All together now, my dear graduates, take in a slow, deep breath....and breathe out slowly. It is not over yet, but mere moments separate you from the finish line.
Graduation is one of life’s watershed experiences. It 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.
Chief Guest Sir,
I begin my speech with 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 that 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 conceptualised during Takshashila and Nalanda. The Liberal Education of the West is embedded in Sympathy. A sympathy that helped one understands 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 organisational 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 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 or taste another and…no no may be not this one..
On the other hand look at the Indian meal. It’s colourful. 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.
I believe that at FLAME we have done this partially. We have a long way to go but we have the ability and a unique opportunity to redefine the paradigms of education
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!
To you my dear students and parents
You have been even bigger institution builders than any of us have been dear batch of 2011. You came to FLAME in 2007 with a lot of hopes and expectations. Your hopes were quickly converted to despair, because you felt that nothing was there... not anything at all!
But you trusted me blindly. I do know that it needed a lot of courage and faith for you to invest 4 years of your life with us. It meant giving up a lot of traditional comforts that you were used. A bike or a car. A servant and an air-conditioned room. Junk food and dance floors. Sharing your room with 15 others!
There was uncertainty and ambiguity everywhere! You also learnt how to encash it by the way! But you trusted me blindly. Parents used to come to see you and feel terrible seeing the conditions you were living in, but you reassured them that it’s going to be fine! Who could have been a better optimist than this batch of 2011? But you proved it young men and women. You proved that you can make an institution yourself, for you stood by us through thick and thin.
I have been fortunate to develop close relationships with all of you. Consequently, each time you have affectionately called me ‘Pappa’ or “Santa”, it made my heart sing with joy and gratitude.
And as the time for our parting came near, whilst you were busy celebrating your graduation with your pool parties, I started to review some of the work you had done. From your Discover India Projects, to presentation of papers in the recently held international conference at FLAME, from the Monographs you wrote, to the fierce competition you gave to your Postgraduate batches.
The graduation films I saw that some of you made. Whoof, what an amazing change! Parents, who had given up on their children, were actually respecting their sons and daughters! The other day I saw a father weeps inconsolably after seeing his son’s film! You have surpassed all our expectations. You still do not know how good you are.
And thank god for that!
Please realise that once you go back into the real world, you will quickly realize how much better you are than your counter parts. But if you don’t keep pace, you will quickly vanish in to ordinariness. So keep pushing yourself, and don’t ever give in to mediocrity.
But today, dear batch of 2011, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you for making the FLAME experiment stand up on its feet and I want everyone here, from the faculty to the staff, the Board to the Parents to give you a big round of applause for your contribution in creating this great new idea called FLAME. You my friends have created a truly national benchmark of what an undergraduate can do. Once you are out there and people begin to see the difference, the gospel of FLAME will spread like wildfire. I bow to you my batch of 2011.
As the Founder Chairman of this Foundation, it has been my privilege and honour to address each graduating class since our inception. Each graduation ceremony has evoked mixed emotions for me.
There has been a sense of pride in seeing each individual student, having helped each to get in touch with who they are, and having enhanced their ability to complete their personal jigsaw puzzle and see themselves more clearly.
With many I have witnessed insecurities blossom into self-confidence, fragility transform into solidity, tentativeness into surety of purpose, from being self-absorbed to warm and highly sensitive human beings.
In many ways, everyone here has touched me deeply and I am sure we have all earned a little space in your hearts!
But this year’s convocation evokes entirely new emotions since it is the last one in which I am participating as Chairman.
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 16th 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.
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, the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and the Centre for Environmental Studies. We have conducted one International Conference with 350 distinguished Professors from the best universities including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, etc. Harvard offers 36 Majors Chief Guest sir, we offer 24!
Our students have won several national awards. One of our Scholarship students has earned a 100% scholarship in Japan for pursuing her MBA. The list of accomplishments for a 3 ½ year period is very long but I am restricting myself to just a few.
I have just one small request to the distinguished faculty here; being a member of a Liberal Arts faculty has to be a 24-hour engagement. Whilst research is the cornerstone of every great Foundation, Flame’s commitment to the Guru-Shishya ethos creates a special responsibility for all of us Teachers. We must commit ourselves to a more active engagement with the students outside our classrooms.
The Indian youth today does not look for freedom. In fact they have more than they want! But what the youth mostly looks towards us for is direction. We are not so much in the business of education as we are in the business of shaping character. I would therefore urge the entire distinguished faculty and this august Board here to reflect upon, how we are going to engage ourselves more actively in the revival of the Guru-Shishya ethos. Somewhere I feel we could have done better on that front.
