Speech delivered by Shri Navin B. Chawla
at 162nd Founder’s Day Function of The
Lawrence School, Sanawar
(October 3rd and 4th, 2009)
The Headmaster, Shri Praveen Vasisht, Members of the Body
of Governors, the teachers and staff, Old Sanawarians, parents and
students of the School.
It is a great honour for me to be invited to our School as Chief
Guest.
Little could I have ever imagined in the years since I left
Sanawar that one day this privilege would be mine. Being here today
today will always be an important milestone in my life. May I thank
the Headmaster and Members of the Board of Governors for
conferring on me this opportunity.
From the Headmaster I have been keeping myself abreast of the
progress that the School has been making over the last several years.
Which Sanawarian will not be happy to note that the ranking of the
School has gone up from the 6th place in 2008 to the 4th place this
year. In the publication entitled “Educational World”, Sanawar now
ranks as Number 5 in its list for the ‘Academic Reputation’, Number 4
in the ‘Competence of Faculty’, and importantly, is up from Number 5
to Number 3 in the ranking of ‘Honesty and Integrity’.
I spent nine years in school from 1953 to 1961. I would like to
share the background of those early years with you, because those
years were also a part of our shared history. The year 1953 was just
six years after we gained our Independence, and the shadows of
partition still loomed over many of our parents and indirectly over our
lives. Yet it was a new awakening. Although Sanawar was founded
in 1847, it was then a different School with a different ethos for only
British students. These were children of British soldiers of the British
Army, usually the other ranks, who could not afford to send their
children to a School in England.
It was only after we became
independent in 1947 did Sanawar start to acquire a different ethos and
a different way of life.
Students’.
We became an Indian School for ‘Indian
So, in many senses while we were an old and historic
School, but we were also a young School with Indian students
beginning to acclimatize both Western and Indian values.
Many of the old Sanawarians present today especially the group
of 1959 will have shared many aspects of these formative years of
growing up and beginning to understand that new environment.
Many important principles of my life were imbued over those years
and have hopefully stood me in good stead.
In my speech today, I would of course like to draw upon my
own experiences as a student.
All of us present today are equally
committed to the School, by a shared special bond that would like the
School and its students to excel even further.
If I was asked to point out some of the important lessons that I
had learned in Sanawar in my formative years, I could summarize it in
a sentence by saying it was how to play the game of life. In the game
of life, there are always winners and losers, but we were especially
taught to be good losers.
Not everybody can come first; somebody
has to come second and somebody has to come last.
never to belittle those who struggled to keep up.
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We learned
It was always
natural to look up to our achievers, and to this day I continue to have
special regard for the achievers of my time, irrespective of their
present station in life.
We also learned about truth and integrity, often in an unspoken
way, and more in the atmosphere we imbibed, imbibed through our
teachers and more particularly through our housemasters, with whom
we naturally had a closer contact link. Also in an unspoken way, we
never differentiated between castes or classes or religious
denominations. It was a completely level playing field that Sanawar
provided, which was its biggest achievement. It was only after I left
Sanawar and even after I left St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and I
went to study overseas, that my English friends would ask me
questions caste and creed system, but this was not a part of the playing
fields of Sanawar.
We were truly secular, multi-cultural and multi-
ethinic and as true to the Constitution of our country as a school could
possibly be. I am confident that would have been no dilution in these
basic principles of equality and fellowship.
learned to “never give in”.
Like all of you, I too
The School song which we sang
practically every day of our school lives, ingrained itself deeply into
our consciousness and I believe saw me through life’s ups and downs.
If I had to further draw upon my own learning, I would of
course stress these principles of equality and inter-dimensional
oneness. Another great strength of our School from the start was
gender equality – in fact if there was any inequality on gender issues it
was weighted against the boys! – So on that score Sanawar has always
been ahead.
I do remember some of my teachers who would
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encourage us to think more creatively and inculcated in us both
independent powers of thought, and a sense of curiosity.
Scholarly
achievement was and is very important, but every student also needs
to be supported and encouraged.
I am grateful to some of my
housemasters who gradually instilled confidence in me.
And this is
what I believe our School does – it prepares each student for
leadership and development according to his or her particular genius.
It doesn’t matter in which field genius and leadership manifest itself.
It can be business or management or government, the armed forces, or
politics. Since the Internet has made availability of vast knowledge
so easy, it can help us to awaken our special interests, all these in
addition to pursuing the educational curriculum and the all-round
development through sports and hobbies and every aspect of extra
curricular activities for which Sanawar is justly famous. So whether
we aim to become great sportsmen or musicians or astronomers or
archaeologists or environmentalists or preservers of our heritage,
whether we go on to lead a Chipko Movement or whether we become
painters or go into veterinary sciences or alternative medicine, our
teachers would have helped to recognize our talents. This is also not
possible without the help of enlightened parents, and enlightened
parents and teachers could come together on a common platform.
Sometimes just a sentence of encouragement can develop into
something big, special and magnificent.
In Sanawar we encourage
thoughtful and reflective learning and I congratulate the Headmaster
supported by the Board of Governors and Staff for the ethical systems
that are in place.
Discipline has been strengthened in recent years
which is a positive development, because an important lesson to be
learned is that discipline and hard work pay important dividends in the
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years to come, and as future leaders you will also want to create a
disciplined environment in whichever walk of life you find yourself
in. A good school must also be a compassionate school. We require
support for slow learners and those who may have been learning
difficulties. This support need not come only from the Headmaster
and Staff, but also from perfects and senior students who should be
inculcated with that sense of responsibility to hand hold some of their
juniors who may have adjustment difficulties. If we move in this
direction, which I am sure is also happening, that would help in the
pursuit of both individual excellence as well as group dynamics and
camaraderie, all of which are essential material for leadership.
I have to share with you that I was privileged to have had a 23
years of association with Mother Teresa, from 1975 when I first met
her, upto 1997 when she passed away. I would not be faithful to her
teachings if I did not say to you that we must all develop compassion
for others less privileged than yourselves. You are often reminded of
the privileged environment in which you study and dwell. I believe
that privilege goes hand in hand with caring for those less privileged
or less secure than us. Sometimes just offering a helping hand to an
elderly neighbour, or to someone who is disabled and needs help
which is easy for us to do, becomes a wonderful way of using our
privileged schooling, to help society in small or big ways.
And finally I would say to the Students that whatever
endeavours you set your heart on, if you work hard, with integrity and
never give in, you will succeed. No matter what task you are given,
no matter what place you have secured for yourselves in life, if you
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try and stretch its boundaries just a little more, it will take that much
further. Think boldly, think big if you wish to, but work hard and
honestly to reach that goal. Whichever fields you choose, politics or
government or entrepreneurship remember that in our country we
truly respect those who combine power with integrity.
Yesterday you celebrated Gandhi Jayanti.
could not be in your midst.
Unfortunately, I
The celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s
life and his values is perhaps the most important way of understanding
what our freedom fighters and many of your own family members of
your grand fathers generation would have sacrificed their lives for. I
would ask the Headmaster’s permission to initiate two prizes for the
Students of Class 11th and 12th for the best essay written by a student
on the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi, which I, as an Old
Sanawarian, would like to endow.
Thank you.
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