SRINAGAR: Beloved instructor. Exiled soul. Hirdey Nath Koul, former principal of Islamia Excessive Faculty in Srinagar, is gone. He died Sept 10 in Hyderabad on the age of 93. He was as soon as of Bana Mohalla close to the Jhelum, however carried Kashmir with him till the top.Tributes poured in, led by Hurriyat Convention chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who wrote an in depth obituary. “His contribution in nurturing generations of scholars at Islamia Faculty with a eager sense of dedication to them will at all times be remembered and revered,” Mirwaiz mentioned. He recalled the legacy of Kashmiri Pandit lecturers in Anjuman Nusratul Islam colleges, “who even marked attendance for Muslim boys for afternoon prayers to Jama Masjid — a testomony to our bond and shared values”.Koul’s household mentioned he was a resident of Bana Mohalla, underscoring his “deep love and emotional attachment” to Srinagar.Born in outdated Srinagar, Koul graduated from Gandhi Memorial Faculty, earned a BEd at College of Kashmir, and joined Islamia Faculty within the Nineteen Sixties on the advice of the elder Mirwaiz. The establishment based by the Mirwaiz household in 1866 would turn out to be his lifelong residence. He by no means married, as an alternative devoting himself to college students and arithmetic.The Nineties exodus of Kashmiri Pandits fractured his life. His nephew Kartik Koul, a retired SBI basic supervisor, mentioned the household 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 lodging, and later to Pune, Kanpur and Hyderabad — wherever my job took me. Bada boba was at all times with us. For 17 years we stayed in Jammu,” Kartik mentioned.“The migration broke his coronary heart. Although he lived with us, his soul at all times remained in Kashmir,” he mentioned.His final want was to reclaim his books, above all a handwritten Quran gifted to him by the Saudi ambassador throughout a convocation within the Eighties. Kartik returned to their outdated residence in 2013. It was gone. “Once I informed him, it pained him much more,” he mentioned.Koul by no means sought his closing six months’ wage from Islamia Faculty, nor let the household achieve this. “He requested us to not write any letter,” Kartik mentioned.College students bear in mind him for his vary. “I don’t bear in mind a lot of him besides that he additionally taught Islamic topics like Dinyat to us sometimes,” one recalled.