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Dr. Shashi Tharoor's Inspirational Speech & Interactions At Sharjah International Book Fair | Dr. Shashi Tharoor Official | YouTubeToText
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engages more of you than for example
watching a television show or playing a
video game I'm not knocking video games
they strengthen other qualities in you
they give you a capacity to use your
motor reflexes to react quickly to make
quick snap judgments all those are
wonderful things in video games and with
a book obviously you're not telling the
story the writer has already told the
story you're merely discovering it but
the great joy of reading is indeed that
joy of discovering it's the discovery of
a story it's a discovery of new words
new vocabulary it's a discovery of new
ideas because other people think
differently from the way you do and you
very rarely get new ideas out of a
videogame but you do get new ideas out
of good creative writing and then of
course there is the sheer pleasure of
concentration we always hear about kids
today having a short attention span well
if you want to enjoy a good book the
process of reading develops and
strengthens your attention span so
that's why I'm delighted to see so many
of you here at a book fair because a
book fair shows despite a few hands I
went up and I said if there are people
here who don't enjoy reading there are a
few still the truth is the most of you
are here because books Masotti I wrote
once in the foreword to one of my books
the writing books are like the Todd
etapas hatchet a toddy tapper uses his
hatchet to cut through a coconut and the
fact is that a book is like a hatchet
that cuts through the rough husk that
enshrouds our minds and helps us tap
into the exhilaration that ferments
within that is what it seems to me books
do for us
and of course for many people even today
there is no greater pleasure than
putting their feet up the good book in
their hands and losing themselves in
another world to me because I loved
reading I began to become a writer when
I was little I was a voracious reader my
mother used to read aloud to me from the
Enid Blyton Nadi books does anyone still
read those any Nadi fans nodding yeah
they're my generation yes but anyone behind
behind
no anyway these are books about dolls
and Toyland myths sounds silly but the
adventures were very interesting and
very well-written and I started reading
my mother says because she read so badly
to me
that I became impatient to read the book
myself so I grabbed it from her and
started learning how to read but I used
to read a lot and I read very rapidly so
one of the problems I had was that as a
small child I was an asthmatic I was
often struggling to breathe because
bronchial asthma constricts the Broncos
in your lungs doesn't let the air come
in and out normally as it should for
everyone and so it was difficult for me
to go out and play with my friends as
much as I wanted to and as I said I
couldn't just stay in bed and watch TV
because there was no TV
so I read and then I exhausted the books
available to me because I had no older
brothers or sisters
I only had the books of my parents or my
own and if my parents took me to a
library to borrow a book I read so
inconveniently fast that I sometimes
finished the book in the car on the way
home so when I reached home I still no
longer had a book to read and that's why
I began writing because lying in bed
struggling to breathe you can't sleep
and at the same time there's nothing
else to do and the one thing I
understood was a joy of reading in the
power of words
so I started filtering those myself and
some of my first stories were very
derivative they were very much like the
stories I was reading so I remember my
first attempt never published was
something called solvers on the trail
why because Enid Blyton the inventor of
the nadi books had a famous series of
books for children called the famous 5
and the 5 find out hers and their secret
7 so again like a little child who only
knows that world I invented the six
solvers except they were in India and
they were solving mysteries in India
mysteries I'm sure very much borrowed
from the kinds of mysteries that Enid
Blyton's characters were solving in
village England now it's a way of
learning how to write because the actual
art of composing a sentence trying to
tell a story trying to unfold a
narrative is best learned by doing I've
always believed that literature and
writing are intimate arts that the way
you write the way you express yourself
in words is as much you as the way in
which you speak or breathe or talk and
so ultimately though your teachers I'm
sure are doing their best to teach you
the basic rules of writing ultimately
your style is your essence is who you
are and the best way you can find out
how well you write whether you can
communicate effectively but other people
look forward to reading what you've
written whether it's a letter or an
email or an essay at school is by
actually doing it by actually writing so
I wrote and my father my mother were
very encouraging my father was amazingly
kind in getting my stories typed up so I
could share them with friends and show
them around and what happened after that
when my friends started reading the
stories and saying god that was exciting
or this should have been done that way
or whatever I began to be
even myself as a writer when I was just
10 years old one of my first short
stories was published and after that
there was no looking back I can tell you
seeing your name in print as the author
of an article the first time or a story
