They said it was down to the last two and that the committee was having a tough time choosing. But I suppose eventually they had to, and they picked her instead of me. Regardless of the result, the very process of writing the speech was a good experience for me. Since I won't be delivering it at graduation, you may read it below.

Thank you — President Corzo, Honorable Deans, Faculty & Staff, Parents and my fellow students. It’s truly an honor for me to be up here today and I really want to thank everyone who’s made it possible. Over the last four years we’ve all made some friends, with students, faculty. Some of them were helpful at the time, some will last our lifetimes. And as we look forward towards leaving this supportive environment, it all looks a bit scary. Finding a job might be the first thing on a lot of your minds. Some of you might still be unsure about what careers to pursue, but I want you to take a second and look a little further. War vs. negotiation; globalization vs. isolation; activists vs. those who are convinced that nothing individuals do makes a difference anyway; social responsibility vs. the bottom line – these are huge problems staring at all of us in today's world. Those of us who will eventually reach the levers of power may be able to do something to affect them, but what about the rest of us?

I was born in India, into a rather privileged family of scientists, educators, industrialists, and artists. Being lucky enough to have the opportunities that so many around me lacked, I quickly learnt something my family had stood for for many years; the privileges I had weren’t just an advantage, they were a responsibility. My mother has been an activist for most of her life, and a lot of her work uses performance to talk about real life issues, against violence and inequality, for women’s empowerment, social development. Having established a name for herself, reporters often ask her, “its all very well to use the arts for social change, but how do you know if it really makes a difference?” And I think of hundreds of performances I’ve seen of hers, where people come up to her afterwards and sob as they hold her and tell her how she’s changed their lives. My mother is one woman who believes in something, and has devoted her whole life fighting for it. Maybe there’s something else you believe in, or maybe you haven’t found it yet. Don’t stop looking.
If you don’t believe art can make a difference, think of the Danish cartoons and how much of an effect they had on the rest of the world. Positive or negative, initially, that was just art on a piece of paper.

The climate change so urgently needed might be hard to achieve, but its not impossible. All over the world, people are acting and reacting out of fear and distrust. Can we rely on science to tell us the truth? (look at all the research that hides the source of its funding), how about literature (Frey’s “memoirs” that were fiction), sports (the steroids scandals), politics (where in the world are the politicians whose constituents can trust what they say?) So one of the things badly needed in this world is a restoration of truth in our lives, and that is something each one of you can do. It is an ideal each one of us can act on, and change the world together, one of us at a time.

In this age of globalization, is it enough to call yourself a citizen of America? In times when ripples in the east are felt equally hard in the west, I think it is apt to remember an old Sanskrit saying, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakkam, The whole world is my family. Mother Teresa once said, “If there is inequality and despair in this world, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” It’s a good thing these occasions are called commencement ceremonies, for we are really, only at the beginning.

Thank you.

Ever since I was a child, I knew I wanted to dance. I started learning when I was about five years old and haven't stopped since. I went pro when I was in my early teens and took a couple of years off after graduating from highschool to pursue a serious career in the performing arts. Music has also always been a passion. There are pictures of me, all of three years old, banging away on a set of tablas at one of my mother's dance rehearsals. To this day, rhythm drives me obsessively. If I'm walking with my ipod playing, I have to pace my steps to the beat. I've never really had any serious formal training in percussion, but I can be pretty handy with a dholak, ganjira, or even a djembe.

Come age 14 and a whole other field catches my attention. Motion graphics, digital media and the technology of visual communication. I enrolled in a six-month diploma program and laid the foundations of what became the subject of my college education; a degree in Multimedia at the U of Arts in Philadelphia. That's where my interests diverged even further, into web and interactive design and the programming that supports it, into design that can solve problems and create systems to better our lives.

Today, age 21, two weeks away from graduating and entering the so called "real world", I am about to become a fresh graduate: a motivated, intelligent, creative, and hard working, (I never said I was modest!) young man, ready to take on the world. But yet, despite all that, what often bothers me is the fact that I'm not as accomplished in any one skill or profession as I'd like myself to be. I am the proverbial Jack of All Trades, Master of None. I can make a decent website, but will never be a programming wiz. I can move, but I'm not as flexible as the dancer who works his ass off eight hours a day. I can play percussion, but I'm no Sivamani.

Having given this much thought, I have often wondered why exactly this is the case. Its not that I'm not motivated enough to stick with one thing, nor that I give up too soon. The fact is, I can't live with just one thing, without the other. I'm sure if I put my mind to it, I could be the hot shot programming wiz that knows php like the back of his hand. But then I'd be sitting in the audience during a performance thinking to myself, man I wish I was on stage. So its not that I'm not happy with whatever I do, or always think the grass is greener on the other side, but that I'm never content doing just one thing. Life has too much to offer to restrict yourself to just one thing.

Ever since the beginning of civilization there has been division of labour. With cultures that had the caste system, a person's birth in a particular family or community in itself decided his profession. In later times, the caste system broke down and a person could choose her own profession, based on her skills, or purely based on her interests. Yet choosing one profession has always been an expectation. In schools in India, children have to pick a field of higher studies and narrow down their career options to only one from business, arts or sciences as early as age 15. Do we really know what we want to spend the rest of our lives doing as early as that? Do we ever really know? And do we really ever need to choose one over the other? Yes we need our specialists, but we also like our Man Fridays. With times changing, maybe the trends are changing too, to become more diverse and universal, curious about the world and ready to take on anything that may come in one's way.

So I've done it. I've succumbed to the indirect pressure all around me and I've set up my very own blog. You could say I've just become part of the cliché that is blogging in today's world. But in a way, and this isn't just an excuse, its an honest effort on my part to allow those of you who already know me and want to be in the loop, or those of you who want to get to know me, to do just that. One thing I hope this will also do is encourage me to start writing again, something I really enjoy, but too easily lose the inspiration to do regularly.

Just as a quick update, I've spent the last few weeks working on my new portfolio website that you're reading this on right now. Its been a good exercise for me, both in terms of sorting and compiling my work in a presentable manner, and in terms of teaching myself the basics of transitional XHTML and CSS that has equipped me to create an almost fully web standards compliant site. Other than that I've been working towards creating my senior thesis performance that is premiering on Sunday April 30th at the UArts Drake theater in Philadelphia. I had a little scare when my co-performer Eric got the flu and was in bed for most of this week, but he seems to be better now and we'll hopefully get back on track with the show during these last few days.

On a more confident note, I feel honoured to have been nominated to be student speaker at our commencement ceremony, as I graduate with a bachelors in multimedia from The Unviersity of the Arts here in Philly. I'd written and submitted a speech to the selection committee and just went and delivered it live as part of the final stage of the selection process today. Thanks to much intellectual stimulation and help from a dear friend Ronnie Lynton, I seem to have done a fairly good job with it. Fingers crossed until I find out whether I made it or not on Tuesday!

Labels: blogging