It gives me great pleasure to be present here on the
momentous occasion of the Graduation day.
It has been 20 years since I have
graduated myself from the NIT, Surathkal in B.Tech Computer Engineering.
Having
witnessed the proceedings so far, I am transported back to my college days
again. Thank you so much for having me here.
I said that it has been 20 years since I graduated.
It is
difficult to visualize the time that is past so to put 20 years in perspective,
I will have to give some examples. I hope most of you watch telugu movies.
Yes,
it is ok to say yes because you are graduating today so the faculty cannot
scold. Just think of the ruling stars of Tollywood now,
20 years ago we were
watching their fathers and in some cases, sadly,
we were even watching their
grand-fathers as heroes!!
You have LCDS, LEDs, 3D TVs now we had Black and White TVs
and Radios
You have 100s of satellite channels to watch and we only had
DD, Doordarshan
You have MP3 players and ipods, we only had a cassette
player.
In computer Science, In our batch of 32 students, we had 30
boys and 2 girls. Hope it has changed for better now…
People may tell you different things but from my experience
our lives were much simpler.
I really can’t believe that with so many
distractions you are able to complete graduation!!
If we had so much stuff, I
am sure I would still be in college……..
Jokes apart, What is the root cause of this distraction? It
is called the GLOBALIZATION!!
Rapid strides in communication and social
networking coupled with the opening up of the economy
made it possible for us
to not only know but experience thai green curry, McDonalds burgers,
English
fish and chips, Italian pizzas.
We can think of Hyderabad as place where you
can experience the best of the world.
I remember a small joke I heard when I
was in the US which could be relevant in this context.
What is heaven? Heaven
is when you Live in America earning American
salary, eating Indian food and having a Chinese wife.
What is hell? Living in
China while earning Indian salary and having an American wife.
The internet and instant communication has helped in making
the world flat with no hierarchies.
Anyone who has interest in any subject, can
get on the net and become experts by connecting with academics, practitioners and
trainers.
This has enabled the Indian s/w industry to grow from 1 lakh
employees in the 1995 to 28 lakh in 2011.
So what are the options available to you as freshers?
Is
doing the job only option? It may have been so, 20 years ago, but now you have
many options available.
We can broadly classify these options as
doing a
job,
Starting a business (Entrepreneur),
Going for higher studies,
Joining
Volunteer Organizations or NGOs or you can join Politics.
There’s big money
to be made in politics, as I hear…
You have to assess your personality and risk appetite and
also the drive and ambition you have to choose the right path.
India is a
country of entrepreneurs! This is the right time for you to take the plunge
as
you do not have so many responsibilities and you have lot of energy.
Once you
get married and have children, the risk appetite comes down and you will crave
stability.
Higher studies is an option for some of you if you are
interested in learning more or
mastering a particular subject you are interested
in. However, if you are going to opt for a Management degree,
it is best to
work for a couple of years before going for MBA.
The work experience will give
you better direction and focus.
Working for a noble cause like working to reduce illiteracy
or
eliminating poverty is being taken up by a lot of young people nowadays.
In
these jobs, you will need lot of determination and self-drive.
More than the
financial rewards this will enrich your life and put you on a path of success.
Doing a job is the option chosen by most of you.
Thanks to
globalization and increased opportunities, you don’t have to be from an NIT or
IIT to land a job.
Globalization has helped in bringing quality education and
course materiel available to everyone.
Where ever you go, I urge you to focus
on learning for first 2 years than how much you earn.
What you learn in the
first two years will define your career later.
I would like to thank the college for inviting me and you all
for listening in.
I wish you all the best and success in whatever you take up.
Your college and faculty are proud of your achievements so far, and wish you
higher success! All the best
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