SPEECH BY ANNA QUINDLEN

This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen
at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was
awarded an Honorary PhD.
"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't
ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here
this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be
hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be
thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will
be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your
particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your
life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your
mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also
your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier
to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort
on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when
you've received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried
never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no
longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen.
I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make
marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and
them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today,
because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and
I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if
those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you
are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life,
not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the
larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if
you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on
a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a
red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with
concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first
finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who
love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the
phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are
generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you
have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its
goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have
spent on beer and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big
brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good
too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes.
It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way
the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again.
It is so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the
destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today
is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the
world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it,
completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling
others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of
the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with
the sun on your face.

Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if
you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".

 ~EIGHT LIES OF A MOTHER~

1.The story began when I was a child;
I was born as a son of a poor family. Even for eating, we often got lack of food.
Whenever the time for eating, mother often gave me her portion of rice.
While she was removing her rice into my bowl, she would say "Eat this rice, son. I'm not hungry".
That was Mother's First Lie

2.When I was getting to grow up,the persevering mother gave her spare time for fishing in a river near our house,she hoped that from the fishes she got,she could gave me a little bit nutritious food for my growth.
After fishing, she would cook the fishes to be a fresh fish soup,which raised my appetite. While I was eating the soup,mother would sit beside me and eat the rest meat of fish,which was still on the bone of the fish I ate.
My heart was touched when I saw it. I then used my chopstick and gave the other fish to her.
But she immediately refused it and said "Eat this fish, son.I don't really like fish."
That was Mother's Second Lie.

3.Then, when I was in Junior High School,to fund my study,mother went to an economic enterprise to bring some used-matches boxes that would be stuck in. It gave her some money for covering our needs.
As the winter came,I woke up from my sleep and looked at my mother who was still awoke, supported by a little candlelight and within her perseverance she continued the work of sticking some used-matches box.
I said, "Mother, go to sleep, it's late, tomorrow morning you still have to go for work.
" Mother smiled and said "Go to sleep, dear. I'm not tired."
That was Mother's Third Lie.

4.At the time of final term, mother asked for a leave from her work in order to accompany me.
While the daytime was coming and the heat of the sun was starting to shine,the strong and persevering mother waited for me under the heat of the sun's shine for several hours.
As the bell rang, which indicated that the final exam had finished, mother immediately welcomed me and poured me a glass of tea that she had prepared before in a cold bottle.
The very thick tea was not as thick as my mother's love,which was much thicker. Seeing my mother covering with perspiration, I at once gave her my glass and asked her to drink too.
Mother said "Drink, son. I'm not thirsty!".
That was Mother's Fourth Lie.

5.After the death of my father because of illness, my poor mother had to play her role as a single parent.
By held on her former job, she had to fund our needs alone.Our family's life was more complicated. No days without sufferance. Seeing our family's condition that was getting worse,there was a nice uncle who lived near my house came to help us, either in a big problem and a small problem.
Our other neighbors who lived next to us saw that our family's life was so unfortunate,they often advised my mother to marry again. But mother, who was stubborn, didn't care to their advice,she said "I don't need love."
That was Mother's Fifth Lie.

6.After I had finished my study and then got a job, it was the time for my old mother to retire.
But she didn't want to; she was sincere to go to the marketplace every morning, just to sell some vegetable for fulfilling her needs. I, who worked in the other city, often sent her some money to help her in fulfilling her needs,but she was stubborn for not accepting the money.She even sent the money back to me.
She said "I have enough money."
That was Mother's Sixth Lie.

7.After graduated from Bachelor Degree,I then continued my study to Master Degree.
I took the degree, which was funded by a company through a scholarship program,from a famous University in America .
I finally worked in the company. Within a quite high salary, I intended to take my mother to enjoy her life in America .
But my lovely mother didn't want to bother her son, she said to me "I'm not used to."
That was Mother's Seventh Lie.

8.After entering her old age, mother got a flank cancer and had to be hospitalized.
I, who lived in miles away and across the ocean,directly went home to visit my dearest mother.
She lied down in weakness on her bed after having an operation.Mother, who looked so old, was staring at me in deep yearn. She tried to spread her smile on her face;even it looked so stiff because of the disease she held out.
It was clear enough to see how the disease broke my mother's body,thus she looked so weak and thin.
I stared at my mother within tears flowing on my face. My heart was hurt, so hurt, seeing my mother on that condition.
But mother, with her strength, said "Don't cry, my dear. I'm not in pain."
That was Mother's Eight Lie.


After saying her eighth lie, She closed her eyes forever.
 

 The major part of the Indian community, which has retained a distinct ethnic sub-identity, came to South Africa between 1860 and 1911 as indentured farm labour to serve as field hands and mill operatives in the sugar and other agricultural plantations of Natal (which was then a British colony). Although they were given the opportunity to return home on completion of their contracts, most preferred to stay on, either as farmers on crown land in Natal or as petty businessmen. 

Most of the initial migrants were drawn from what is today Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with some from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A second wave of Indians came after 1880. These were the “passenger Indians” – so-called because they paid their fares as passengers on board steamships bound for South Africa. This was the community of traders mainly from Gujarat. 

