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to see the vice-chancellor for some other reason. I was the prefect of the hostels, and the superintendent of the hostels was continually issuing orders -- of course they had to pass through me. If I found they were not right I threw them away; if they were right then I pasted them on the board. He was very angry.
He told me, "lt is not within your power to throw away my orders."
I said, "You prove that it is not within my power." So I had gone just to explain the whole thing, and that the superintendent would be coming, and that this was the situation: "He issues stupid orders. Now I am not so stupid as to put those orders on the board of the hostel. So either you accept my resignation as a prefect, or when he comes make it clear to him that these orders are stupid and the prefect is doing right."
For example, one order was that exactly at nine all the lights should be out. I said, "This is nonsense. I read up to three o'clock in the night; and I have come to the university to study as much as possible. I am not doing any harm to anybody. I am not going to put my light off at nine o'clock. It will be put off at three o'clock. He can put his lights off at eight o'clock or nine o'clock or whenever he wants. He should put them off forever -- I have no problem.
"And no student has reported that they have any trouble -- because all the students have their own times and their freedom. Somebody studies up to ten, somebody studies up to twelve. Somebody goes to bed early, gets up early and starts reading at three o'clock; when I am going to sleep he is going to start reading and puts his light on. Now to change this is nonsense. And I have told the superintendent,'You are trying to control even our sleep. In the day you control us: what to do, how to do it, where to go, where not to go. Even in the night -- soon you will be starting to control our dreams and asking us, "Why did you dream of this?"'"
I told the vice-chancellor, "You are a man of history, you must know that one emperor of Egypt issued an order -- this is an historical fact -- a pharaoh issued an order to the whole kingdom that nobody should enter his dreams. If anybody
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