THE FINAL PROBLEM

THE FINAL PROBLEM

For a few of us, these are the last and final few days in the university: in the coming years, we are to embrace a career--- the mere thought of it is exciting and challenging! For most of us, the goals are spelt out quite clearly: the future stands before us with a challenge--- a salaried job, a good source of income, and independence--- sounds fun!

These days are also the last and final days in the hostel. There is the remorse and pain of leaving the hostel, the university, and friends. Student life is certainly the best period of one's life, although it does have its thorns and nettles. In pursuit of knowledge and skill, we spend a considerable portion of our lives in the university, in the hostel. Like the different and yet congruent pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we form a picture of unity while we are together in the hostel. From the time we are brought into the world, we are taught the lesson of unity. Hostel life further enhances this image. All of us are different--- we hail from different regions, have different cultures, speak different languages, but while we are in Aligarh, we form a complete picture of the jigsaw puzzle--- all of us are Aligarians; when we leave the university, we shall belong to just one creed--- the Aligs. The clouds that shall rise from here shall rain all over the world:: all the Aligs shall excel in their fields.

The hostel and the university signify a lot more to me. When I joined the institution in October, '95, I was completely and miserably broken over past failures and bad luck. I had spent a considerable portion of my life in loneliness and solitude, without any friends. I had almost forgotten what it is like to have friends and peers. Years of solitude and prolonged periods of almost complete isolation had moulded me into a shape that I considered myself a social misfit. My state was that of a soldier who had accepted defeat at the hands of the foe--- time. I did not have the faintest idea of what lay ahead--- I still don't see the future, but the university has given me a new life. It has taught me that the real meaning of life lies in living it. Hostel life has taught me to look at a sunset and imbibe not meditative melancholy, but contemplative pleasure. A sunset does signify decline and death, but it also symbolises the dawn of>another day that it precedes. I am certainly in a better position to appreciate this beautiful secret life. Meeting and parting are 2 facets of the same coin just as>happiness and sorrow are. I am not sure how long I will be here in the university, but I shall certainly miss these days when I was given another chance to live.