“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.”
Franz Kafka, “The Trial”
ZORAN TRAJKOVIĆ
We saw each other two years ago for the 40th anniversary of our graduation as the first generation of the Mechanical Technical High School in Vranje.
This happened to Tom after that, and all of us who knew Tom could not believe something like that could happen to him, and to us, because we all knew Tom very well. It is true that he was the best student of our generation, and that he was ahead of us, but we were proud of him and still are, and we all boast that he was our classmate.
Here are some anecdotes from that time:
– Tom never carried books to school. The only papers he would bring were the compulsory graphic drawings of vocational subjects;
– He was very active in the Youth Association and was often late to class. He would show up halfway through the lesson given by the very strict mathematics teacher Momčilo Bogdanović. The teacher would stop, looking at us sternly, pass the chalk to Tom with a triumphant smile, and Tom would continue where the teacher left off. We would carry on following Tom’s lecture.
– In the second school year we had classes on the premises of the grammar school where solid fuel stoves were still heating up the classrooms. One day, the fuel ran out and the classrooms were cold. Tom brought his classmates together and said: “friends, we will not lose classes. I suggest that each day one of us brings a little wood in order to keep the classes going. Let me be the first to bring the wood. “And so it was. The next day, Tom carried the wood on his hands through Vranje. Our classroom that day was warm. Tom was then called to a meeting with the school director. From the next day there was fuel for the whole school. Tom was not disciplined. What was said to whom we never found out. The director was my uncle.
Tom, we were all upset when we heard about your misfortune, but we have supported you throughout and know that you are innocent.
Sincere regards from Zoran Trajkovic from Kragujevac
July 04, 2011
Business Partners:
Ljubivoje Nikolić, Slobodan Pejović, “Tomić” printing, Mirjana Soro, Ferenc Kasa, Srboljub Đurić, Brane Pajić, Dušan Erdeljan, Živojin Janić, a group of enterpreneurs, Dušan Bokić, Slavko Gabrić, Geza Bleskanj, Veselin Šibul, Bogdan Rokvić, Branislav Rosić
Colleagues:
Jovan Cvetković, Dušan Tadić, Janez Škrubej, Slavoljub Pajkić, Stanka Radaković, Zlatica Nikačević, Đorđe Mitrović, Biljana Simić, Miladin Savić, Miroslav Fodora, Mirjana Srijemac, Dragutin Čop, Blažena Anđelić, Damjan Korda, Gordana Tešić, Dragan Stojanović, Dragan Radujko, Ivko Stojković, Igor Kizur, Željko Jakšić, Zdravko Josipović, Vladislav Hadžija, Robert Hep, Saša Krajnović, Radivoje Nikačević, Veselin Ristić, Branislav Radomirović, Aleksandar Divljak
Others:
Marijana Carić, group of classmates, Nikola Laćarac, Dragan Kosanović, Municipality of Mali Iđoš officials, Ivan Kopić, „Top 10 in Vojvodina“, Gordana Radosavac, Zoran Trajković