Hon’ble Vice
Chancellor of the University, Distinguished Heads of Department, Learned
Professors, esteem lecturers and staff, my Dear Colleagues, Ladies and
Gentlemen. At the outset, I would like to wish you all a very Good Afternoon.
I am Phurba,
hailing from the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan which is, some choose to say
sandwiched between two giants, India and China. Today, I am standing before
you, with a myriad of emotions; quite similar to those I faced the first day I
entered this building. Most of all, I will miss the very heart of my experience
as a student; my friends and my teachers. A lot of things will change in our
lives from now on! But the memories, the fun, frolic, experiences, no one can
take that away from us. I am extremely proud to be able to call this University
as my alma mater. I am proud to call myself as an alumini of this well known
University, which is truly, The Peak of Learning.
If there is one thing which
we’d take from this University back to our own country, it’ll be the point
about the nectar of knowledge that we have sucked from this very university.
Knowledge is power and we cannot quantify or put price tag on it. It is
precious and priceless. As most of you may be aware that most of our friends
are facing difficulties to limit their baggage to the quantity allowed by
respective airlines. If knowledge, experience and learning are something
tangible, I don’t have slightest doubt that the situation would be far and
worse than limiting our luggage. Within this three months time we have learned
many things, so much so from not having touched the computer to techno savvy. We
were able to engage ourselves meaningfully in social media where a group
exclusively has been created for 29th IDEPA which is administered by
me on the face book. It was surprising that within a few weeks, whole batch has
become members of this group. We can now vividly remember those planning
techniques like projections and various educational indicators, to name a few
which were something new to many of us. We cannot say that we have became management
gurus after completing this course but I am certain my friends will agree that
we have started our journey towards it or in the worse cases we are able to at
least learn many new management, economics and financial terminologies which
were just jargons that we never consider important. With this course, now at
least some of the mediocre with halt hearted knowledge will not easily fool us.
It is from this course that we were given the roots to grow and wings to fly.
We were enriched. We came as caterpillars and we are going as butterflies. However,
we can reach so far but not further had it not been our learned professors,
strongly supported by efficient management. Therefore, on this special occasion
on behalf of our friends and on my own, I would like to express our heartfelt
gratitude to all the souls that were involved directly or indirectly to enable
us to do some soul searching here.
When I look back at these
moments today, I see that in the depths of despair and the heights of
happiness, we’ve all been together. I know that my batch is always with me; and
so it must be the case with many of us. From East, West, North and South, we
were able to make a good family for three months. We came from unique and
divers background. Forget about knowing each other, many of us didn’t hear and
didn’t see some of the countries even in the map. We have diverse group coming
from Eastern Africa, Western Africa, Southern Africa and Central Africa. We
were also joined by our only colleague from Chile, Latin America which has
stunning natural beauty and robust free market economy. We have also participants
from Asia’s most enthralling destination like Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Joined us were participants from unmistakably beautiful archipelago of the
Philippines, from the pristine and sacred Himalayan countries like Bhutan and
Nepal, from the Island of Sri Lanka and mountainous Tajikistan. Some are
independent from time immemorial while other got independent later. Some are rich
some are not so rich. Some are endowed with precious resources while others have
their own advantages. These vast differences were an added advantage for this
batch in increasing the intellectual frontier of our knowledge. To all my dear
colleagues, it was fortunate that because of our karmic reaction, we were able
to cross our path in the journey of our precious life. We have learned a lot
from each other. We have shared every good moments and created good memories
during which we laughed and sing together. We might have also passed through
some difficult time but we’ve been together in all this. I personally would
like to take all those good memories and dump here bad memories if at all we
ever had one.
Personally, I am honoured to
be part of this programme. It is like coming back home. Firstly, Bhutan and
India shares an exemplary relationship which we always look forward to nurture
in all times to come for the mutual benefit of the duo. Secondly and
importantly, I personally felt indebted to India for making who I am today.
This is because of tireless effort put in by my dedicated Indian teachers. They
took days to reach my schools cooking food under umbrella and sleeping in the
densely forested area. In my entire ladder of education, I didn’t have a single
year without Indian teachers and still I am learning from Indians. So, this is
a blessing in disguise for me to visit the sacred place where my Gurus belong.
Lastly but far from the
least, I just have two cliché words for the university and my friends. That is Thank you.
Tashi Delek!
Phurba
Bhutan
