SZABIST Admin

 In the world today where people are seen running to earn as much money as they can, there are few people who want to earn and learn at the same time. Muharram Ali is a lab in-charge at Szabist of lab 7. He is 23 years old and has been working at Szabist for the past three months.

            Muharram takes care of the lab for 25 people everyday from 2-10pm. He always wanted to earn and pay for his own education from a well known institute but his financial conditions didn’t allow him to. When asked, he told us that he is not passionate about his job. The reason he joined in as an employee was to get further education free from Szabist. Szabist is an institute which has made it easier for the poor people to work for a limited period of time at Szabist and then get educated from here for free.

Therefore, this was just a perfect offer for him.

            When asked about his experience as a lab in-charge he said, “It’s good; the best part is that you get to trade knowledge in and out with the students”. According to him, apart from the trade of knowledge, the good thing about this job was only the free education offer which persuaded him to join this field. He thinks that there are various disadvantages of this job. On being asked about it I felt awkwardness in his voice as he seemed to be hesitant to share more about it to me.

            He told me that taking care of 25 computers, 2 printers and students coming in and out every now and then is not as easy as it seems to be. “You need to have confidence and attitude to tackle the students, must be on your best behavior with them and should know every bit of handling the computers”, he said.

            On being asked about the difficulties that he faces as a lab in-charge he told me that there are some rules made by the institute for the students to follow and the lab-in-charge has to make sure they are followed in the lab. If any student is caught breaking the rule then the lab in-charge gets into trouble. “Once I asked one the boys sitting in the lab to not talk on the phone here as it’s not allowed, he got angry at me and started cursing me. I had a tough time dealing with that boy”, Muharram said. He also claimed that he had paid many times for the break down of the equipment of the lab by the students.

             The requirement of doing the job according to Muharram was to be a graduate, to have desktop knowledge, to know every bit about the hardware and should be able to speak in English. Apart from these, “70% hard work and interest is required to do this job” he said. On being asked if there was anything that he would want to change in this field he said that they should be given basic classes of the software that the students use in the lab so that they can help them properly when needed.

            With all the statements and answers he provided to me about the job, I felt the need of more of such people in our country who at times do small things, unwillingly and without interest, in order to get to the larger goal of life.