Pt. Shyam Lal Labroo will be remembered as a dedicated teacher associated with Islamia High School, Rajouri Kadal, Srinagar, where he served for almost four decades. Belonging to the educational culture of old Srinagar’s Bulbulankar, he was known for his commitment to students and his belief that education should shape character as much as intellect. His scholarly interests found expression in an English Translation, prepared in collaboration with D. N. Raina, Principal of National High School, and Tulsi Nath, Inspector of Schools, Baramulla, and published by Kapoor Brothers.Labroo’s popularity did not come merely from his position but from the way people felt in his presence. He had a rare ability to make an ordinary student feel important, a poor parent feel respected, and even a troublesome boy feel that something good remained in him. In the crowded lanes around Rajouri Kadal, a teacher could become popular through examination results, but Labroo became popular through the lives he touched. His real experiments were with human beings, and each experiment began with a problem that most teachers might have treated as punishment but which he treated as a matter of understanding.

One winter morning, a boy arrived late with wet shoes and a torn pheran. Other students laughed. Labroo noticed the boy had no books. Instead of asking why he was late, he quietly asked him to sit near the fire and share a book. Later, he learned the boy’s father had fallen ill and the boy had spent the morning helping his mother. Labroo did not announce this. He simply asked the boy to stay after school for several days to complete missed lessons. When the boy performed well in an examination, Labroo did not praise him publicly. He merely placed the result before him and reminded him that hardship could delay a person but need not defeat him. That lesson stayed with the boy for life. Years later, that former student would tell others that Labroo had saved him from believing that poverty meant inferiority.

Another experiment began with a boy everyone had labelled delinquent. He fought, disturbed lessons, disappeared from school, and answered teachers disrespectfully. Most teachers had formed a fixed opinion. Labroo decided to test whether a child could change if someone trusted him before he deserved that trust. Instead of punishment, he made the boy responsible for maintaining the blackboard, arranging books, and ensuring younger students reached their classrooms. Astonished at receiving responsibility, the boy initially misused it, but Labroo corrected him and gave him another chance. Gradually, the boy began arriving early. His classmates noticed the transformation before the teachers did. The boy who had been known for fighting became the one who settled quarrels among younger children. Labroo had not defeated delinquency with fear but by giving the boy a reason to respect himself.

A more difficult experiment came when a poor father arrived with a request that his son be allowed to continue studying despite........

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