Srinagar, June 13: If anything differentiated the 17-year-old schoolboy Tufail Ahmad Matoo from other teens in Saida Kadal, it was his generosity, which has become a talk of the locality after his killing, two days back.
 “What a polite boy he was,” murmured a lady entering Matoo house to console the bereaved. “Whenever he would see a musafir (beggar) entering the locality, he would get something for him from home.”
 Three months back, Tufail purchased a new jacket for himself. But he could not wear it for more than a couple of days. “He (Tufail) saw a boy shivering with cold at Amira Kadal. He put off his jacket and handed it over to the boy. I kept watching him,” recalls Shakeel Ahmad, Tufail’s uncle, who returned to the Valley from Muscat on Saturday to participate in his nephew’s last rites. “I will always remember his generosity. He not only gave the boy his jacket, but also some money from the pocket. It was so kind of him.”
 While Tufail gifted his jacket, he expected some gifts on his 17th birthday on June 29. But fate had death in store for him. Tufail was killed by a “teargas shell” in police action at Rajouri Kadal on Friday. 
 Tufail’s friends can’t just stop talking about his generosity. “He had some sort of obsession with the needy. Wherever he spotted a person in need of something, he would always help him,” said Tufail’s friends, shocked over his killing.
 Tufail’s relatives say his interests included playing cricket, reading books and driving. “We had booked a car for him recently, little knowing that he would never be able to drive it,” Shakeel Ahmad said.
 Tufail, he said, wanted to become a scientist. “He was an inquisitive boy, with a sense of questioning anything and everything that came his way,” Ahmad said.
 Tufail had done his schooling from Radiant Public School at Malla Bagh on the city outskirts. Presently he studied 12th class from Government Higher Secondary School, Hazratbal. “Tufail was an extremely gentle boy. He would never look at teachers eye to eye. There were 120 students in that class in 2008, but Tufail was the most polite one,” said Shabir Ahmad, principal of RP School. “He would never ever argue with teachers. All I can say is that his gentleness made him very different from other students.”

Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST