3rd November 2008.
School of Computing Sciences Farewell Function, VIT
Speech by ME
Respected Chancellor Sir, Dignitaries on the dias….. an MY DEAR FRIENDS and JUNIORS!
A very Good evening to all of you!
I'll try my best to avoid the "Papa Kehte speeches of koi engineer kakaam karega, business mein koi apna naam karega".
Its kind of funny that we have got to bid farewell to this college today only to come back in a few days to give our vivas and sem exams.But then I guess deep somewhere we all realize that this journey is nearing its end, and I'm happy that I got a chance to speak to all myfriends on this occasion.
I think that a farewell speech is probably the ONLY speech wherestudents actually listen to the speaker (well I am hoping at leastthat is the case right now!)
Now that I have your undivided attention, let me not waste time insharing experiences as we were on this journey together and I'm sureall of us of shared this ONE BEAUTIFUL PERIOD at VIT!
It is hard to imagine that in a few days, there will be no classes, nobatches, no seminars, no record submissions, no struggles for the backbenches and copied assignments…. I don't know how life would be without getting up in the morning and running late for class, I don'thow it would be without the best bunch of batch mates one can everwish to have!
Friends, its hard not to get philosophical on such occasions andpardon me but the 'about to be engineer' has just realized that the wheel of time has turned another revolution and we're now at the threshold of emerging into a new world, it leaves me with a sudden surge of emotions.. Something very similar to the feeling I had when my parents dropped me at the hostel three and half years ago….. I am again upset because this place has become my home …. very honestly I confess that it's not just the campus … the school ……. My hostel room……. My teachers …. But I have sincerely fallen in love with all.
It is time I on behalf of the '05 Registration series…. thank all of you, the staff, the management and my juniors and friends for all the encouragement and support we have received through these years at VIT. Friends, VIT has been a great all round learning experience.Apart from the knowledge of the subjects which we studied, VIT has opened our eyes to this world. And at a time where vested interestsare using regionalism as an instrument for subjugating our national integrity, I feel very proud in saying that my university campus is perhaps the most diverse and cosmopolitan campus in the country andthe world.
I have friends from every nook and corner of this vast nation and around the globe. And I for one am extremely proud of this legacy atVIT. I guess no one here deserves greater credit for this than our Honorable Chancellor Sir! It is his vision that has made VIT a truly GLOBAL institute…. Being a VITian is not just about being a student, it is indeed a way of life!
Thank You Sir!
VERY HUMBLY I STATE this …..
our Dean Dr. Khalid sir, my programme manager Dr. Iyengar and myesteemed teachers….
We perhaps have nothing much to offer as GURU DAKSHINA except our deepest heartfelt REGARD, a lot of gratitude and a promise that we shall try our level best to insure that we add to the glory of VIT where ever we go.
THANK YOU juniors for such a wonderful evening that you planned for usI!
Thank you everybody!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Another Secular Cry
I’m shocked. I’m in dismay. Having lived in a relatively cocoon like environ of a cosmopolitan college campus, perched in the southernmost state of India but with the peaceful and very happy coexistence of youth from all across the country and the world, I live in a mirage. Everything is so similar, the aspirations of the youth, the desires, the needs and wishes. We all want to get good jobs, have handsome incomes, do MBAs and higher studies, we want to rule the world and live the Golden Bird India dream.
Living on the better side of the Great Indian Divide which is much talked about these days, I am curious about the other end. Some days cheer you up, with news of skyrocketing development and promising glimpses of a wonderful future and yet most others are grim reminders of what the other India is facing. I do not distinguish this India from the other on financial parameters which are transient anyways, I do not want to harangue over inflation, stocks and oil prices and yet I don’t want to paint a rosy picture of a bright future. My division of India is on the secular and fundamentalist lines, an age old debate but now more relevant than ever.
Development has happened, progress is here to stay, richer shall the nation be but will this phenomenal increase in the GDP amount to Gross National Happiness?
Is this India not aware of the loss of secular identity we face at the hands of Jihadists? Aren’t we turning a blind eye to the atrocious and often state sanctioned violence by VHP, Bajrang Dal etc.? I’m ashamed to read about the Orissa carnage, attacks on churches across Karnataka. I’m unable to comprehend the fact that almost all major cities in the country are being bombed relentlessly; I’m gaping at the polarization that our national fabric has seen. I’m doing what everyone is doing.
I spoke to a Delhi friend about a week after the latest blasts, she told me that the general public would refrain from standing close to luggage at metro stations, avoid people of“typical attire” at parks and markets, and even be careful of even using garbage bins. She spoke an awful lot more about how people spot people as “suspicious” and how the secular temperament is changing…. Saffron and Green never seemed so drifted apart from each other as now.
