Build a Purpose for your lives

BCC President Advises Young Doctors

In 1982 Agha Hassan Abedi was the guest of honour at the seventh annual convocation of the prestigious Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. 

The following is the text of BCC President's address published in BCC inhouse magazine November 1982 issue. 

The other day, I happened to be in Miami in the State of Florida and was placed in a position to deliver an after ­dinner speech which was presided over by the Governor of the State of Florida. I was nervous - as I am this evening - as to how I would be able to perform this difficult and onerous duty, when I saw a very learned friend of mine, who is an orator of some reputation, come rush­ing to me and who quietly advised me that in my speech I should be genuine, wise, brief and be seated. 

I am this evening standing before you on the horns of a dilemma as to which one of his advices I should choose for my before-dinner speech and compress it within a span of just ten minutes, particularly when within these ten minutes I have also to comply with certain important formalities, such as thanking you Mr. Principal, Mr. Chairman of the Convocation Com­mittee and Mr. President of the Dow Medical College Students Union for so kindly giving me the honour and privilege of presiding over this function and for showering on me the praise and commendation that do not belong to me. To prove and establish as to how much or how little I deserve them: Mr. President, Mr. Chairman and the medi­cal graduates, let me say to you that back in 1943 I tried my luck for fulfilling my ambition of becoming a doctor and I miserably failed in my pre-medical test; and from there and then by an irony of fate, destiny has brought me here this evening to present myself before you and address the young, bril­liant, future doctors and the elite of medical profession in Pakistan. It is a long story as to what has happened to me since then and now during the long 39 years and let me assure you that I would not bore you with that as perhaps it does not make a very good story.

However, following the advice of my friend if I choose all the four require­ments of a good speech, I will have to put it in a time capsule as big as the one which I had taken this morning for my flu -a medicine called ampicilin.

I have no problem being genuine but I will have great difficulty in being wise, I would love to be brief, and I will be seated with a relief that you will see for yourself.

For me to make an effort to be wise and to give you advice, I should have the knowledge of medicine and psychology, I should know science and high technology, I should be attuned to the intricacies and beauties of art, litera­ture and philosophy. I should have an insight into the mysteries of life, exis­tence and creation and above all I should know all the problems that are con­fronted by the medical profession in the city of Karachi, in Pakistan, and in the world; and of course I should have a fair knowledge about my own problems. As luck would have it I have absolutely no knowledge about any of these realities of life. 

To say the least, it would be wise and appropriate if I knew and talked not only of your problems but also of their solutions. Fortunately for the capsule of my speech I do not require the input of wisdom as I do not possess it and I have absolved myself of the responsibility of giving you a speech full of wisdom. I am, therefore, left with just the task of being genuine, being brief and finally and shortly being seated. All the same, after you have acquired the professional knowledge and expertise of a high qual­ity I would say that you should now begin your life from what and who you are; build the object and purpose of your life within you and not outside you in the mirage; care for and build up the quality of your instinct, feelings and your psychic energy which are all one and the same thing: see, feel and realise life, existence and creation as a dynamic process or phenomenon and not as a static object; discover and realise the reality and truth of life, creation and existence as a tangible form and also as an intang­ible, unseen and invisible substance and this is possible only if you achieve within you the synthesis of your inter­nal i​nstinct or psychic energy, the pur­pose of life and the external energy which is your environment, and this is achieved if you meet these three realities in the crucible of humility and love and shape them into your absolute faith in God and his humanity and how in His will and design, He has put the act of this entire cosmos together with such integrated coherence.

Let me assure you, my very dear and adorable doctors and future servants of humanity, with all the sincerity at my command, I pray that you fulfil the pur­pose of your life which is nothing but to submit to God, to serve His humanity and to give in whatever form you can and to succeed. Knowing during 60 years of my arduous life that it is not easy to do so and it is possible only with the wish and will of God, let me in the end put in my capsule a present for the Dow Medical College in the sum of Rs. 500,000 and two scholarships for higher education in UK or USA for deserving new medical graduates that the Princi­pal of the Dow · Medical College, the Chairman of the Convocation Com­mittee and the President and Secretary of the Students Union of the Dow Med­ical College may decide in their good discretion. 

Finally let me make a statement of truth that the present was neither earned by and through my efforts nor is it being presented to you by me but by BCC. It is just a very small gesture that was directed to be shown by God Almighty in his big and grand design.  

Dow Medical College  was a established in 1945 and named after Sir Hugh Dow, Governor of Sindh during British India. In 2003, it became a constituent College of the newly formed Dow University of Health Sciences in Pakistan.