Our Varalotti is now sought after by students in Madurai !

Dear Friends,
Dinamalar and SRM university conducted a massive education fair for plus two students in Madurai . Varalotti was asked to address one of the sessions on Thannambikkai for about 10 minutes.

Lakshmi Sundaram Hall was fully packed with some 1200 students. 500 students were standing outside.

My nephew who was an invitee to the function writes to me thus:

"I saw the students looking sad earlier thinking about their future. Varalotti made them laugh, some of them rolled with laughter and then he made them think. After the meeting was over students were in a queue to get his autograph. He had spoken only for 10 minutes. But he autographed for more than 30 minutes. "

Friends, I am enclosing the coverage of his speech which came in the Dinamalar for your reading pleasure in the form of pdf file.

Sridhar, you have become a beacon of light for the students in Madurai by virtue of your "Valarppom Thannambikai" serial appearing every sunday in varamalar.
You deserve this honour richly, for all the effort you put in your writing profession.

Love,
Chithra.

Chitra,
Thanks a lot for posting the item. I had addressed many meetings. But never have I seen so many students in one place. The hall had some 1190 students (Dinamalar reporters produced an exact head-count at the end of the day). I think that it is like a blessing to see so many young faces smiling in spite of the fact that this was the toughest time in their lives.

Thanks once again for posting.
sridhar

dear chitra madam,
once again u have brought to light the personality named varalotti to us, wonderful effort on ur part and the speech itself is grt, but let me point out some thing here madam, many dont know how to read tamil, so for their sake i think u should take an effort to interpret the same in english....thanku and sridhar sir, as usual in ur own inmitable style u have brought abt the point of self reliance among the students, which is a great necessasity these days, now we realise y u r so much in demand ...regards sunkan

Mrs ChitVish,

Thank you for posting this in IL.

Varalotti,

Good to see the photo and the article. I liked the RICE acronym, I hope it becomes the staple mental food of the students. You have instilled confidence in the hearts of 1190 students, future soldiers of our country and Her destiny. It must have been one eloquent speech placing you on par with Jambavan. It is said that after Jambavan reminded Hanumar of His latent powers, Hanumar rose as Veeranjaneyar. May the students now rise and shine likewise!

regards
Vidya

Chitvish,

Thankyou for posting this info and bringing this to the attention of all of us.

Varalotti,

Congratulations on winning the hearts of 1190 students who will now for sure become pillars of our country tomorrow.
Loved the RICE acronym.

Regards,
Jothi.

Thanks Sunkan for those nice words. As requested by you, I am giving the English version of my speech on that day in the next post.
regards,
sridhar

"Good Evening, my dear friends.
The organiser and I were discussing about this topci - self-confidence yesterday. A student who was eavesdropping on our conversation asked me later,
"Are you the guy who is going to talk on self confidence?" I said yes. "First tell me Sir, in which college is that course available. Is it a three year course or five year course? What's the cost and can we get bank loans..."
I was stumped. But thinking about it later I felt it would have been better if we have such a course. I can see a total lack of self-confidence in todays job applicants. When I interview candidates I always ask a question, why should I give the job to you. Some will reply, "Sir we are totally 12 brothers and sisters. Large family low income. I badly need that job."
A totally wrong reason. Why should I give the job to him simply because his father did not adopt family planning practices?
When you ask for a job meet your prospective employer on the level. In as much you need the job, the employer needs you. Talk to him as a king would talk to another not like a beggar seeking alms.
I have been dubbed as chartered accountant, cost accountant, management consultant and so on. But the fact remains I am a kanakku pillai pure and simple. That does not mean that you shoud ignore a kanakkupillais advice. Because life itself is but simple mathematics. Kanakku (arithmetics, math) is there everywhere.
When your mother cooks the food, when she measures the rice to be cooked, when she decides on the quantity of salt, some kind of kanakku comes in. Missing out on lifes mathematics will make our lives miserable. So please do listen to me.
And one thing about the mathematics of life is that you have to work out the answer yourselves. Even the citys best auditors or mathematicians cannot help you with your life's problems. Listen to your parents, teachers, friends, cousins and people like us. But decide with your own brains taking inputs from all of us.

After all we work for our daily food. Being Tamilians rice is our staple diet. In the word rice is a life's lesson.
R - relationships - wherevery you are and however highly placed you may be you cannot survive without proper, balanced human relationships.
I Information - many a time we take crucial decisions without looking for adequate information. Without searching for adequate alternatives. Even if you take the simple problem of deciding the batting order for a cricket team, please do remember that there are 36,28,800 alternative ways in which the batting order can be rearranged.
C Communication: you buy a car based on what you see in the showroom. You do not go to the godown or to the car factory. Your knowledge and intelligence is the car factory. Your education is your godown. But how you communicate is your showroom. Employers make hiring decisions depending what they see in the showroom, meaning the skiil to communicate is of paramount importance.
E Enthusiasm- never lose enthusiasm in your life. It is easy to be enthusiastic when you are on the top of the world - after you have got the University's first rank or have got the Gnanpeet Award. It requires intensive mental training to be enthusiastic while handling a crisis situation - tough exam, a stress interview or a serious problem at work. So long as you are enthusiastic you will stand ahead of others.
I and my friend were travelling in a crowded train in an unreserved compartment. When we tried to stand up from our seats in the corridor, my friend found that one of his slippers was missing. He threw the other one away. But in the next station he found out the "lost slipper". He had no choice to throw that also away.
Many students throw their skill-sets and their capabilities away that they do not have the other matching slipper, I mean luck. But later when they find that they also have luck, it is too late. Then they have to throw that also away.
Dont be like my friend. Hold on to your capabilities. Luck is always there for you.
I wish you all the best in whatever you do."
sridhar