is the equivalent of that first bar of
chocolate or whatever that you owe you
may feel addicted to because you really
want to keep doing it at first ice cream
cone the first time you see your name in
print I kept wanting to keep writing and
I kept writing throughout my school and
college days I'd come home finish my
homework and write articles or stories
for publication in fact a lot of my
teenage stories stories written when I
was a teenager but not necessarily about
teenagers have been published in a
collection called the five-dollar smile
and other stories which is a collection
of stories that were written all of them
before I even turned 20 so the stories
reflect a writer learning his craft and
I would urge you all to try those of you
who raised your hands when I said
anybody wants to be a writer the best
way you can be a writer is to write but
in my view the only way you can be a
good writer is if you're also a good
reader unless you read and read widely
you will not have a good sense of what
can be done with the written word what
others have done how others have weaved
their thoughts and their imagination
into words for you if you can see that
and learn from them then you are in the
best possible place yourself I didn't
want to give you a long lecture because
I agreed with the organizers that today
my real job was to get you to interact
with me by asking questions or making
comments from what you've known about me
in what they've said and shown you I'm
sure that some of you
have things you want to ask me or to say
to me and I'd be very happy to react and
have an interaction is that okay with
all of you would you like to do that yeah
yeah
okay so who's gonna ask the first
question is there um there are mics
going around or there's a line up there
or people coming to our squash all right
okay hello so you have to join the line
if you want to ask a question my
apologies tell me who you are and which
class you're studying in and all of that
morning sir my name is Abhishek Sharma
and I study in Jemez our own Indian
schools I'm in grade 8 my question too
is that as the youth we all have an idol
who has always inspired us so in your
college and school days who was your
idol ah that's a very interesting
question I don't have you all heard it [Applause]
he asked in my school in college days
who was my idol and I have to confess I
didn't have just one idol maybe because
my interests were fairly diverse I had a
number of idols okay so obviously one
Idol had to come from the world of
sports and I had to in cricket
there was this player called Sunil Gavaskar
Gavaskar
who as a young well I can't call him a
boy but as a young man of barely 21 he
went to the West Indies which then was
the most fearsome chess playing country
with fast bowlers who would just a few
years earlier had even broken the head
of the Indian captain Nuri contractor
and he had to go through life with a
steel plate in his head because the
skull was so badly cracked by a West
Indies players bouncer and whenever
India went to the West Indies they
always lost all their matches and here
we had Sunil Gavaskar going there in his
first series and scoring centuries
double centuries making a world record
774 in just four matches and he became a
and then in tennis there was a player
called Vijay Amritraj and Vijay was a
player who as a teenager used to thrash
everybody through a very bold and
attractive style of play in his heyday
he beat every great player in the world
I'm sorry to say we've never had a
singles player since him who could
actually you could assume he had a
chance against a world number one of the
world number two
I'm with Raj beat the world number one
beat the world number two but then he
would go and loosen the quarterfinals or
the semi-finals of the world number 30
that was the problem
he didn't often get to the the victories
that otherwise he had the talent to get
but he was a terrific terrific player
and he was my other sporting icon and
then when it comes to political
leadership my icon was and remains
India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru
we're celebrating his one hundred and
twenty-fifth anniversary birth
anniversary on the 14th of November just
a few days away and the thing about Neru
it's not that I agreed with everything
he stood for I've written a book called
narrow the invention of India which I
have analyzed his legacy and his what
he's meant to India and I've argued that
there are some things he did that were
great and some things he did that were
not so great but the most important
thing in my view that Niro did for India
was to keep us Democratic we often
forget today because we now take our
democracy for granted were used to
seeing government's changing with
elections whether in Delhi or in the
States but what Nehru ji did was to
ensure that at a time when many other
newly independent countries which had
been colonies often very into
dictatorship because the leader said
that that was the only way they could
keep their country together and to
direct development in the country Nehru
was such a convinced Democrat that he
insisted on respecting all the
Democratic convention so for example
Nehru would at one point before
independence he offered an anonymous
attack on himself saying we shouldn't
let never get too many ambitious ideas
we want no Caesars and later Nehru when
he became Prime Minister made sure that
he paid respect to the President the
Vice President the judiciary the
opposition the opposition was very small
in those days but he would go he would
sit in Parliament he would listen to
their criticisms and attacks he would
