Convocation Address

The following is the Special Address given by me

on the Graduation Day in Jaya College of Arts & Science, Tiruninravur on 23.03.2014

Heroes of the day! You are the real chief guests of this day. We, the Vice Chancellor and myself, just help you in your celebrations on this wonderful day! We have all gathered here for you! Congratulations to the extraordinary young science graduates of 2012! - Biochemists, Biotechnologists, Computer Science and Electronic Science graduates, Catering experts, Mathematicians, Microbiologists and Physicists are here – with the grand panorama of flying colours – we are very proud of you. Graduates of Jaya College are always very intelligent and well-behaved. We’re so proud of you. It is great pleasure to be with you and deliver this Special Address. I am delighted to address you, the promising audience; I can see the faces of the future gathered here today… young and bright with a great promise for tomorrow.

If you are the heroes and heroines, then who is the Producer of the show? It is none other than the Chairman Professor Shri. A. Kanagaraj of Jaya Educational Trust. “Your Success is our Service” is his motto; his outstanding leadership made this day a reality for you. So let’s give him our thanks and a big round of applause.

Then, who is the Director of the show? It is our distinguished visionary - your Principal Dr. M.S. Dhanarajan, the great Biotechnologist and who guides lot of PhDs here.

The fantastic screenplay is done by your esteemed faculty members, who taught you, trained you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, mentored you, counseled you and encouraged you! It is also a fitting occasion to recall with gratitude the pioneering contributions of these professors.

I know some of you are gold medalists. Some of you hold top University ranks. Some of you won Proficiency Awards. Some of you got jobs in the campus interviews. Some of you might have turned entrepreneurs too. Some you are pursuing higher studies abroad. And, of course, some of you may be doing further studies in this college itself. I also know some of you are just graduating! And your ceremonial costume in the robes – shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all – whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker – everyone of you look the same! None of you is special in this sense! If everyone is special, then no one is. Accordingly, I congratulate the Gold medalists, rank holders and the faculty members who worked hard for this success.

No matter how much you've done, or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.

College is something you pass through, life is something you experience. Don’t worry about the percentages; Success is defined in myriad ways and you will find it and people will no longer be grading you. In actual life, back-benchers often perform well practically! Life is so different. It offers deserving place to everyone!

I wonder why they called me, an Income tax man as the Guest of Honour. You know Mr. Satya Nadella got a job with annual salary of Rs. 112 crores! You all will become taxpayers now or sooner by landing in great jobs! I thank the Jaya College for creating this many taxpayers! Pay your tax and hold your head high!

I want to congratulate all of you — the parents, the grandparents, the brothers and sisters, the family and friends who supported these young graduates in so many ways. This is your day, as well. Graduates, give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they’ve done for you.

The college has a wonderful legacy of great educational services for the past more than 20 years. By achieving the degrees, you have not only written a chapter in your own life story, but you have also become part of the Story of this College! We want the world to know this story! Now that is the story of this Jaya College, that unyielding presumption of promise, the presumption of brilliance, that presumption that everyone graduated at this college has something infinitely valuable to offer this world. That is now your story. That legacy is now your inheritance. Don’t lose this connection. Connect with your faculty and alumni; they will offer solutions at your difficult times in your life, should there be any.

This college shoulders a great responsibility for this region being rural in nature, for growing excellence in the field of arts and science. I am glad to see that a strong foundation towards this has already been laid at this institution, through the dedicated efforts of the faculty, staff, students and administration.

Not only this college – the place – Thirunindravur - where your college is located also shaped you. It is one of the 108 Perumal Divyadesams, and also an abode of Lord Shiva as Irudhayaleeswarar. When the college has shaped you scientifically, this place would have shaped you spiritually. That’s why the products of Jaya College exhibit all-round personality. This shows that it will not be sufficient for Jaya College to produce clever graduates – but rather honest persons, who can be trusted in public and private life – men and women who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting those ills. It was that mission – not just to educate, but to cultivate good upright men and women.

Today is a great day. Yes, for you, in your history, it is Graduation Day. It is a great day in Indian as well as World History too.

All of you are Science graduates – Know – today is World Meteorological Day.

Exactly on this day of 1868, The University of California was born. This signals that this Jaya College will also one day become such a great University! My best wishes for the same!

Exactly on this day of 1893, our great domestic scientist G.D. Naidu was born. This signals that all of you graduating today also imbibe his great scientific spirit!

Exactly on this day of 1931, our Bhaghat Singh was hanged by the British. This imbibes in all of us the great sense of patriotism towards this great country!

Exactly on this day of 1942, the Japanese, as part of World War II, captured Andaman Islands! The march of such a small country triggered us that we should also become technologically advanced with hard work and dedication!

Exactly on this day of 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced their discovery of cold fusion. Fusion technology is more environment-friendly as against nuclear fission and this signifies that we should protect the environment than ever before in the wake of global warming!

You have completed your degrees in 2012. Almost two years passed by now. This is actually a grand get-together event for you. I understand your nostalgia. Celebrate. At the same time, share every one’s experience in the past two years which will be useful for others. Forge strong partnerships among yourselves which will go a long way. Some of you might have just entered into married life also. Celebrate. Lead by example. Be a role model. Be a best partner to your spouse. Be a best parent for your child. Be a best son/daughter for your parents.

You are living in a time when advances in technology and communication put the

world at your fingertips! Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any other generation that came before it. You are already years ahead of us socially; You have all the information that mankind has gathered right in your pocket in your phone. You need to grab that wonderful opportunity. Now use that information to find the facts to make a better world than the one we have today.

We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion. Passion – Find something you enjoy doing. Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. Find your passion and then find some way to

use that passion to make the world a better place.

