CANDLE LIGHT CEREMONY

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Our sweet and serene candle light ceremony, which was not conducted for the past two years, was conducted this year, kindling the passionate moments of the past. Here is  ....


PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

You, my students, are all here to observe a few minutes of solemnity.  Your teachers are here saying silent prayers for you.  Your friends are waiting to express the pain of parting.  This moment of silence might throw the following questions to you: Why has this parting come so quickly?  Where were those days of innocence, dreams and hope?  What good has my stay in the American College done to me? I am sure that each one of you will have your own answers. Or, you will be searching for some.

On my own behalf and on behalf of my colleagues, I am here to speak a few words.  While we offer you felicitations, we would like to lead you into a moment of contemplation.  You must remember first, that you are graduating from one of the best colleges in India.  Sometime ago I said that your very identity as a student of the American College, would win half the battle for you in your life.  You have in your possession now, very useful knowledge and the hard and the soft skills needed for employment.  Your teachers have taken every effort to make you the best for the employer.  This must give you a lot of satisfaction and confidence.  What is not readily recognized, however, is how the college has endowed you in terms of certain goodness.  This goodness is otherwise called the spirit of the American College.  This includes your sense of wellbeing, self-esteem, moral righteousness, aesthetics and empathy for others.  This gives you a distinct outlook as the student of the American College.  This distinctiveness you may not realize now.  Perhaps you might realize this after you take up a job, or may be after five years, or who knows, after ten years!  You will be different, and would show readiness to accept challenges, ability to find original solutions, desire to celebrate freedom and make sacrifices for promoting common good.

My dear friends, unlike the many belonging to my generation, you are entering a world which is full of opportunities.  To my great amusement I understand that between the time I was born and now, the income of Tamilnadu state alone has increased by five hundred times.  So has the personal income.  All of you have invitation to take employment in a global market today, the promises of which you know better than I do.

But let me pause to make a word of caution. Prosperity brings with it, its own perils.  This is also an era where we have come to worship techno-economic marvels, fragmented information, the virtual space, the selfish pride and conspicuous consumption.  There is a collapse of time and space.  The world looks more fragmented than ever.  Not a single day passes without we lamenting about all pervasive corruption, shameless nepotism, terrorist violence, mind-boggling poverty and death of poor children.  We look for answers elsewhere and spin snobbish theories.  Without a second thought I tell you that we unwittingly contribute to these perils through our new found selfishness, avarice and the attendant indifference to common good.  Indifference to common good thrives on prosperity.

To undo indifference you need a noble heart; a few minutes in a day to empathize with the sufferings of a neighbour; the mind to take risk by going that extra mile with the needy who is in your vicinity.  I do not ask you to aspire to be a Mahatma.  But certainly I can ask you to be that simple soul who will have feelings for others; empathy for others; respect for others.

As I advise you I am also conscious how good you could be.  You all stood by us in troubled times that visited us for no one’s asking.  We all stood together as a hapless tribe trying to protect its sacred grove.  My heart bleeds when I think of the losses you suffered when that nemesis stared at you. You proved your mettle earnestly trying to understand the common good.  That was a lesson for your life.

The time has come for us to part.  I wish the spirit of your alma mater that dwells in you and holds you, would certainly make you different.  And I wish that you become the soul of the soulless world that is threatening to emerge.  And you become the salt of the earth.

May God Bless You All!
                  
Yours as ever
Dr. T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar
Principal and Secretary


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