respond he felt that by showing respect
for the institutions of democracy that
he would encourage Indians to believe in
the institutions and not just in
individuals for example when he once lost
lost
temper and made an unkind remark about a
judge at a press conference he wrote an
abject letter of apology to that Judge
and then he wrote another letter to the
Chief Justice of India apologizing for
having insulted the judiciary now this
is a prime minister of India the most
powerful man in the country nobody to
challenge him but why did he do that
again to make the point D we must
respect the institution of the judiciary
and this is how to my mind we should all
be youngish a talks about icons and
idols you can have people that you
respect but please remember that
ultimately it is not the individual but
you may like a prime minister but
respect the office of the Prime Minister
you may like a movie star respect his
acting abilities realizing you know
nothing about his personal life the
institution the function the role when
we learn to respect those things we
become true Democrats ourselves and
that's one of the things that never
taught us good morning sir my name is
Karen missing and I am from the DPS Raja
what's your first name again currently
gurveer current me current vir okay good
my question to you is what give the
inspiration to combine Indian culture
and politics in the great Indian novel okay
the great Indian novel is a book art
published in 1989
so in fact penguin India has just
brought out the Silver Jubilee edition
the 25th anniversary edition of this
book which means that people are still
reading it and I'm delighted that a new
generation of readers is appreciating
what I've tried to do what I've done
with the great Indian novel is to take
this ancient epic and retell it as a
satirical story of 20th century India
from the British days to independence
and after now you ask me what led me to
do that
well the Mahabharata itself which is why
the title of the book is the great
Indian novel it's not an estimates my
estimate of the contents of the book
great is Maha and bharata is india so
the great indian novel is a direct
allusion to the mahabharatham but beyond
that what have I tried to do the
Mahabharata was an epic that was told
and retold for centuries in India from
roughly 400 BC to 400 AD for 800 years
the Mahabharata and the tales of the
Mahabharata were the tales that were
told in all parts of the country and
were told so repeatedly that they became
the National Library of India that is
that every story somebody wanted to tell
was incorporated into a retelling of the
Martha and that's why there are so many
interpolations digressions unconnected
stories to the central story because
they've all been added at different
times of 800 years including the Paquita
itself was added and inserted into a
retelling of the Mahabharata so I asked
myself why did we stop retelling them
Arthur why is it that after 400 AD there
are no new versions of it and so I said
what would a 20th century Veda Vyasa
say about his time the great events of
his time if he were telling or retelling
the maha-rathah today and that was what
I tried to do I did it in a satirical
vein and if you want to know more and if
your parents will let you come I'll be
talking about the great Indian novel in
much more detail at 8:30 tonight thank
you can be good morning sir I'm Annie I
am doing my finally a degree from
scrimmage it's yeah I'm doing my finally
a degree from City College is national
asthma and it's a great honor and a
wonderful privilege that you're here
with us sir thank you what I want to ask
is so we back in your 13s in 1415 in
your TD teenage did you actually dream
to become a d-- politician or great or
great well-known writer or something
that it's a question about whether when
i was in my teens i dreamt about
becoming a politician or a write the
honest truth is no i mean i write
writing yes i suppose i I knew I enjoyed
writing I knew I was reasonably good at
it because what I was writing was being
published but being a writer was
something my parents never encouraged
because as good middle-class
professionals they said nobody makes a
living from writing and in those days
there was no Indian full-time writer
except one RK Narayan
who wrote full-time and even printed and
published his own books otherwise
everybody else wrote on the side while
earning their real living from another
job so my parents said you're good at
school you're good at exams you better
do that focus on that and after you
finish your homework in your spare time
you can write and that's the way I
always thought of writing thanks to them
as for politics the answer is actually
emphatically no because in India again
the educated middle class of our country
has a contempt for politics that I find
rather regrettable that is as I was just
saying my parents would say study hard
do your exams well come first in class
go to the next level get into a good
college get a good job
and it's the fellows who can't do well
in their exams who will go into politics
because they can't get anything better
that was the attitude of most
middle-class families and the result was
that politics was left either to that
generation of families that had won the
nationalist movement and their
descendants all the big Maharaja's and
Nawabs who had if you like their own
areas where people would vote for them
whatever they said or did and then there
was this big gap between that elite and
the very poor ordinary what the Marxist
would call the limpin proletariat
who got into politics because they had
nothing to lose and there was nothing
