Beginning postgraduate studies is a big step. You are taking that next big step in your life. You have mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. And that is normal. The question I want to pose before you at this moment is: what are you attempting to do?
Debashis Chatterjee, a leadership speaker and author of many books on leadership, including the book Break Free, says in his One Minute Wisdom that human life, as we know it, grows out of a single cell. That cell acquires a bachelor's degree by the time it is 20 or 21 years of age. Another two years, this cell will complete a master's programme and call itself a master. Chatterjee says, do we realize that all these were once potency contained in a single cell? And he adds that the knowledge we acquire and what we become through our homes, schools, colleges and universities is not even a tiny fraction of what that single cell is endowed with. True education is waking up that potential. True education is waking every cell of our body up. And he borrows a thought from poet Robert Frost: 'I am not a teacher but an awakener.' In other words, education is not just learning but awakening. You are at the threshold of another year of awakening. He goes further in his book saying that coaching or education is a process of arriving at clarity. What is clarity? He has an interesting understanding: "Clarity is fewer thoughts per minute." It is a journey from a cluttered, confused mind where everything is piled up to a clear and committed mind. A cluttered mind is like a drawer filled with too many loose socks—you never find a matching one when you need it.
Arundhati Roy, the author of the book The God of Small Things, says that with social media and the unending flow of information through varied media bombarding us with too much information, our minds are not equipped to process so many thoughts. So when we have to make a decision or vote, or in policy making, we go find shortcuts, we fall back on our biases and prejudices, we just go by popular opinion and the WhatsApp university.
Noah Harari in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century corrects Francis Bacon, who had said in the 16th century that 'knowledge is power', saying: "In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power."
Meet Yeonmi Park; she is a defector from North Korea. When she was 13, she escaped with her elder sister, who was 16, from North Korea. To have a bowl of rice every day to satisfy their hunger, they took this strenuous path of escaping, which included being sold and bought, and finally they landed in the United States. Now she lives in the US as a free woman. She was not happy with just being free; she got educated. She engaged in thinking, talking, and writing about her life. She has written a couple of books, such as In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom. She firmly and clearly speaks about the ways in which we get enslaved and the way out of it.
She asks the question: why have the North Koreans for the last 70-odd years, for the last three generations, accepted living in oppression and enslavement under a dictator? Why is there no revolution in North Korea? Are they dumb? The reason, she says, is that they are made to think that it is normal. If you don't know that you are a slave, if you do not know that you are isolated or oppressed, how do you fight to be free? Not knowing that you are isolated is the true definition of isolation. Thinking of our times, I think echo chambers are fruits of isolation. People in echo chambers and a frog in a well enjoy absolute clarity because they do not know what is happening out there.
Yeonmi recollects that when she was in North Korea, she, along with those around her, thought that she was the center of the universe. There had been only one meaning for the word love: that is love for the dear leader. They were made to think that their leader, Kim Jong-un, is working very hard, starving for them, etc. Thus they believed that their leader is an almighty god who can even read their thoughts. They were even afraid to think in North Korea. Only when she got out did she realize that Kim Jong-un is fat, and he is the largest guy in the picture. He had cars, luxury apartments and resorts, and he is a dictator.
Yeonmi, in the light of what she went through, says we think that we inherently know what is right and wrong, the difference between justice and injustice, what we deserve and what we don't deserve; but in truth, that is not the case. Everything must be taught and learned, including compassion. That is the deeper sense of critical thinking. If you have never practiced critical thinking, you simply see what you are told to see. To the North Koreans, she says, an alternative life is possible—be free. Yeonmi is free today; not just free, she makes herself relevant through her freedom activism.
Clarity and freedom must lead us to be relevant. Do you want to be relevant in your classrooms, in your community, in your family, or in your friends' circle? Listen to Lisa Tzwu-Fang Su, an American billionaire business executive. While addressing the graduates at MIT, she said: find the toughest problems out there and volunteer to help out. This is how you make a difference. The world is full of complex and challenging problems. Working on those hard problems is extremely challenging and frustrating. Go all the way till the end. I remember a powerful quote I have read: "Don't quit before the miracle happens."
From the speech given at the commencement of PG academic year at IIPR, 2025.
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