P S Senior Secondary School Annual Day Celebrations
The Annual Day Celebrations of P S Senior Secondary School were held on 14 August 2010, on the eve of Independence Day, at Sathguru Gnanananda Hall, Chennai.
N Kumar was the chief guest on the occasion.Excerpts from his message to ‘tomorrow’s India’ on the occasion:
“…on the eve of Independence, I thought it was important to remind ourselves of the sacrifice that our previous generations made to obtain independence. I am sure they had in their dreams a free India that would lead the world and Indians who lived with discipline and moral values!
Just like Nelson Mandela now in South Africa, we had Mahatma Gandhi. But behind the Gandhis and Mandelas were thousands of simple, committed patriots who laid down their lives for the country many of them without even a word written about them. It is the same in the corporate world, where I have spent most of my life, where there are unsung heroes behind the Mittals and Ambanis. It is true in every walk of life. In sports, we read about the Messis in football and Dhonis in cricket, but there is always a team behind them.
Therefore, my first message to you is that, while recognition is important, maybe a small percentage of this country will gain that. The more important virtue is the commitment to one’s task.
Please commit yourself to your tasks, whatever, your task, whichever field that you may in – engineer, musician, builder, sports person.The second thought for the evening is what our Prime Minister calls “inclusiveness”. You are all aware that while India has brilliance and richness in abundance, it has poverty in equal measure. Our Prime Minister has of course taken on this rightful task of inclusive growth on a national level. I think each one of us in tomorrow’s world must keep this in mind. Some of us who are fortunate must conserve and share what God has given us with our community. I am not talking of huge donations or monies but small things like donating a book to a poor student, spending time with someone who is in need are all steps in the right direction.
Hony. Secretary and Correspondent AN Radhakrishnan greeting N Kumar with a bouquet. Also seen is CV Narasimhan, Chairman.
I must mention here that when I was in school (MCC) we had a Tamil Medium, a Malayalam Medium along with the English Mediums. The entire education was done in those languages. This is what I call as inclusiveness. These practices can well be borne in mind by our political leaders.
The third and last thought I want to leave with you is that you must think that we are Indians first. There are many examples today where we divide ourselves by religion, language and many, many other differences that sometimes we forget that we are Indians first.
India is fast growing from being a land of snake charmers and Taj Mahal to being recognised as an industrial leader. We are moving from being one of the laggards of growth to a leadership position. They say going by the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) report, India will be the 3rd or 4th largest economy in the world by 2020. It is the ‘Indianness’ of tomorrow’s leaders that will propel the country to achieve its position of leadership.
In conclusion, as leaders of tomorrow, I appeal to you all -
• To think as Indians first
• Stick to principles
• Do it well AND
• Work as a team and work with people who are not fortunate.
N Kumar being received by student leaders. Principal Lakshmi Srinivasan looks on.