Remarks at Notre Dame Collage
30 January 2008 at 1500 hrs.

- As I stand here today I am overwhelmed by a deep sense of nostalgia. My presence here for me is a trip down memory lane. I spent two stimulating years in this College between 1962 and 1964. I owe the efflorescence of my intellect largely to this institution. I am deeply beholden to Father Benjamin Costa for providing me this opportunity to return to my Alma mater.

- The Notre Dame College was founded to spread knowledge. Indeed its motto was "Diligite Lumen Sapientiae" - love the light of wisdom. For decades the College has been doing just that. Those also have come in, taken their lessons here, and have walked out of these portals, have gone forth into the world beyond imbued with what we then described as, and as you must surely do also now, the 'Notre Dame spirit'.

- This country, Bangladesh is in the cusp of great changes. Today we have peace and stability in our society. We are undertaking institutional reforms to ensure that this calm is sustainable. I would urge students to take advantage of this situation. Widen the frontiers of your education. Learn skills that will be useful. Sharpen and hone your capabilities in Internet technology. Strengthen the moral fibres of your personality. You should be not just a learned but a good human being. Then the future, and the world is yours. Notre Dame has provided you with the foundation of all these qualities. Now go forth and build on them.

- We are all aware that our aspirations eventually do not find full fruition. Life advances a bit like a Gothic Cathedral, which must be built upon continuously, brick by brick, and is never quits finished. But still, aims high. As the great English poet Robert Browning once reply remarked: "man's reach should exceed his grasp, what else another heavens for".

- I wish you all Godspeed in life.

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