Pakistan allowed religious fundamentalism to enshrine itself in the roots and core of the country, the armed forces, the educational system, government policies and national ideals since the late 1970s. We know what Pakistan faces today. A largely moderate society is being transformed and no one is safe, everything foreign is hated, the Islamabad Marriott blasts (and innumerable others) are a stark reminder of how deep has the Jihadi penetrated, the comfort to strike at will anyone anywhere. The nation lies in tatters.
Do we wish to let fundamentalism take over in our case of a multi-ethnic multi-religious society?
Be proud of this I read somewhere, a 1960s CIA report claimed India’s internal diversity will cause her collapse in 5 years. We’ve come a long way from then, yet not so far.
Out of all that we have at stake today, our first attempt should be to protect secularism, with every bomb blast and those affected, arrested and blamed- more people from this India move into the other one. The society in Our India is either too berserk minting money, too ignorant or dumb. The silent majority as we claim cannot go silent anymore, the more we sit and watch and ignore these grim reminders of social polarization, more we push us to the ill-fated prospect of balkanization or much worse. You may wish and claim and tout that it shall not happen but if the fundamentalist at both ends are given a free hand, wait 20yrs and see.
If we don’t rescue secularism, all else shall fall. Our only grace, our last chance. I’m still in shock. I’m in dismay and the headline I just read “Sack Jamia Millia Islamia VC: BJP”.
Good Morning India!
Azadi from Kashmir
^^An Indian army soldier, wearing red shirt torn by protestors, is paraded by villagers shouting anti-Indian Army solgans in Bandipore town, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Srinagar
I’m sorry if I say this is too loud or barefaced, but what India needs is Azadi (Independence) from Kashmir. From 1948-2008, we have spent 60 long years trying to compromise with a set of people who have never thought of themselves as Indians. In a state with a ‘Prime Minister’ till 1953, the call for ‘liberation’ was never too bleak for the naked eye. Right through the 1970s, 80s they cheered Pakistan, chanted mantras for ‘Freedom Movement’, ‘plebiscite’, ’autonomy’ and with insurgency since 1989 India has been demonized for no sin.
Having poured in billions in aid and billions more in fighting militancy, Indian Army faces the disgrace of being treated as an occupying force in its own territory. They now call for the withdrawal of the Indian forces from the valley; in the eyes of the world, international press, hawkish neighbors and radical regimes Indian forces are gross mutilators of human rights and have made the life of the ‘innocent’ Kashmiri terrible.
Face it: The Army doesn’t enjoy being pushed to the worst possible proxy war with the threat from locals and foreign militants always lingering and a terrorist or two lurking in the dark alleys. The army is called in only when the worst possible breakdown of the constitutional machinery occurs, which was and will be the state of Kashmir eventually.
With thousands of jawans and officers lost to the cause, 20 years later we see this as the India’s worst investment of resources to a thankless people. The fact of the matter is that as a soft-state India hasn’t quashed Kashmir like China has done with Tibet or Israel is doing with Palestinians, we have not done it because we have not been a militarist state, every nation has a state ideology (like the U.S. believes it is the sole guardian of democracy), India more than anything has tried to uphold secular democratic framework of a motley of cultures. Imagine the body-blow the secular state ideology has received when India’s army has to patrol its only Muslim majority state...humiliating!
Why then do we stick to Kashmir when the Kashmiris don’t wish to continue with The Union? The once secular and vividly romantic environs of Kashmir Valley have erupted in August 2008 to let loose all the conceited anger, hatred and filth which had accumulated since decades. The Kashmir v/s Jammu, Hindu v/s Muslim, India v/s Pakistan, Separatist v/s Moderate malevolence strewn across the state has maligned and ‘Paradise Lost’ is more apt than clichéd.
Here’s why..
India sticks to Kashmir as it is the very idea of the Indian secular state and the firm belief that a Muslim-majority Kashmir can be happier, more prosperous in the secular fabric of India than at the hands of a buffer ‘Azad Kashmir’ or a full P-o-K.
India suffers from this bout of ignominy in admitting that in Kashmir, the proving ground for its state ideals, the unity in diversity and associated paraphernalia has collapsed under the weight of dead bodies.
India understands, if Kashmir goes there’ll be no stopping the band-wagon, virtually all NE states and every separatist group would get the booster dose for ‘Liberation’.
India’s eternal romance with paradise crown of Dal Lake, Gulmarg and Wular, the picturesque snow fields where Shammi Kapoor once sang ‘Yahooo!’ is a mainstay to modern Indian geopolitical psyche.
You are free to add as many more….
The common media projection of gullible Kashmiris being played at the hands of Pakistan has fallen on its face as the August demonstrations proved that if one call for protest by the Hurriyat could mobilize 5-lakh ordinary Kashmiris, there is definitely a sense of lack of understanding on our side.
The question is do we still wish to understand, standing at the crossroads of the giant leap to becoming a superpower or falling back to being the world leaders of the third world. Nehru said it and the tryst continues, our destiny is being remolded every second now. Do we wish to carry the burden of a thankless people who haven’t let any progress whatsoever get through them in the past 60 years? Is there a need and logic in attempting reconciliation?