else they could do that was the attitude
of the middle class so it would have
been very odd for me as a teenage son of
middle-class parents to aspire to
becoming a politician we were brought up
to look down on politics and politicians
and I want to tell you I think that's a
very big mistake because in a democracy
it is always democratic politics that
affects our lives far more than anything
else it is politics that makes the
decisions that change the nature of the
country in which we live and that
determine the future possibilities for
all of us what kind of career options
are available what kind of prices we pay
at the market whether we can travel
abroad freely or not all sorts of things
are determined by the process of
politics so abdicating politics in my
view was always a big mistake of the
middle class
I realize that mistake a bit late in
life but here you are and there now and
good morning sir my name is Abel and I
hope Abel yeah I'm from our own English
High School Raja OS branch and the
question I have for you today is during
your during your time as an advisor in
the UN for Kofi Annan sir what was your
thought about Indians really India's
relationship with other countries like
Pakistan because of the recent conflicts
and the problems happening
well I always had my personal views but
working at the United Nations as a
matter of principle I was not involved
in advising Kofi Annan on matters that
had to deal immediately with India's
interest so when the india-pakistan
issue came up if I said anything to him
privately which I did it was private
officially in the UN it would not have
been considered appropriate for an
Indian or a pakistani to be dealing with
India or Pakistan
with the UN secretary-general and that
became a matter of some sensitivity
because Kofi Annan had a very senior
Pakistani as a chef the cabinet and me
as senior Indian as is as a sort of
right hand or one of his right fingers
anyway and that became therefore an
issue where we were looked at with
suspicion by the other countries
nationals and we shouldn't have been
because certainly for me I was a
lifelong international civil servant I
joined the United Nations at 22 and one
of the things I liked about the United
Nations was the fact that you will sit
around the table with people of a dozen
different countries and you'll forget
which countries they're from because
your own nationality is completely
subordinate to your role in the
organization so you won't say here's a
meeting with the Tunisian a Ghanaian a
French woman and American and Indian
whatever you think oh that's that smart
guy from that peacekeeping operation and
there's that brilliant techie and that
woman is such a fabulous speaker I mean
those are the qualities that came to the
fore and all of us worked for a common
cause that basically had
to do with our country's that to my mind
was a big issue so when I was working
with Kofi Annan
I did not say or do very much about
India's direct relationships with key
countries but as you may know after I
came back to India I was freed of that
restraint I was indeed in the foreign
ministry for a while and I published a
book packs indica India and the world of
the 21st century which is a book about
indeed all of India's relationships if
you're interested in more detail go and
grab pax indica very good morning to you
too sir
my name is Joao Prasad and I'm coming
from the Gulf Asian English school Raja
so yes so we all know that time is of
the essence and despite being the most
sought-after politician on Twitter and
then managing politics side by side
where do you find time to write such
bestsellers thank you well I haven't
been writing as much as I would like
because there's so many distractions
not so much Twitter Twitter doesn't take
up much time I can often tweet in the
car between appointments or whatever but
it's much more the world life of an
elected politician in the Lok Sabha in
Indian democracy politicians have to put
up with a lot of demands from the voters
your life your time is not your own
because the voters are the ones who
decide what to do with your time and
they will come with their demands and if
you are not instantly available and
responsive and willing to help them then
you can forget about getting reelected
so it's that much more than Twitter or
social media that is interfered with my
ability to write as much as I would like
to let me stress that as far as my own
joy in writing is concerned
I've always been conscious it comes at
the expense of other things you can't
have it all and by the way that's
something all of you young people should
know you can't have it all
you have to make choose a choices in life
life
to live kofi annan would often say is to
choose so you can choose to go off and
watch a movie or play with your friends
or just have a fun time or you can
choose to actually sit down alone for a
couple of hours or three hours and just
write something if that's what you
choose to do that's a choice that you
can make but ultimately it's a choice
you must make if you believe enough in
all you see all of these things maybe we
good guys can we settle down a little
bit too much distraction thank you good
morning sir my name Alban Abraham Aston
in grade 11 I am from internationally
Niska Larchmont so from strong
supporters here so from you and
secretary representative to a MP in the
district of Trivandrum Kerala
so as internationalist to a state-level
politician so you have your face and
many of hurdles to become what you're
currently now so my question to you is
that why do when we think of current
politicians they are likely get from
