A million years ago, there was a land. It was a land of learning. Many great sages stayed here to meditate. The land was only meant for learning, meeting, being joyous and being happy. The land had magic. It just needed the right people to come there and learn, and teach and breathe and rejoice! For a million years, the land waited. It waited for the right people to come in its arms and embrace the joys of learning and being happy. You young ladies and gentlemen were the people the land waited for a million years. This is FLAME. The Land of learning. Do you remember this statement? This was my welcome remark to all of you when you entered FLAME on the oath taking day on July 28th 2009.
But today is another day. You will walk out with pride, honor, and dignity.
Graduation is one of life’s important thresholds. This threshold also provides you the opportunity to reflect on the time you've spent in the school you're leaving, the events that have occurred while you studied here, and the people that have left an imprint on you in one way or another. You come to realize that you have deeper roots than you thought.
At FLAME chief guest sir, we have always said we prepare graduates not just for their first jobs, but also for a life time. We are not in the business of just providing education, but primarily in the business of shaping character.
Chief Guest sir, I would now like to make my reflections on the FLAME experiment and its role in the Education space.
My first reflection is that the goal of the current educational system is to reduce ambiguity. Somehow, I find that both, the students and their educators, are generally uncomfortable when faced with uncertainty and ambiguity. The future of education is going to be in the ability of our young people to handle ambiguity with ease and comfort. If we prepare young leaders who can see an opportunity in ambiguity, we will have done a satisfactory job.
My second reflection is that the education in our country is in urgent need of redefinition. The FLAME experiment in its true essence is aimed at looking at education differently. It’s not just about innovative courses and curriculum, nor is it just about pedagogical innovations. It is mainly about preparing young people to be critical thinkers, to be nimble and be flexible. The ultimate aim of any education should be its ability to produce the yogi and the acrobat together... An ideal combination!
My third reflection, chief guest sir, is Education today has become a rat race. Everyone, from the educators to the students, and from the parents to the corporates, wants to prepare youngsters for their first job. Everyone wants to be in the ranking game, and the culture of most institutions is to publish or perish. We need to re-examine these paradigms carefully.
Is there a contradiction between preparing students for their first job and preparing them for a fully human life? Apparently, not. But as you dig deeper, you will find contradictions that are hard to overcome
Let me state here the essential difference between Liberal Education as understood in the west and the Liberal Education our great sages and thinkers conceptualized during Takshashila and Nalanda. The Liberal Education of the West is embedded in Sympathy .A sympathy that helped one understand another person’s perspective and become inclusive. Liberal Education as the Indians understood it, was ensconced in the philosophy of “empathy,” that is, I become “that” person myself. For example, in the West, a Psychologist is expected to have the sympathy to understand what the Anthropologist is saying. In the Indian context, our great sages asked us to have the empathy to be that person for a few moments. So it isn’t standing aside and understanding what the other is saying, but it is actually stepping into that person’s shoes itself.
My fifth reflection is that The Indian Education system has been entrenched in the idea that secularism means not to talk about religion. I do not agree with this. I believe every religion must be spoken about freely. I believe that a Jain or a Hindu must understand Buddhism and Christianity as well. Liberal Education without a solid grounding in Ethics and Values will fail. I would urge the Board to reflect on this.
Most organizational structures of the west have collapsed every 30 to 40 years. India has a great tradition of systems and structures that have survived for thousands of years. The Discover India Program which I have personally designed and implemented at FLAME must focus on this.
Chief Guest Sir, Let me give you another perspective here.
Let us consider the analogy of the European meal. It is linear, structured, and bland and has an order. It is eaten with a fork and spoon, and a knife. Look at the American meal on the other hand. It’s a large buffet spread out with a number of dishes. You walk up to every counter, may be taste a dish a little and say, hmmm I like it …no no may be not this one..
On the other hand look at the Indian meal. It’s colorful. You eat with your hands. You decide with every morsel what you want it to taste. Ummm... a little spicy may be...sure! A little sweet on the next one? Sure! A little sour on the next morsel! Absolutely possible.
We blindly carried the colonial baggage and have made our education system like the soup-to-the-sweet-dish affair. How about liberating it and making it truly Indian? This in essence has been the driving force behind my philosophy of education at FLAME, something the great Architect and Philosopher Doshi introduced me to.
