AASBCO – Alumni Association of St. Berchmans’ College, Kuwait Chapter. This Chapter was formed in 1996, to bring together the Alumni of St. Berchmans’ College, Changanassery, Kerala, India. They celebrated their annual get-together at Carmel School, Kuwait on 29th November from 6.30 P.M to 9.30 P.M. The chief guest for this grand event was Dr RAJU NARAYANA SWAMY IAS.

The event was compered by Master Amal Joseph.

The programme began with the National anthem of Kuwait followed by the National anthem of India. A prayer song was sung to seek the blessings of lord Almighty.

The welcome address was given by the chief secretary and the president who welcomed the chief guest and the gathering.

The programme comprised of a motivating speech by Dr Raju Narayanaswamy, followed by the prize distribution ceremony in which the winners of the extempore speech competition and the toppers of the member’s children of class X and XII were honoured.

List of winners of 17th St. Berchmans Extempore speech competition.

A brief introduction: Dr RAJU NARAYANA SWAMY IAS :

First Rank in State in Secondary School Examination.

First Rank in University in plus Two.

First Rank in IIT Entrance Examination.

First Rank in All India IIT Computer Science.

First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination.

First Rank in IAS Training Institute.

Dr Raju Narayanaswamy is an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. Now he is the Secretary to Government, General Administration, Kerala. He was until January 2013, the Commissioner, Civil Supplies Department of Kerala. On passing out from IIT Chennai Dr. Narayanaswamy was offered scholarship by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He who came from a middle class family believed that he had a moral obligation to give something in return for the lakhs of rupees the government spent on him as an IIT student. He had the intelligence and conviction to realize that this money came also from the poorest of the poor - who pay up the excise duty on textiles when they buy cloth, who pay up customs, excise and sales tax on diesel when they travel in a bus and in numerous other ways indirectly pay the government. So he decided to join IAS hoping he could do something for the people of this country.

He started his marvellous speech by saying that we should be grateful to the institution where we studied as these institutions have played a major role in shaping our futures and we owe a lot to them. Mentioning specially about the Berchman institution as he too was a student of this great institution. He appreciated the Alumini Association of St Berchaman for their emotional and cultural bonding with their students and ex-students. He said he felt proud that he is part of this great institution .He mentioned any institution is a place where Goddess Saraswati – The goddess of knowledge resided.

He spoke on the importance of knowledge and education. He compared- What culture is to marble i.e. without polishing marble has no shine or beauty similarly without education you cannot enlighten your soul.

Education is not all about learning alphabets and literacy is not the end of knowledge. He stressed Education stands for humanity, tolerance and adventure. A truly educated person is one who works for his motherland and its wellbeing. He quoted

POOR IS A MAN WHO DOESN’T READ AND EMPTY IS HIS LIFE.

He asked the audience, God is truth or imagination? This question is challenged by science. He gave the example of Swami Vivekananda.

Swami Vivekananda asked his Guru Parmahamsa , Have you seen God?

Parmahamsa replied Yes. I see him in you as you see in me. God is a circle whose circumference is everywhere in the form of love.

He added we should protect our freedom and should promote our younger generation to love each other irrespective of their caste, creed, country of origin etc. Education is meaningless without humanity. Country is not important, people are important. The present situation demands responsible citizens.

He ended his motivational speech by saying

SET A GOAL, BELIEVE IN GOD, WORK HARD, SUCCESS WILL COME TO YOU.

He quoted the beautiful words of Rabindranath Tagore: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection .Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action .Into that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!”

He also gave examples of P.K Balakrishnam , Mata Amritanadamayi and Swami Vivekananda who had said “Arise, awake and don’t stop until the goal is reached.”

Not but the least ,he thanked this association and wished them all the best for their future endeavours and said he was happy to spend a few precious moments with his past and finally concluded stating Science cannot overtake humanity.

The programme was followed by the prize distribution ceremony in which the winners of the extempore competition and the toppers were awarded and Indian Educational School were awarded with a trophy for securing highest points in the extempore competition.

This was followed by a short cultural programme which comprised of songs, dance and a poem recitation .The wonderful evening came to an end with a delicious dinner.

It was a memorable day as I could interact with such a great personality with immense potential and vast knowledge.

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