Page 17 - Demo

THE REVIEW
JANUARY’19-JUNE’19 17
PUNE AGM 2018
I speak Bengali very fluently, Hindi quite fluently, so many of you speak Malayalam and Tamil superbly! In fact, we should have a Voice of the Year competition for Anglo-Indians in vernacular languages also. It’s difficult to beat me singing Kishore Kumar songs from the 1970s!
The point I am making here is that my upbringing has been so complete, I thought I had experienced everything. Then, marriage. They say marriages are made in heaven and unmade on earth. All marriages have great ups and downs and fun moments and sad moments. Being a parent is a roller coaster ride and so enriching. Professionally, I have been very fortunate and blessed. But I
also owe a great debt to our Association. The Association has actually made me a better person—a better father and husband and son— because of the people I have met. Arriving
in Trichy without my shoes and clothes, and suddenly they said, ‘Here are some shoes!’ Going to a place where people are literally taking the day off, taking you out, spending time with you. All of you have influenced me a great deal and made me a better human being in the last two years, and I am very grateful to each one of you. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.
Join me as we strengthen this Association and
the four pillars I told you about when I first spoke to you on the fourth of December 2016: One is structurally; we have to structurally strengthen this Association. Hopefully, it will happen today
as we make many changes to our Green Book. Second, culturally and socially. It’s happening.
It’s rocking everywhere! People are organizing
all sorts of events—not just fun events! I am
happy to see some intellectual activities. It’s
very important to have some intellectual activity, whether it’s a play reading or a lecture or anything like that. In fact, I am sorry to share with you,
one of my worries. One of our greatest strengths is the English language, and I am unhappy and disappointed to tell you that we as a community are not reading enough. Literature does not exist anymore in many people’s homes. Please get your children to read some literature in the English
language. The turn of phrase, the magic of the way Anglo-Indians of yesteryear and even people of our age speak, that is getting lost a bit. It’s a universal problem in India: the Marwaris and Bengalis and many others are facing the same problem—they’re not reading their own language. How lucky and fortunate we are! We have to read our language, which is the language of everybody today. Please encourage our children to do that.
So, thank you very much. As I have travelled around and received all your love and blessings and care, it has made me a better human being. I would like to end with a quick message to the youth:
Thank you for coming forward to help us rectify our blunder. Thank you for coming forward and being patient and understanding with us. Thank you for embracing us. You are lifting us up. The community is at its strongest, according to me,
in our history. We haven’t reached the peak, but we are getting there. Friends, according to me,
we are about to witness in the near future our Everest moment, our Hilary and Tenzing moment, where we are going to reach the peak of where
we can reach. So my song for the youth is this: I’ll climb every mountain, I’ll swim every ocean, just to be with you and fix what I’ve broken. It’s my favourite song now. Calum Scott said it and all our delegates are saying it.
We as a community, we as the elders, we as the leaders, will climb every mountain for you, we’ll swim every ocean for you, just to be with you and fix what we’ve broken. We have mended it, we are mending it. Because you are the reason, you are the season, you are the future, you we will nurture; to you, we apologise, the community we will sensitise and continue to emphasise that you’re going to aim for the peak. For this, His blessings we seek. The power is within you, young people. Go out and compete. There’s nothing you can’t beat. Give it your best, because your goal is Mount Everest.
Thank you very much and God bless you!