national to international like more and
more what made you think differently
become international to a state level
that's an interesting question has never
been quite asked in the same way well on
the international side all I can say is
that I went abroad as a young man to
study I was always interested in world
affairs I was very much interested
obviously in India's place in the world
but also in the overall direction of the
way the world was going and I was I
would say very fortunate very privileged
to have an opportunity to work at the
United Nations at a very interesting
time that began with all the great
humanitarian crises of the 1970s from
the Vietnamese boat people crisis that I
was personally involved in handling
right up to refugee crises in every part
of the world and then to be involved in
peacekeeping at the end of the Cold War
which was an extraordinarily exciting
and at the same time challenging
experience and having done all of that I
had the great opportunity of running for
the top post in the organization I came
a close second but as Groucho Marx would
say no cigar the the second was the end
of that and thereafter I felt I should
not remain now I could have stayed
international not to the UN per se but
writing speaking lecturing I used to
command a pretty decent lecturing free
from organizations and companies around
the world but that would not have satis
fight me enough because I had never been
motivated by making a living or having
having money in the bank for me what
motivated me was having meaning in my
life was was doing something meaningful
every day and so the opportunity to do
something meaningful in my own country
with my own people was to my mind a far
greater satisfaction even if it meant
some financial sacrifice or some loss of
comforts there is no question in my mind
that morally and and in terms of my own
sense of my place on this on this earth
my purpose for being on this planet that
I'm far more useful and far more
satisfied in this form of public life
I'm not saying I'm entirely happy I've
had a lot of challenges a lot of
problems a lot of difficulties and I
haven't generated a lot of resentment
amongst people who say that I have come
into this world that is theirs and I've
encroached on their space and that has
been a problem but nonetheless each day
is a challenge but it's my challenge the
challenge in my country and that's what
good morning sir my name is Danny
Rajkumar I study in grade 11 in the
Emirates National School Sharjah sir in
your book India from a cheering section
from the Emirates got to school charger
sir in your book India from midnight to
the Millenium and beyond you have put
forth an argument about the importance
of India to the industrialized world but
we find nowadays that the modern
generation of India especially the
youths are more likely to work abroad
rather than in India where they provided
the finest education doesn't this affect
the development of India directly in the
long run
isn't this brain drain there Indians you
feel prefer to work abroad rather than
working India is that is that what
you're saying I'm not so sure you're
right anymore that used to be true for
my generation I have a friend sitting
right here who also went and worked
abroad who was in college with me so we
have people from my generation all over
the globe and one of the reasons for
that was that opportunities in India
were few and far between what honestly
happened was that the number of choices
you had for a profession after you left
school or college was much much less
then than it is now but today I would
not agree with you that the majority of
Indians want to work abroad the
impression I get is that the majority of
those even go to study abroad come back
which was not true in the 60s and 70s
where a majority went to study and
remained abroad today many of them come
back and there are two reasons for that
the first is of course there is a
recession in the Western world and so
the job opportunities in the Western
world are less anyway but second and
perhaps more important is the fact that
India is not the old India there are
tremendous opportunities tremendous ways
in which you can find fulfilling modern
professional experiences in India and
that's why I think that people are
coming back I don't worry too much about
the brain drain because even those who
went whose brains were drained out of India
India
they have continued to support India
invest in India start businesses in
India be political supporters for Indian
causes and their new residences so I
think either way India has gained
whether they've come back or not come
back India has been the gainer thank you
good morning sir
I'm grace yoga from Union model school
ChaCha and my question to US India and
Indians finally we have a girl good
India and Indians in all its forms and
shapes are almost the characters in your
books yes and you are a major portion of
your life you have stayed abroad so how
then could you relate India in such a
passionate way and now how do you feel
being a tree in the woods well I would
argue that a writer doesn't actually
have to be in a particular place to
write a writer really inhabits his head
and the page or the computer screen of
you writes on a computer and ultimately
geography is merely an address a writer
has to think about things that matter to
him because ultimately when you are
sitting alone with that pen and that
paper or that keyboard and their screen
it's only you your words and the medium
it doesn't matter when you shut yourself
off whether the place from which you
shut yourself off is in India or in