A 100-acre plot of land, that is all it took to bring down the ‘stabilized’ Kashmir rhetoric, that is all it would take for these people to claim sovereignty and oaths of fealty for Pakistan. Indian deserves much better and thus more than ever now, the Kashmiris need to decide what their fate would be:-
a.) With and as a constituent of a resurgent India or
b.)On the whimsical path to Azad Kashmir and dream to be paralyzed into mis-governance and turmoil worse than now (like India’s many neighbors) or
c.) To join the God-forsaken Pakistan, which will be unique for the decades to come in having the Taliban, radical Islamists as well as the Americans against itself and yet serving as their battle theatre, on a plummeting social and economic base.
The radical Sangh Parivar and the dream of ‘Akhanda Bharat’ should take the reality bite and it is time Kashmir and Indian subconscious woke up to the reality. It is Kashmir’s call for the future!
Having poured in billions in aid and billions more in fighting militancy, Indian Army faces the disgrace of being treated as an occupying force in its own territory. They now call for the withdrawal of the Indian forces from the valley; in the eyes of the world, international press, hawkish neighbors and radical regimes Indian forces are gross mutilators of human rights and have made the life of the ‘innocent’ Kashmiri terrible.
Face it: The Army doesn’t enjoy being pushed to the worst possible proxy war with the threat from locals and foreign militants always lingering and a terrorist or two lurking in the dark alleys. The army is called in only when the worst possible breakdown of the constitutional machinery occurs, which was and will be the state of Kashmir eventually.
With thousands of jawans and officers lost to the cause, 20 years later we see this as the India’s worst investment of resources to a thankless people. The fact of the matter is that as a soft-state India hasn’t quashed Kashmir like China has done with Tibet or Israel is doing with Palestinians, we have not done it because we have not been a militarist state, every nation has a state ideology (like the U.S. believes it is the sole guardian of democracy), India more than anything has tried to uphold secular democratic framework of a motley of cultures. Imagine the body-blow the secular state ideology has received when India’s army has to patrol its only Muslim majority state...humiliating!
Why then do we stick to Kashmir when the Kashmiris don’t wish to continue with The Union? The once secular and vividly romantic environs of Kashmir Valley have erupted in August 2008 to let loose all the conceited anger, hatred and filth which had accumulated since decades. The Kashmir v/s Jammu, Hindu v/s Muslim, India v/s Pakistan, Separatist v/s Moderate malevolence strewn across the state has maligned and ‘Paradise Lost’ is more apt than clichéd.
Here’s why..
India sticks to Kashmir as it is the very idea of the Indian secular state and the firm belief that a Muslim-majority Kashmir can be happier, more prosperous in the secular fabric of India than at the hands of a buffer ‘Azad Kashmir’ or a full P-o-K.
India suffers from this bout of ignominy in admitting that in Kashmir, the proving ground for its state ideals, the unity in diversity and associated paraphernalia has collapsed under the weight of dead bodies.
India understands, if Kashmir goes there’ll be no stopping the band-wagon, virtually all NE states and every separatist group would get the booster dose for ‘Liberation’.
India’s eternal romance with paradise crown of Dal Lake, Gulmarg and Wular, the picturesque snow fields where Shammi Kapoor once sang ‘Yahooo!’ is a mainstay to modern Indian geopolitical psyche.
You are free to add as many more….
The common media projection of gullible Kashmiris being played at the hands of Pakistan has fallen on its face as the August demonstrations proved that if one call for protest by the Hurriyat could mobilize 5-lakh ordinary Kashmiris, there is definitely a sense of lack of understanding on our side.
The question is do we still wish to understand, standing at the crossroads of the giant leap to becoming a superpower or falling back to being the world leaders of the third world. Nehru said it and the tryst continues, our destiny is being remolded every second now. Do we wish to carry the burden of a thankless people who haven’t let any progress whatsoever get through them in the past 60 years? Is there a need and logic in attempting reconciliation?
A 100-acre plot of land, that is all it took to bring down the ‘stabilized’ Kashmir rhetoric, that is all it would take for these people to claim sovereignty and oaths of fealty for Pakistan. Indian deserves much better and thus more than ever now, the Kashmiris need to decide what their fate would be:-
a.) With and as a constituent of a resurgent India or
b.)On the whimsical path to Azad Kashmir and dream to be paralyzed into mis-governance and turmoil worse than now (like India’s many neighbors) or
c.) To join the God-forsaken Pakistan, which will be unique for the decades to come in having the Taliban, radical Islamists as well as the Americans against itself and yet serving as their battle theatre, on a plummeting social and economic base.
The radical Sangh Parivar and the dream of ‘Akhanda Bharat’ should take the reality bite and it is time Kashmir and Indian subconscious woke up to the reality. It is Kashmir’s call for the future!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)