Swami Vivekananda said and I quote “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

Pursue your dreams. Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better. I know there is much greatness in each of you, and I look forward to watching it unfold.

Knowledge is great force. There are unlimited possibilities for furthering our knowledge. Read books. Sharpen your mind constantly. Learning everyday is key to success. India’s dreams to become a developed country have to necessarily rely on people like you. Contribute your mite for future development of India. We need hassle-free and corruption-free governance for the common man. We need riddance from poverty and unemployment. We need to concentrate on education and health services in our country. We need to improve them. With your Entrepreneurship skills, start up businesses and generate employment. Through building up strong alumni like in IITs, help the juniors in the college in whatever way possible. Pursuing scientific research with fellowships from CSIR should be explored. Create a Civil Services Cell in the college and through which coaching for civil services exam can be given to send many IAS, IPS and IRS like civil servants from this region. We need to reduce the inflation further. We need to contain the price rise in essential commodities. We need to improve the supply chains.  We have lot of Microbiologists and Biotechnologists here but we depend on Monsanto for all GM crops – why? We need to think on this aspect and improve our research. Some of you can think of Organic Farming also in case you have some lands. With the knowledge of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Catering technology, Computer science, Electronic science, Physics, Mathematics and Microbiology, we can devise lot of solutions to the present day problems that our country faces today. This is a great workforce with tremendous knowledge base. The knowledge gained by you on these subjects will give enormous strength and opportunities. If this is used collectively, we can achieve a lot. Once this is done, you will be the chief guest or guest of honour one day here! Those days are not very far.

Let me give you three manthras now: Accept; Take Responsibility; and Understand Love:

Accept all your mistakes, weaknesses and failures: Unless you accept your mistakes, there is no way for improvement. Analyse the reasons for the failures and you will get lot of solutions for success. Accept all Rules & Regulations of the Society – Example – Traffic Rules – Assume they were made by none other than you. Accept all the creatures, for they are all creations of Nature – You will become eco-friendly also.

Take Responsibility: There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for everything wrong; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. Unless you take Responsibility, you can never grow. To the extent you take Responsibility, you expand. Take Responsibility for you, your class, your education, your country, for the world. It is the ultimate lesson in developing Leadership. The moment you say, “I am not responsible, it is their work”, you become restricted. Restriction is death! Swami Vivekananda says and I quote “Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future.” If you take Responsibility to the entire Universe, you could even become the God!

Understand love: Nirbhaya like incidents and acid attacks are increasing atrocities in this society now. We need to introspect as a society as a whole. You have to bring in a movement. Use alumni to sensitise juniors in this aspect. What is love? The chemistry triggered by your hormones Testosterone for males or Estrogen for females is part of your natural physiology which leads to an attraction which in turns leads to infatuation and is not love. Why nature has given it? It is for sustenance of life - for generations to come on the earth. It is Procreative Energy. It has lot of energy. It is to be used for procreation. But when procreation is not needed, what to do with it? Use the Law of conservation of energy. Energy cannot be destroyed; But one type of energy can be converted into another type. So use this procreative energy for higher purposes. If not diverted for higher purposes, it remains as animal energy. If infatuation does not materialize, we often see persons destroying themselves or acid attacks. If one commits violence on himself, it means that he could not love himself. If a person cannot love himself, how can he love another person? If he could commit violence by throwing acid, can we term it as love? So, friends, educate the youth on diversion of Procreative Energy for higher purposes. If the youth spends much of its time on TV, cinema, internet, mobile phones and gossip, this procreative energy remains as low level animal energy. Instead, ask them to divert this energy for higher purposes like studies, extracurricular activities and social service. Bring in this understanding on love. This is the only way we can eradicate Nirbhaya-like incidents in our society. Use that power for something larger than yourself.

Friends, keep in your mind:

There is only one caste, the caste of humanity;

                   There is only one religion, religion of love;

                   There is only one language, the language of the heart.

From the depth of my heart, I wish each one of you success in your future endeavours.

Thank you for the honour of addressing you and congratulations to you once again.

Steve Jobs ended his famous address to young graduates as: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Swami Vivekananda ended his famous speech to youngsters as: “Arise, Awake and Stop not till you reach your goal.”

Let me also end my speech with Kavipperarasu Vairamuthu’s words:

பொறுமை கொள்
தண்ணீரைக் கூடச் சல்லடையில்
அள்ளலாம்
அது பனிக்கட்டி ஆகும்
வரை பொறுத்திருந்தால்.

சூரியனுக்கு முன் எழுந்து கொள்
சூரியனை ஜெயிப்பாய்.

விதியை அமைப்பது இறைவன்
கையில்
அந்த விதியை முடிப்பது உந்தன்
கையில்.

நீ ஓட்டம் பிடித்தால்
துன்பம் உன்னைத் துரத்தும்;
எதிர்த்து நில்
துரத்திய துன்பம் ஓட்டம் பிடிக்கும்.

பெற்றோர்கள் அமைவது விதி;
நண்பர்களை அமைப்பது மதி.

சினத்தை அடக்கு;
கோபத்தோடு எழுகிறவன்
நஷ்டத்தோடு உட்காருகிறான்.

நண்பா .. எல்லாம் கொஞ்ச காலம்
உண்மை உருவாய் நீ

உன் மார்போடு காயங்கள்
ஓராயிரம்
உன் வாழ்வோடு ஞானங்கள்
நூறாயிரம்

தாய் மண்ணோடு உன்னாலே
மாற்றம் வரும்
இனி உன்னோடு உன்னோடு
தேசம் வரும்.

You will bring the change and the nation will come along with you!

Thank you.