Syed Mehtab Hussain

From The Chairman’s Desk

“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.” - Benjamin Franklin

One of my Alumni dinner-meets brought back the fondest memory of my younger days at the University of Delhi. I was delighted to meet Mrinal Mondal (name changed), a tribal girl from somewhere nearby Sundarbans, and Bhuvan Singh Rana (name changed), a blue-blooded boy from Rajasthan.

During the University days, Mrinal was made fun of not only because of her tribal appearance and accent but also because of her lofty aspiration of becoming an IAS Officer. The boy, however, was much celebrated because of his royal mannerisms and who too had a dream similar to Mrinal’s.

Mrinal, finally, cracked UPSC-CSE in her last attempt and Bhuvan, after exhausting his attempts at the exam, went back to Udaipur to run his hotel business.

Bhuvan confided that no Hotel management course from a foreign university could have made him run his business so well other than what CSE preparation taught him. It instilled the values of discipline, hard work, perseverance and the knowledge to talk well and at length about anything with anyone.

As a Senior Policy Maker, Mrinal today is fulfilling the Gandhian dream of wiping every tear from every eye.

This makes me reflect on the fundamentals behind this great transformation in the lives of these two batchmates of mine, and many others who underwent a similar evolution year after year.

I believe these fundamentals have been a great synergy of a system of setting higher goals, supported by a brilliant mentorship of peers and seniors. This ensured that the buses leaving from the iconic Delhi University hostels, Mansarovar and Jubilee Hall to LBSNAA, Mussoorie, were almost always fully occupied, year after year.

I dream of recreating the same perpetual learning ecosystem here in the eastern part of the Nation which already has a legacy of producing some of the earliest and finest Civil Servants.

Let’s join hands to channelise the stream of academic excellence of Bengal to nurture the young minds towards this august exercise of Nation-Building.