At FLAME, Chief Guest Sir, I have always urged the Academicians to have a relook at the way the Business Courses are designed in India. Making Marketing managers without any understanding of Culture, Psychology, Political Sciences and Statistics or preparing Finance Graduates without a solid grounding in Politics, Psychology, Economics, and Philosophy is the mistake we have made in the past. It is time education in the country is redefined. I have had a difficult time convincing academics that this is the need of the hour. We need to give young people another perspective, another way of looking at things, simply expand their canvas. Adding the component of creativity to their learning is extremely essential. Unfortunately, there is a false hierarchy that learning Theatre or Music or Dance is less important than learning Marketing or Finance or Literature. No they are as important.
Are we going to be just another institution that fosters engineers-turned-business students or are we going to first give our students a perspective and a deeper understanding of the area they wish to specialize in?
For the past seven years, it has been my privilege to be involved in almost every facet of establishing this Foundation. I woke up each morning with the intent of going the extra mile and pushing the limits when there were any setbacks. I always acted in the best interests of this Foundation. I earned myself the dubious reputation for mails sent at 3.00 am getting replies by 3.10 am!
Today I am engulfed in nostalgia and pride about the accomplishments that we, as a unique Liberal Education Foundation in India, have realized together in such little time. Some of these include our full time residential student body quickly swelling up to 450; attracting some of the country’s best educators to our faculty, almost 44 in number, most of them with international teaching experience, and receiving an A+ by the premium-grading agency Crisil, which is a testament of our academic integrity and stability. We have developed international exchange programs with many universities.
We have established the Centre for South Asia and Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Centre for Environmental Studies. We have conducted one International Conference with 350 distinguished Professors from the best universities including Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton etc.
To you my dear students and parents
Students take a breath and promise you one thing. Your responsibility to your family begins today. This minute onwards. You will enter the world of work. And you will get married. And you will have children. Your parents will now watch you grow into confident young men and women. But you owe it to them. You have a responsibility. They held you in their arms about 2 and half decades ago. No parent can forget the first time your fingers curled around theirs and you belonged to them.
They sacrificed for you. They provided you good education. They gave into every demand you made of them. They watched you grow. Lifted you when you fell. Took your tantrums. Shaped your character. But from today onwards, your roles are reversed. You are now the parents, and they are now your responsibility.
I remember, my father used to be a very successful doctor in a small town near Pune, called Daund. He would come to Pune to meet me and my family every Tuesday, his weekly off. One Tuesday evening he kept postponing his return. I was concerned that he would be driving late in the night. So I requested him to leave early. He felt hurt like a child admonished. That was the time I realized that I was now the father and he was now in my care. I indulged on him and fed him and took care of him after that. I would call him 2 times a day on trunk call. If I missed a call on a day, he would sulk and feel I don’t love him anymore.
You my dear students must understand that ignoring simple gestures like remembering your parents birthdays, calling them every morning before leaving for work, asking them a very simple question like “Are you ok Mom ?
Are you ok Dad?” and most importantly saying “I love you Dad and Mom” can be very painful for your parents. It is therefore incumbent on you to be sensitive human beings. Our first instinct of protection is always for our child, then the self. But now on your first instinct for protection should be reserved for your parents.
Our rich culture believes in taking care of our parents, not by money or comforts but by simple gestures like these. Please don’t forget the many sacrifices your father and mother have made for you. I would have failed in my duties as a Mentor if I have not given you this value.
You might find them “uncool,” sometimes even an embarrassment, but always let them know that you care. Ultimately in a family system, power shifts with age. You will have to accept your responsibility as a daughter and a son. This is the essence of this graduation ceremony. You are now not just responsible managers, you are now most importantly responsible sons and daughters.
