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Phurba is from the remote hamlet of Dangchu under Wangdue Dzongkhag. He started his education from the last hut of erstwhile Dangchu Community School and then to Nobding and to Bajo. After class X, he went to Punakha HSS and obtained his degree in Economics from Sherubtse College, an affiliate to Delhi University. Prior to joining civil service, he did his Post Graduate in Public Administration from RIM. He started his career with the Ministry of Education as an Asst. Planning Officer. Today Phurba is a Planning Officer at the Gross National Happiness Commission Secretariat. He obtained Master in Economics from the Australian National University.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Farewell Speech for Valediction of 29th IDEPA, NUEPA, New Delhi on 29/04/’13



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

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