⏱ Estimated reading time: 3 min read
On our first day at the University of Peshawar, Ma’am Hina walked into the classroom and delivered a lecture with a title that sounded strange to me at the time:
“Individualism is the basis of tragedy.”
At eighteen, I disagreed with her.
I was too shy to raise my hand and challenge her. But in my mind, I thought she was wrong. Individualism seemed like freedom. It seemed like ambition, independence, and self-respect. The heroes in books stood alone. The successful men in biographies carved their own paths. Everything around me suggested that the individual was the center of the story.
So I listened, but I was unconvinced.
Eight years have passed since that lecture.
Four of those years were spent outside the walls of the university, in the real world, where theories are tested against reality and ideas either survive or collapse.
And today, I find myself returning to that classroom.
Not because I remember every argument she made, but because life has slowly proven her right.
The older I get, the more I notice that most human suffering begins when a person starts believing that he exists alone. The lonely son who cuts himself off from his family. The businessman who sacrifices every relationship for profit. The politician who places personal ambition above the public good. The husband who thinks only of himself. The father who provides money but never his presence. The friend who disappears when life becomes inconvenient. The brother who inherits blood but forgets loyalty. The teacher who wants respect without earning it. The employer who sees workers as numbers instead of people. The employee who collects a salary but never has ownership. The intellectual who wins every argument but loses every relationship. The writer who seeks applause instead of truth. The investor who chases wealth and loses peace. The influencer who has millions of followers but no one to call in times of hardship. The citizen who demands rights but ignores responsibilities. Different people, different stories, but the same tragedy: the belief that a person can truly thrive while standing alone..
The tragedy is rarely caused by strength.
It is caused by separation.
Human beings were never designed to live as isolated islands. Long before governments, corporations, or universities existed, survival depended on belonging. A man survived because he had a family, a tribe, a village, a community. His identity was connected to others.
Modern society celebrates the phrase “I.”
History was built on the word “we.”
Perhaps that is why so many people have everything their ancestors dreamed of and yet feel emptier than ever. They have careers but no community. Freedom but no direction. Independence but no belonging.
The individual is important.
But an individual detached from family, tradition, responsibility, and society eventually becomes like a tree that mistakes itself for a forest.
For years, I thought Ma’am Hina was defending conformity.
Now I realize she was warning us about isolation.
University taught me many things, but some lessons take years to understand. Some lectures end when the class is over. Others continue for a decade.
This was one of them.