To you dear parents, pause. You have pushed your child hard enough . It’s your time to congratulate them. You have no idea how much you mean to them. Often at my mentoring sessions, I have asked young students, what upsets them the most, pat comes the reply “when my Dad or Mom are upset or disappointed with me.” The worst mistake we parents make is to compare our child with the sibling or their friends. Your child is a unique piece of art created by God. Love him or her as that. Watch the wonders happen to them when you look at them that way
The other day, a student was caught smoking a cigarette outside the designated zone. I simply told the warden, call his father and tell him . The student was begging me not to tell his father. I asked him why, and he said, my father will be very sad. Please know, your child needs a reassuring pat on his back and today is that day when you must congratulate your son or daughter for their outstanding achievement.
But today is a day of celebration. Let the tears of joy roll down, let there be celebration and hugging .Tell your son or daughter how truly proud you are of them.
Most of you have been my students and I have had the privilege to teach you one course or another. It has been such a pleasure teaching you, mentoring you, pushing your limits. With many of you, you gave me the unique opportunity to know the deep fears and dark secrets you trusted me with. Helping you deal with the ghosts of your past helped me heal myself. I have been most fortunate to have taught you, mentored you. The many nights of long discussions in campus about life and religion and values, the many blushes and crushes you share with me are a treasure I will carry with me all my life.
To my Entrepreneurship students, you have given me so much joy and happiness in the classes. Pushing you , goading you , putting you through all the experiential learning, making you read books end to end, everything , and it was just sheer joy! The mother of all challenges was the Discover India Project. The jury was truly international. PG's are supposed to be "constipated"...they proved me totally wrong .! Both the groups did a fabulous job and were so immersed into the creation... I just cannot tell you how happy and proud I felt...I had goose bumps when I saw you present your work .. The jury was just too stunned! Thank you my class of 2009-11.
If God were to ask me, what I would like to be in my next birth, I would ask him to give me the same students, same faculty and the same love and warmth I have received from you. I am proud of you dear students.
However, the pride I have experienced has always been tempered with some sadness. It is always difficult to part ways with people with whom you have shared laughter and friendship, with students and faculty who trust you enough to let you into some deep secrets that have been a baggage they were too scared to share.
During our Foundation Day ceremony on 16th September 2007, I pledged to step down in four years. This pledge is the essence of one of our edicts, the value of humility. I take pride in giving up something I love so deeply and dearly. With you dear batch of 2011, I shall walk the talk too. I shall relinquish my post as Chairman with effect from 1t6h September 2011.
However, after I step down as Chairman, I will continue in my role as a Founder Director, and actively work with the Board to further Flame’s mission of offering our country a diversity of leadership.
With the support from Mr Nemish Shah, the members of the Board, the President, the Deans, the faculty and the staff, and several other people, I am quite humbled by what we have been able to accomplish together. It has been a very rewarding experience with very few regrets.
What do I say about the faculty? They have enriched me so much with their intellect that I take a bow to each one of you and salute your courage in trusting an experiment called FLAME when better opportunities beckoned. Thank you, Ladies and Gentleman. I shall be forever indebted to you.
To my staff, the Gardener, who stood up and said “Namaste” to me every morning, the security guards, the class room attendants, the doctor and his staff ,my personal staff, the catering staff , the housekeeping and the help desk staff, the transport staff , the drivers and the workers , everyone , each one of you treated me with great love and affection. I bow to you with respect and affection in my heart.
Nemishbhai, you have been the inspiration and the idea behind FLAME. I have always affirmed that you have been my friend, philosopher, and guide. “Thank you” would be too insignificant a word. But I bow to you in respect for trusting me. Thank you, Sir.
To Indira, who brought the femininity, perspective, and insights that have been invaluable to the whole campus? Thank you for supporting me in my good and bad days. As I hand over the mantle of this great institution in your accomplished hands, I wish you all the very best.
With each graduating class, both at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels, a wave of thought passes out into the world and alters it irreversibly. Each class brings it with their own unique set of experiences, memories, and dreams. But just as a species carries the same set of genetic markers regardless of any individual member’s particular quirks, so it is that each wave of FLAME graduates spreads a unifying notion of what constitutes excellent and sustainable practices into the world. I like to imagine a cascading series of ripples of positive energy gradually spreading out from where we sit today, slowly transforming the world with non-violent, innovative thought. If this Foundation can act as a center for better management, better business, and better organizational structure, it will have exceeded even my most optimistic hopes. In many ways, it was my responsibility to find this place; to create and nurture it. I hope it was a job well done!
