Nusratul Islam schools, “who even marked attendance for Muslim boys for afternoon prayers to Jama Masjid — a testament to our bond and shared values”.Koul’s family said he was a resident of Bana Mohalla, underscoring his “deep love and emotional attachment” to Srinagar.Born in old Srinagar, Koul graduated from Gandhi Memorial College, earned a BEd at University of Kashmir, and joined Islamia School in the 1960s on the recommendation of the elder Mirwaiz. The institution founded by the Mirwaiz family in 1866 would become his lifelong home. He never married, instead devoting himself to students and mathematics. The 1990s exodus of Kashmiri Pandits fractured his life. His nephew Kartik Koul, a retired SBI general manager, said the family fled after the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed by JKLF militants. “We first settled in Miran Sahib of Jammu, then moved to a migrant camp, then tented accommodation, and later to Pune, Kanpur and Hyderabad — wherever my job took me. Bada boba was always with us. For 17 years we stayed in Jammu,” Kartik said.“The migration broke his heart. Though he lived with us, his soul always remained in Kashmir,” he said.His last wish was to reclaim his books, above all a handwritten Quran gifted to him by the Saudi ambassador during a convocation in the 1980s. Kartik returned to their old home in 2013. It was gone. “When I told him, it pained him even more,” he said.Koul never sought his final six months’ salary from Islamia School, nor let the family do so. “He asked us not to write any letter,” Kartik said.Students remember him for his range. “I don’t remember much of him except that he also taught Islamic subjects like Dinyat to us occasionally,” one recalled.