The South African Indian origin community currently numbers around 1.15 million and constitutes about 2.5% of South Africa’s total population of 45.45 million. About 80% of the Indian community lives in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, about 15% in the Gauteng (previously Transvaal) area and the remaining 5% in the Cape Town area. In KwaZulu-Natal, the major concentration of the Indian population is in Durban. The largest concentrations of Indian settlement are at Chatsworth, Phoenix, Tongaat and Stanger in the Durban Coastal area, which covers approximately 500,000 of the Indian origin community. Pietermaritzburg – noted for its link with Mahatma Gandhi - has a community of approximately 200,000. 

Smaller inland towns in KwaZulu Natal such as Ladysmith, Newcastle, Dundee and Glencoe make up the bulk of the remaining Indian population. In the Gauteng area, the Indian community is largely concentrated around Lenasia outside Johannesburg and Laudium and other suburbs outside Pretoria. There are also smaller groups in towns in the Eastern Cape and other provinces. Settlement of Indian origin people in a particular area, as with other South African peoples, came about as a result of the Group Areas Act that forced racial division into particular designated areas. 

According to the figures provided by the Department of Education and Culture, in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, the linguistic break-up of the Indian community is as follows: Tamil 51%, Hindi 30%, Gujarati 7%, Telugu 6%, Urdu 5% and others 1%. 

The language issue is of more emotional and cultural significance than a practical one as 98% of the Indian community in South Africa considers English their home language. However, community organisations make some commendable efforts to teach Indian languages to children at school levels and to maintain university level language courses at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Indeed many local Indian origin people speak Afrikaans, having been taught it throughout their schooling and some because of business and other interactions with the local people. The preponderance of English over Indian vernaculars is also as a result of the state education received by Indian origin learners, which precluded languages other than English and Afrikaans. 

IMMIGRATION LAWS AFFECTING THE DIASPORA

Although Indians came to South Africa in the 1860’s, it was not until over a century later (in 1961), that they were granted the status of full citizens. While their status changed, they were subject to the same discrimination as the rest of the Black people of South Africa. Post-1994, they are treated like any other South African and have afforded most of the benefits reserved for previously disadvantaged people. 

POLITICAL ROLE: 

Traditionally, progressive South African Indian leaders led the fight against apartheid. Beginning with Mahatma Gandhi during his 21-year stay in South Africa, it was valiantly followed by Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Monty Naicker and others. The Natal Indian Congress, which was founded by Gandhi, also successfully led the move to boycott the tricameral and racist elections in 1984 and together with the Transvaal Indian Congress, participated actively in the United Democratic Front and its struggle against the racist regime, during the years in which the ruling African National Congress was banned and in exile. Their contribution has always been acknowledged by leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and President Thabo Mbeki. The Natal Indian Congress played a significant role when the African National Congress (ANC) was banned in 1960, but was subsequently dissolved in the 1990s when the ANC was unbanned. However, the Natal Indian Congress and its leaders, George Sewpersad, Pravin Gordhan, Dr Kesavaloo Goonam and Ela Gandhi, amongst others, had served the struggle for the liberation of South Africa unflinchingly. 

After the 1999 elections, of the 400 National Assembly MPs, 41 were of Indian origin. The Speaker was of Indian origin as were four Cabinet ministers and two deputy ministers. In the current Assembly, there are 25 Indian-origin MPs, one Cabinet Minister and three Deputy Ministers. Given that Indians represent less than 2.5% of the overall population in South Africa, people were chosen on the basis of their ability, their activism and their contributions rather than their ethnic origin, in keeping with the non-racial ethic of African National Congress rule. 

10. In the province of KwaZulu-Natal where there is maximum concentration of South Africans of Indian origin, one Indian-origin Minister has been inducted into the 11-member Cabinet. In the 80-member Provincial Legislature there are six members of Indian origin, excluding the one Minister. For the first time in the province of Free State there is one member in the Provincial Legislature of Indian origin. Ironically, during apartheid rule people of Indian origin were not allowed to spend more than 24-hours in the province, let alone settling there or setting up businesses. 

LINKS WITH INDIA: 

In common with other large long-established overseas Indian communities, South African Indians have a deep emotional bond with their mother culture. Having been the unfortunate victims of the severing of ties with their motherland due to international sanctions against the apartheid state, they have warmly welcomed re-establishment of diplomatic, sporting, cultural and trade relations. Many community organisations want closer religious, cultural and educational ties. They are interested in visiting India to rediscover their roots and for tourism and trade. They are also eager to start interacting with other overseas Indian communities with whom their ties also suffered as a result of the apartheid rule. 

The community participates actively in the celebration of National Day by the Indian missions in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Diwali is celebrated as a big public function in Durban as well as in Lenasia, Laudium and other areas where Indian communities reside. There are a large number of community organizations, which are working to propagate their cultural and linguistic traditions. 

To sum up, the Indian origin community in South Africa is one of the largest such communities in the world, and one of the oldest, and has had an honourable and acknowledged role in the liberation struggle with strong emotional and cultural bonds with the country of their origin, and while they may have concerns about their future, like all minorities, are proud of being South Africans.

Courtesy CG India, JHB