And now it is time for you, FLAME’s post-graduate class of 2011, to go and discover your responsibility to your family, to your community, and to the world. Before you walk off campus and into the rest of your lives, I will say this to you in parting. It is neither advice nor guidance: it is simply a truth that I hope each of you has the pleasure of discovering.
I have always believed that no idea is ever a repository of a single individual. It’s there in the cosmos, waiting to subsume a soul. I think the idea of Liberal Education subsumed me. It has infinite energy and power. As the dream subsumed me, it made me into a mercenary. I was obsessed, working hard at the peril of my own health, finance, family, and friends. But it was heady. As the dream began to actualize, more and more people joined the dream. But each individual has conscious and sub conscious motivations and their own baggage to carry. This starts impacting the dream but the dream is pure energy and human beings don’t have the power to alter it. So the dream escapes back into the cosmos. As I hand it over to you Nemishbhai and Indira, I hope you will hold the essence of its pure energy.
This speech would be incomplete if I did not thank my family. I would like to thank my Mother for always putting me ahead of herself, for always loving me unconditionally, my wife Meena for being my unconditional support system in the worst adversity, my daughter Pooja , who has looked at me and instinctively known what is happening to me. She is more my mother than my daughter. To my son, who has been the quiet pillar of strength and support in everything, to the new addition in my family Tina for being first my loving student and now a doting daughter-in-law , Kevin for his quite love and affection ,and my sisters Jyoti & Rajan for your courage and undying spirit, Udi and Ramesh for your love and support. Sadhana and Prakash for your devotion and faith.
In my experience, the most rewarding times in my life have come not because of a financial windfall or the acquisition of a material object, but rather from the understanding that I, personally, have had a direct positive effect on a fellow human being. As I stand here today, I look out on all of you and I am deeply moved by the thought that my actions, my vision, my dreams, have helped bring you closer to yours. You my dear students have touched me today.
My greatest accomplishment has been my parting. To be able to honor my word. To be able to have the love and blessings from all of you and being asked to stay. You have given me the greatest treasure of my life, my dear staff, students, parents, and faculty. Thank you for the love you have given me in the last few days.
Let me end my speech with a little poem I wrote on a wet pillow many days agoa when the Board accepted my decision to resign
Please take care of my child
When my mother came to drop me the first time to school
She told my teacher Mr. Musa this
I tell you Teachers and Students the same thing…
“Please take care of my child”
Some where my child has a little finger twisted
And its eyes look a little squinted.
But when you will look at it from “my” eyes, you will find my child beautiful.
Please take care of my child
I know my child has made many mistakes.
I know I have not been the best of mothers.
I know I could have been a better mother
But I beg you; please take care of my child.
When we would push the child to take its first step forward,
Everyone would clap in joy!
The Mood Indigo winners
The CFA winners
The Elite Leaders
The Entre students
The Mentees
The Council
The average kid who just broke the rule yesterday
They were all winners
Because they reminded me
I am their Father and I am their mother
Please take care of my child
What will the little bruised souls do when they need a healing touch?
What will these frayed nerves do when they get a scold from their parents?
Where will they seek flowers to put into the lake when their heart gets broken into pieces?
Let me remind you, my little one,
When you need me,
You will find me
Just round the corner
Watching you
Protecting you
Healing you
You don’t have to worry about the scary look of the Chairman anymore!
You will always see the Papa and the Teacher ready to clasp your hands
Tease you
Trouble you
Probe you
Embarrass you
But always, remember he will love you as ever.
Please take care of my little child
She may be a little dark
She may be not very popular
She may not be a winner yet
Yet in every student I meet, I see a winner
For my child is a winner
You are a winner
Before I die
Let me see in one of you a Prime Minister
A Nobel Laureate
An Olympic Champion
A NGO Leader
An Author
An Artist
A Musician
Everything you always wanted to be
Don’t break the spirit of Liberal Education
That is what will set this baby apart
Doesn’t matter how dark, squinted, and twisted my child is
It’s still my child, it’s still beautiful
Please take care of my child
As the little hand slips out of my hand, I know it’s in safe hands!
I salute you Batch of 2011. God Bless you.