Dubai or in America and you're sitting
and writing about Sri Lanka and that's
if you know enough about it care enough
about it and write with feeling about it
where your writing is largely secondary
so you can have novelists for example
writing about things they know and care
about but in a setting like a university
campus or a Writers Workshop that may be
far removed from the actual place
they're writing about they understand
the truth about their writing and then
geography is just a convenience so I
guess I'm passionate about India I gave
an interview many years ago 30 years ago
in which I said
India matters to me and I would like to
matter to India I hope I've tried to put
my feets where my words were thank you I
don't think the sound is on young lady
good morning my name is Prateek Shah and
I'm from Delhi private school Dubai and
my question to you today comes from the
sphere of politics as you're a
politician alongside with being a writer
my question to you is do you think
dynastic succession still has a place in
Indian politics and where you see
dynastic succession in the future well
it's a very important question and one
that is very often misunderstood this
question of dynastic succession that is
should a politician's son or daughter
inherit the political mantle of the
father or mother and I think we all know
that in India this is a widespread
practice in my own party we have
produced several generations of
leadership from one family if you look
next door and you pee the Samajwadi
Party has one Chief Minister being
replaced as Chief Minister by his son if
you look in Tamil Nadu the DMK party's
leader his successor is his younger son
if you look in almost any of the
regional parties the Orissa Biju Janata
Dal is led by the son of Biju Patnaik
the famous nationalist leader and so it
goes it is a widespread practice and
indeed it even goes down to the
individual level not just individual
just parties there is that an MP passes
away and the seat is given to the son or
daughter we've seen that with such in
pilots in Rajasthan we've seen it very
recently with Pankaj on Monday Gopinath
Munde his daughter and my Rashtra from
different parties but the culture
appears to be the same why does this
happen well one answer is because our
culture is very much like that we
all know that the sons and daughters of
Bollywood stars become bollywood stars
we know the sons and doctors of sons and
daughters of doctors or dentists become
doctors and dentists inherit the
practice we know the sons of businessman
take over their father's businesses why
should we expect any profession to be
any different if you have a chance to
take over the family business you will
do it that seems to be built into the
culture the second factor which is
unique to politics is that politics
requires two things name recognition and
the support base both of which are
inheritable I can't say that because I
am a very good IT professional that my
daughter should be an IT professional
she may just not have the talent for it
but a politician can say my daughter
bears my name and she also has the same
support whether it's caste based support
geographical support whatever that I had
therefore my daughter should inherit my
seat and in politics it works because
the ultimate yardstick in democratic
politics is the voter and the votes
so if these factors make somebody more
electable than somebody else the more
electable person is always going to get
the chance and the real truth is that in
Indian politics very often the voter has
chosen a dynast
rather than a fresh face or a different
face and ultimately the best sanction in
a democracy against dynastic succession
is a voter start rejecting people on the
superficial grounds of name or caste or
lineage and instead voted for people on
the basis of their work their personal
quality and the performance we are not
yet there but maybe one day by the time
your daughter comes along to address an
event like this she won't be asking the
same question Thanks
good morning sir I'm Rachna Melara from
our own English High School Dubai and I
speak to you as someone who has lived
for 15 out of 16 years
outside of India works true and my
question to you is as in our eyes
what is our role in the making and
breaking of Indian institutions
wonderful ok all of you of course are
NRIs and that's now you all know what
right non-resident Indian but in my book
India from midnight to the Millenium I
suggested that NRI could actually stand
for two very different things one is
never relinquished India people have
never given up the idea of India even
while they are physically left India and
the other one for NRI I said is not
really Indian why not really Indian
because you've grown up in a different
culture with different surroundings
different assumptions different values
even different habits whether it comes
to habits of sanitation and hygiene I
bet you don't litter on the streets here
but when you go back to India you don't
think twice about throwing your litter
out of the car window whether it's the
languages you speak in here the TV shows
you watch everything is different when
you're in RI so I've said is it never
relinquished India or is it not really
Indian or is it both but I went beyond
that eventually and I've written about
this at some length I'll give you a
short answer the short answer is the
national the non-resident Indians have
become so indispensable to India's own
success that now I say that NRI should
be the national reserve of India because
they have become a resource for the
country you are all a resource for the
country in what ways are you a resource
