Sam Pitroda’s Convocation Address…. Legendary Indian Bureaucrat, a man who is synonymous to success, Mr Sam Pitroda addressed the students of SSSIHL, delivering the 32nd Annual Convocation Address speaking about the nation, nation building and the need for greater changes to have the India of our vision, in the next one decade… It is indeed a special privilege and honour for me to be here with you today to deliver 32nd convocation address. I want to thank the organizers for giving me this opportunity. I must say I have delivered probably over twenty five convocation addresses but I never had a setting like this. It is overpowering, inspirational, emotional, peaceful, pleasant and unbelievably quiet. This is my first visit to this University. I have been reading and hearing about it on and off for many years. But one of my colleagues who works with me, Vikas Bagri who graduated from here with a degree in Business (MBA) in 2008 has been working with us for five years. He is an example of your ambassador-very sincere, honest, hardworking, courageous, committed, disciplined, creative, ethical, with an ability to analyze things and willing to do everything, like I see here.Everything you can ask for- you see in him and you all should be proud of the institution you have. You have a great Institute with so many distinguished people. Before wearing this gown we all were together and I was amazed to meet some of these distinguished people whom I have known for many many years as part of my work in the eighties and I had no idea that they were all involved with this Institute. So you are indeed lucky to have the right spirit, right talent of advisors and seniors, proper environment, eco system and you are lucky to be graduating today. My congratulations to all graduating students. I wish you the best of the best in your journey forward and I hope you make a substantial contribution not only to yourself, your family, your community but also the country and the world. I can’t help but think of the day I graduated looking at all these beautiful young faces. I graduated from college with a BSc in Physics just about 52 years ago. It seems like yesterday. I was out there sitting, not with your kind of discipline, unfortunately. Young, just coming out of the Indian independence movement fervor – I was born in 1942. Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel and others were our role models. In those days, telephones were hardly available. In fact, I had never used a telephone in my life before going to America in 1964. I had never seen television in my life before going to America in 1964. Life was pretty simple. Needs were very little and goals were very clear. I want to tell you a little bit about my journey. To give you an example of how we all take different turns in life and no matter how you plan, the journey turns out to be very different. Exciting, at times challenging, but everything you learn in colleges do add up to lot of good experiences. I was born and raised in a small little village – a tribal village in Orissa. My parents were Gujaratis settled in Orissa and our heroes were again Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and others while growing up. In this village there were no schools, no water, no electricity, no phone, no doctor or no nurse. My mother delivered eight children – all eight at home – zero cost of delivery. All eight turned out to be mentally healthy, physically healthy and all eight went to America because at that time that was the way to get out of poverty. My father had fourth grade education – he was a carpenter and his dream was to make sure, like every Indian parent, that his children do get good education. I must tell you nowhere else in the world do parents spend so much time, energy, money and resources to educate their children than in India. So I got my BSc, then I got my Masters in Physics and then read in the newspaper that President Kennedy has decided to send man to the moon. I was young, energetic, little bit stupid, and I decided to go to America. I had no money, no support, didn’t know anybody. So I found some money, borrowed some, and then took a boat from Mumbai to Genova through Karachi, Aden, Port Said, Alexandria, Naples, Genova. Took a train from Genova to London, took a plane from London to New York and took a bus from New York to Chicago. I had never been there, had never seen snow, didn’t know what cold meant and all of a sudden realised that ignorance is going to help. I went to a college to study for a Ph.D. in Physics when my professor told me that it takes seven years to get a Ph.D. My priorities changed and I did a Masters in Electrical Engineering because I could get that in one year. Then I spent many years calling my family one by one to America, putting them through college, working hard, built a business in 1974, sold the business in 1979 and then came to Delhi in 1980. I had never been to Delhi before. I tried to make a phone call to my wife and I tried and I tried and I couldn’t make a phone call. So, with a fair amount of arrogance and lot of ignorance I said, ‘I am going to fix this.’ If I had known everything I know today about India, I would have never even tried it. I learned that ignorance is a great asset. If you know too much, sometimes you back off. I went back to Chicago told my wife that I am going to spend ten years fixing India’s telephones. I didn’t know how and I didn’t know with whom. Finally