| Let me begin by thanking you all for being here tonight. The weather during the past few days had spread a pall of gloom over our campus. I was praying therefore that untimely rain would not mar what is a very special occasion in our lives – both in yours and in ours. |
| Obviously, tonight is your night. It belongs to you because you have earned it. It is also ours, because in a smaller measure, as your faculty, we are proud to have been a part of your growth and development. |
| In the years ahead, you will continue to grow and develop. But the part of you that came from us will remain we hope – like some uranium core – radiating values and traditions that will energise you throughout your life. Tonight we say a fond and in a sense premature farewell to 107 of you as the Class of 2009. More than half of you have been with us since K1 or K2. Sixty-three have been with us since K2, another 5 since K3, three more from K4, and a quartet from K5. Shehryar Khusnood – you joined K1A on 15 August 1996. You beat Jehanzeb Sukhera by 3 days. Aazaan Azam Khalil, Usama Khurshid Haq, Ahsan Ijaz Saeed, Muhammad Khalid Aziz, Muhammad Ammad Amin, and Syed Feroze Hassah Shah, and Atif Akbar Khan - you were all best Leaving Boys when your batch left Junior School. Ayazaan and Feroze - you were joint winners of the President Medal. Seventeen of you joined us directly in Prep School. Many of you became Colts. Haris Khan Khattak – Football Colt; Muhammad Ali Khalid – Cricket Colt; Zain Homaeer – Football Colt, and Tennis Champion; Syed Ahad Awais – Hockey Colt; Zeeshan Haider Football Colt; Quaid Ahmed Khan- Cricket and Hockey Colt; Muhammad Bin Waseem – Cricket Colt; Ahsan Ijaz Saeed – Athletics Colt; Daniyal Kitchlew – Cricket Colt; Rohail Lashari – Football and Swimming Colt; Usama Humayoon, Fahad Saeed Joiya, and Syed Abbas Ali – all Cricket Colts . Abbas , you managed a Hockey Colt; Zeeshan Tariq – Football and Hockey Colt; Jehanzeb Sukhera - Cricket Colt. Shehyaryar Khushnood – you managed a hat-trick by being a Football, Hockey and Athletics Colt. And to cap you all, Aazaan Azam Khalil – you were the Best leaving Boy from Prep. |
| I mention you all by name not because these are your only distinctions you achieved here at Aitchison. I refer to them because of the sheer range of your talents, and also to remind ourselves how important it was for us to recognise your incipient talents well in time. |
| Subsequently, in Senior School, you achieved many more honours in almost every field of academic, co-curricular and sports endeavour. Your collective honours exceed the time available to me to recount them here tonight. You can remind your sons of them when you bring them for admissions to the Old Building. |
| I know many of you may have felt disappointed that there has not been a continuation of the success you have attained until now, through to a place in the university of your choice. All of us wish with every fibre of our beings that we could make all your dreams come true. Unfortunately, life is not as considerate as that. |
| Of one thing, I am sure. Each of you is destined to achieve great things – far greater than anything you have achieved so far. Your past was a dress rehearsal for your future. Wherever you go – whether it is in the field of Engineering or Medicine or Commerce - each of you will gravitate naturally towards centre-stage, for that is where you belong. |
| Let me caution you about the perils of university life. Someone once said that the principal concern of university students are sex, drugs, booze and learning. Learning is what you have to do when the other three are not available. |
| At Aitchison, I know we did not give you much of a choice. In the absence of the other three, it had to be lessons, and more lessons, and yet more lessons. |
| Our experience is that once Aitchisonians leave Aitchison, they either hate it or love it. What they cannot do is to forget it. And that is what we will not be able to do – to forget you. There will be others who will succeed you. There might be others who outstrip your achievements. But there will never be another class that can replace you in our memory. |
| For me personally, you were my first H2s. That makes you very special. Wherever you go, whichever part of the world you decide to be in, I know that you will outshine your successes here at Aitchison. |
| It is to pay tribute to your incandescent future, that I will conclude with a few lines I composed for you last night: |
| Tonight, under this star-lit sky |
| We grieve, |
| as you leave |
| To take your place in our history. |
| Each day you spent with us |
| Are like droplets of mercury, |
| that come together |
| in a crucible of shared memory. |
| You go, and as you depart, |
| you carry within you a part |
| of what is the best in you, |
| and what was once the best in us. |
| You came to us like raw meteorites, |
| Heaven-sent, children from the sky. |
| We burnished you, |
| We polished you |
| And now return you there, |
| as stars, |
| our firmament to beautify. |
| Class of 2009 - Khuda Hafiz, and God be with you. As a memento of your stay with us, I am asking your teachers to give you a small folder. In it you will find a copy of your transcript and also a photocopy of your application from. Please frame it and remember us whenever you glance at it. . F.S. AIJAZUDDIN, 10.4.09 |