because of course your parents are
sending money home
that's strengthening a foreign exchange
position that's helping your relatives
that's also enabling our economy to grow
and increase the purchasing power of the
recipients even during the recession the
quantity of Indian remittances kept
going up that was a wonderful
development secondly because of the
support you give in every country you
often support policy objectives that are
sympathetic to India in America for
example the N our eyes have become a
very important voice
for pro-indian policies and because they
themselves have an influential vote and
are influential donors to politicians
the politicians can't ignore these NR
eyes and the third thing about NRI is it
seems to me is that they do invest back
home they invest financially many of
them work money will buy companies buy
land they invest back in India it's not
that they feel that India is the last
place they want to invest in it's always
the first place they want to invest in
but they also invest emotionally the
inverse invests their compassion their
caring when you go to these privacy
party of diverse events every year it's
amazing the number of people you see who
have come from all over the world just
anxious to feel that sense of belonging
that sense of identification with their
motherland so for all of these reasons I
believe in our eyes are the National
Reserve or the natural resource of India
you ask how they can make an effect
these are the ways in which they are
already making an effect but you asked
about our democratic institutions there
they can only make an effect by going
back and living because when you are
outside you don't forfeit your rights as
an Indian passport holder you have all
your rights but you kind of lose out to
those who are back home fighting the
good fight at home because when you're
outside you're outside you're looking
outside the window looking in you're not
inside when you're inside however then
through your vote through your
participation you can make a big impact
and many in our eyes have gone back to
India after many years abroad have
raised the standards of public discourse
in our country in many ways because they
brought their own expectations and their
own standards to bear on how India
should be expected to function just as
bollywood film makers are making movies
more and more tailored to NRI audiences
our politics too is becoming much more
responsive to the views of n our eyes
good morning sir my name is Sahara and
I'm from Allah means I'm at school
what's your name again Sarah Sarah and
my name is my name is Sahara and I'm
Sora and I'm from al-amin private school
and my question to you today is being a
writer and a politician which one are
you are you proud to be considered as
haha there's no doubt about that one
because a politician to my mind is not a
part of my being it is what I do
whereas writing is a part of my being
I'm already an ex-minister one day I'll
be an X MP or an X politician but I hope
I will never be an X right a former
writer that writing is part of who I am
as George Bernard Shaw said I write for
the same reason a cow gives milk it's
inside me it's got to come out
politics is a passion it's given me
interesting experiences good and bad but
if tomorrow I stopped being a politician
I don't stop being me that's the big difference
difference
thank you Sarah good morning sir a mafia
and I'm representing Victoria College gotcha
gotcha
sir I would like to know how has the ink
stirs we can get into politics and
change the entire story of India that's
a very good question because I think
young youth is the right time to get
into politics to my mind one of my
mistakes was I left it so late I came
into politics when everybody around me
have been doing it since their student
days your challenge is that you're here
and not there so as a young person here
you have to follow the rules and laws of
this country and you can't suddenly
become an Indian political activist
while sitting in Sharjah but once you do
go back home to India yes you can make a
difference you can make a contribution
and one of the ways in which you are
able to do that is by engaging with the
political process wherever you are if
you're living in a village get involved
with the grassroots work the problems of
the villagers see how you can use your
education you can help them by being an interface
interface
between them their problems and the
realities of the government because you
have the language you have the education
if somebody has a problem means an
administrative help you can read the
forms you can write you can take them to
see the government official and so on
you can be very active just by being an
educated young person second because as
a young person you have fewer
responsibilities you are able to risk
your time your energy your sleep in
devoting yourself to political causes
and that will be something really
worthwhile and third it's when you're
young that you make the experiments and
determine what you'll do when you're
older if you discover when you're young
that you don't have a taste for politics
you can leave it behind with no regrets
but if you leave the political life for
nature and then you discover it's too
late to get in or that you can't really
have the same kind of success you could
have had in your twenties then you have
only yourself to blame so my advice is
try politics young go and see how you
can make a difference to people's lives
if you have a political party or
political leaders you like join them and
support them and see how you can get
involved in improving life my