I believe that the undergraduates at FLAME are special in one distinct way. They are now empowered to handle the ambiguity and the multiplicity of a fast changing world better than any other educational system in the country.
I congratulate you my dear faculty for having empowered our students to do that.
The Discover India Program, the Elite Leadership Program, the NGO Internship, the ELRI Labs are all a testimony of this. The students come back, transformed and mature, sensitive yet retaining the researcher’s impassionate observation of the social milieu we live in.
I would also like to thank Shri Shivajirao Kadam, Vice Chancellor of Bharatiya Vidya Peeth, Shri M S Jadhav and all the other staff of the Bharatiya Vidyapeeth University for their support. As I woke up this morning with a tinge of sadness, I only asked myself three questions
“Was I selfless?
Did I do my best?
Do I have any regrets?”
The answers to me were obvious. I have been selfless almost to a fault. I have worked day and night, without any respite.
As I touched my mother’s feet this morning, seeking her blessings I asked her, did I do my best?
She said Son you did your best.
Do I have any regrets?
Perhaps a few.
Maybe I should have done this thing a little better and that thing a little carefully. When I worked for the earthquake, I was actually dousing a fire elsewhere. So some regrets will always be there. But I walk away with pride. And you my dear faculty and students are the source of this pride. FLAME is like my own child. May be one finger is twisted a bit, maybe it’s a bit cockeyed, but yet it’s my child and I just love my child, just like all you parents do!
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 into your accomplished hands, I wish you all the very best.
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.
People touch the lives of many they encounter without ever realizing the effect they have. In their own simple way, they can restore your faith in humanity. I am fortunate that I have met many such people over the last seven years.
My dear graduates, as for you, you will soon leave this Foundation having gained many abilities and critical thinking skills that are essential for a better life for yourselves. However, as important as the insights you have gained here are, your future happiness will greatly depend on how aware you are, the courage you show to be honest to yourself, and your perseverance through life’s trials and tribulations.
When you trust and act on your intuition, you increase your self-esteem, build trust in yourself, and experience a profound sense of security that no relationship or amount of money will ever give you. Don’t concern yourselves too much about how quickly you reach your destination, but appreciate and learn from everything while you travel to your destination.
It also takes courage to be who you truly are, to stand up for what you believe in, and to follow your dreams amidst a sea of possible naysayers, who might label you as a dreamer and say you’ll never make it. Do not forget that this Foundation was spawned from a dream and had a lot of naysayers too.
Today is, of course, a day of great celebration. It is a culmination of a lot of hard work and sacrifices, not only from yourself, but also from your cherished families and, perhaps, from some supportive friends. I am sure that your loved ones are extremely proud of your accomplishment.
In preparation for this ceremony, many parents here today have probably pondered about how quickly time has passed. To them it mustn’t seem so long ago when they held you in their arms for the first time. This was followed by the very special moment when you first curled your tiny fingers around their finger and held on so tight, that they really knew that you had their heart and would always have it.
The greatest aspiration any child has is to win accolades from his or her Parents. My father died before he could see me succeed. I ask each one of you parents, not to make the mistake of not telling your child that you do love them and that you are proud of your son or daughter.
Today is the day dear parents. Put your arms around your child and look into their eyes with pride and tell them that you are proud of them. A little smile and a little tear drop will be a memory no money or success can replace.
To you students, let me tell you, just as you yearn for that one word of appreciation from your parents, you would be surprised to know, how much your parents want to hear you say that they were good parents too!
So do walk up to them and say “Mom, Dad, thank you for being such wonderful parents!” let the tears of joy, happiness, and pride roll...
And now you proud parents, when you shake those grown-up hands and congratulate your children, please do be secure in the knowledge of a job well done in raising them. You have made it possible for your children to have a bright future. Now is the time to trust your children and allow them the independence to fulfill their own destiny.
And, finally, to the graduates of the class of 2011, I offer my sincerest congratulations for challenges met, for the milestones crossed and sometimes even surpassed. As you walk out through these doors today, I hope you will realize your true potential, but the future belongs to only those that will hold on to their values and take pride in their roots. FLAME has hopefully helped you to discover your identity and the unlimited possibilities before you.
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.
Graduating Batch, may you approach life with honesty, integrity, hard work and a humble demeanour that will hide the giant within all of you. Class of 2011, I salute you!
Let me end this with a poem I wrote on a wet pillow many nights ago, when the Board graciously accepted my decision to retire. This is a poem I wrote on behalf of both, myself and the Graduating class of 2011.
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 ELRI 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!
Thank you and God Bless you All.
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