An Introvert’s Graduation Speech - Class of 2017

“It’s good to be back, at school” - after meeting friends, that was what I felt when returned to the campus, for graduation day. All the memories we cherished, came like a flashback - eating maggi at nestle coffee bar, drinking coffee so that we don’t sleep for the next class between the breaks, running to the class in the fear of getting absence, late night outings, treats for every little things, getting auto/bus to reach class, freshers & farewell parties, endless assignments & presentations and the sleepless nights. I studied MBA at IIT Bombay and came for the convocation, one day before to meet friends and juniors.

Normally, everyone around the world, will wear black gown and hat for their graduation day. But for us, its uttariya - a shawl or scarf like piece of cloth with the institute logo in it, along with white kurta pyjama. And it came in different colour- green for ug students, blue for pg students and red for phd scholars. Since it’s a tradition to take pic with the gown and hat, we took one which were arranged for us. Thus campus were colourful with parents and their son/daughter wearing kurta/saree with green, red and blue shawl.

On the graduation day, students were asked to be there at the convocation hall in the morning, where the institute will give medal to university toppers and department toppers. And in the evening, every department will conduct their own graduation ceremony in separate auditoriums so that every students gets their degree. As usual, some of us bunked the morning session.

Ceremony was planned at 3 pm, so we guys ordered our favourite briyani late, had along with our juniors and finished it by nearly 2.45 pm. By that time most of students were in the auditorium, and we were just started to getting dressed. For some of us, this was the first time wearing kurta pyjamas. All of them started, and when I started to wear pyjama, noticed that the thread in pant which is used to hold it were only half inside. After a serious of struggles, my parents were able to put the whole thread in it. So, by the time, am reaching the auditorium, the function was already started.

Auditorium were completely filled with students along with their parents, faculties, office staffs & chief guest and the function was going on. Somehow found an empty seat in the middle and joined the crowd. It was started by giving welcome speech by faculties, followed by our faculty co-ordinator who scolded us for not showing up in the morning, then by HOD praising the student which was a rare feast and then by chief guest, who is one of our alumnus. He covered a wide range of topics from success, parents, faculties, how gifted we are and giving credit where its due,etc.

After that, one of the students were asked to talk about their experience and life at school (school of mgmt - SOM). So I stood up and went, after reaching the stage, started shivering, like every single time. Finally, took a deep breath and started,

“Good evening, faculties, office staffs, parents and SOM17. I congratulate the class of 2017 for graduating today. Actually I prepared this speech for the past one month and always wanted give the convocation speech. So I watched some videos on graduation speech like ‘Failures’ by JK Rowling, ‘Purpose’ by Mark Zuckerberg and some others. Most of them talked about success, never give up, attitude, believe in yourself, etc. But here is the first time, I heard someone talks about ’giving credit where its due’ which gave me goosebumps. And I were like, yeah...rite, we should thank people whom we forgot to tell. And so this is my theme ’giving credit where its due’.

There is a famous adage in Tamil,

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(Matha, Pitha, Guru, Deivam in Sanskrit - Mother, Father, Teacher, God)

One should respect Mother first, then Father, Teacher and finally God.

Amma (Mother) - If I am standing here and who I am today is due to her alone. Some of the important life changing decisions had happened/happening, due to her only. So Amma, this(my degree) is for You ma!!

Appa (Father) - They are the first hero in our life and the unsung one. In India, one will decide what to do in their life after finishing engineering. If we were following our dreams today, after engineering then its due to our parents. So I dedicate my degree and all ours to our parents here. Fathers sacrifice their dream so that their children will follow and achieve their own dream. They are our silent guardian, a watchful protector and yes, the Dark Knight.

Teacher - Most of the time, I wondered why teachers were there before the gods. Shouldn’t god be there after parents?! I like very few teachers in my school days. So I thought this way. But it had proven me wrong, during my stay here. There were this incident happened with studies which few of you guys know, threatened my MBA career from pursuing further. But it was due our HOD, faculty co-ordinator, marketing mam, it sir and smot sir, I am standing here and receiving my degree today. So sir & mam, I owe my degree to you. Thank you very much and thanks is the small word and am not able to come up with any other words to express my gratitude.

Before going to the last fellow, I like to thank our GSec and few of the guys here. And this is to the parents here, if your son/daughter is living their dream - happily, it’s mainly due to the placement committee team here.

Lastly God - as AR Rahman says,

????? ??????? ?????????? !!

(ella pugazhum iraivanukkae - all glories to God)

As most of you guys know, am little bit shy, I wish you guys should know this I love you all (SOM 17) and GOT (Gangs of Tamil, that’s what we call ourselves). And thank you SOM 18, for arranging this wonderful ceremony & SOM 16, our seniors.

Finally, it’s due to Her, am standing here.

Thank you everyone and wish you all a prosperous life!!”

And that’s how I finished. After that, degrees were awarded and group pics were taken. We left the campus, carrying a new memory again.

There is a twist here guys, actually my speech didn’t take place. They didn’t call anyone, the function just continued by giving degrees and followed by vote of thanks.. This article is “to give credit where it’s due”.

#Being Introvert

Thanks Everyone!!