grandfather has been an MLA
sorry Oh mics off [Applause]
[Applause]
I'll repeat it your grandfather's been
my grandfather has been an Emily has
been an Emily yeah so you have a
political constituency look from
Hyderabad India so I have already
political I love to be in politics I
want to help the people wonderful and
like my main concern is with the poor
people I want to help them educate
educated and I want to make my India of
totally true India which it was before I
reach India with everything good for you
I love that ambition we all admire you
for wanting that so go back and work for
it but get a good education first so
that you can contribute what you know
and what you've learned to those who are
less fortunate thank you so much sir
thank you good morning sir I'm Nidhi and
I'm pursuing my BBN Chrome well my
question to you is it's about one of
your quotes there is nothing as the
wrong place or the wrong time we are
we're at the only time we have perhaps
it's where we are meant to be so sir do
you think this quote has a strong impact
in your life as a politician as well as
an author uh-huh that's a good good
question this is a line from a novel not
a work of nonfiction it's a novel called
riot and a character says exactly this
that no such place as the no such thing
is a right wrong time of the wrong place
we are where we are at the only time we
have perhaps where it's where we're
meant to be and I said perhaps because
even as the voice of that character I
don't want to eliminate the possibility
of free will I'm Indian enough or Hindu
enough to believe that destiny lays out
certain possibilities for you that often
two people may work equally hard and one
succeeds in a certain way and the other doesn't
doesn't
and often the difference is explained by
factors that cannot be rationally Allen
I analyzed there are opportunities that
destiny gives you but ultimate
I would insist destiny alone is not
enough you still have to make a choice
you can have the greatest horoscope or
the greatest fate line but if you go and
stand in front of a speeding train it
makes no difference to your destiny you
are finished there are some things when
you make the choice if you jump off a
30th floor of a building it doesn't
matter how good your your-your-your
opportunities were so there's always
perhaps where it's where we're meant to
be you could have been somewhere else
you chose to be here and that gives you
your anchored role in life I'm sorry I'm
Salman from GSS private school law salon
and my question to you as a like you've
been writing since your teenager and
even before what is this thing like even
today inspires you to write and how like
how do you or if you get like writer's
block how do you like go through it well
I haven't so far suffered from writer's
block but that's because I have so
little time to write that when I do get
a chance to write I write with a
ferocious determination and energy
I think Salman Rushdie once said why
should writers be allowed the luxury of
writer's block after all carpenters
don't have carpenters block and you know
engineers don't have engineers block and
plumbers Kanter plumbers block they have
to work all the time and writers should
be a profession they must work the same
way as well so that's the answer I
suppose I write because it matters to me
I gave you the George Bernard Shaw quote
it's like a cow giving milk and when I
write I write because I want to not
because I have to and that applies to
all of you I hope right because you want
to and you will write things that'll
mean something to you and to your
readers thank you last question okay the
young girl what's your name
I'm Maharaj's from Raj Cree
International School so my
question to us so you're an orator as
well as a writer so which one do you
think will have a greater impact in the society
society
oh that's very sweet of you and it's
it's a very difficult question to answer
historically the answer would have been
the writer because the oratory of any
famous person is only heard by the
audience around them and when the speech
is over and they've gone that's the end
of that whereas the writing will remain
on the bookshelves to be discovered by
future generations but now we have
YouTube so even a good speech can be
watched by later generations I delivered
a speech at the TED conference I
remember where the audience must have
been maybe 250 people maximum 300 maybe
today that speech that very same speech
in YouTube has been watched by two and a
half million people over these last four
or five years so yes I don't know but
because if people are going to lose the
habits of reading then maybe speaking
and being able to listen to speeches on
the net will become equally long-lasting
but I have a bias in favor of the
printed word because I think you don't
require an expensive computer and an
internet connection to watch it you can
pick up a book sit on a beach and read
it and be influenced by the ideas so my
answer would be the rising thank you all
very much thank you thanks kids I'm
sorry that it went on so long the many
of you had to leave but thank you for
coming and for your very very
stimulating and well thought out
we'd like to thank the Sharjah
government and the book fair authorities
for giving us a chance to host the
session and of course dr. Shashi Tharoor
for taking time out of his busy schedule
and talking to you guys and of course
all the teachers and students for being
such an amazing audience thank you
there's a book signing session now so
all those who one please line up here
thank you [Applause]
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