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It is through educators that our country has progressed towards a positive direction – Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar
The dashing Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar is earnestly committed to social causes including education, health and environment. As host of the second ScooNews Global Educators Fest 2018 at the City Palace, Udaipur, he addressed the conference with wit and wisdom.
The dashing Prince Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar is earnestly committed to social causes including education, health and environment. As host of the second ScooNews Global Educators Fest 2018 at the City Palace, Udaipur, he addressed the conference with wit and wisdom. “It is a matter of joy for me to be able to have this conference here,” he averred, adding, “Thank you so much, Ravi for having the faith and having SGEF in Udaipur.” He established an instant rapport when he revealed that he had left his speech papers designed to make him look ‘intellectual’ at the table and decided to go with what came to his heart and mind instead.
More smiles were forthcoming as he shared, “It doesn't make it any easier when your Principal Mr Pramod Sharma, your sports coach and your history teacher are sitting in the audience. But I guess Ravi has only given me this opportunity at this point in time to do a little bit of payback so they can feel what we felt when roles were reversed,” he pointed out, adding, “It would be a disservice if I did not acknowledge them, if I didn't state the fact that I'm standing here because of them, their hard work.” Declaring that he was on time today and did not need to be woken up by his school principal, he quipped, “It is not a good sight and, trust me, I suffered a couple of those!”
He added that while he had problems making it to lessons in school, “I'm glad in the lessons of life, I'm hopefully following the path that I was taught in my boarding life.” Speaking about the importance of valuing time, he narrated a beautiful couplet…’Waqt aata hai aur waqt jaata hai. Waqt ko sambhal kar rakhiyega. Waqt bewaqt kam aata hai.’
The Prince brought a note of momentousness to the occasion as he declared, “I think it is a historic moment… Let me tell you where we are all seated, at this point in time. It’s not just a building with a lot of portraits and some nice crystal, but this was the very hall where the treaty of accession was signed, where the Republic of India was made and the Republic of India was born. This is also the hall where some of the major conferences in developing the future of India in nuclear science, where none other than our beloved ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam was also present, where they shaped the future of this country. The same very hall is also a host to the ScooNews conference which is going to be a revolution in India for the biggest educational conference India has ever seen.”
Switching to Hindi, he revealed that it was his original language which he is “more comfortable and a little less nervous” with. “I am not against any language neither do I wish to offend anyone by speaking in Hindi. I have only one request, we started from a se anpad towards g se gyaani, and a for apple to z for zero, but we need to remember that if we don’t speak our language, we may lose our culture. And it is our responsibility to carry our culture forward. It is through educators that our country has progressed towards a positive direction,” he underlined.
Stressing that we often stand at a crossroad where the most important decisions of our lives are taken, he narrated a story which proved the futility of following others’ opinions and advice, and trying to please all. “We need to understand that there are going to be many people who will tell us what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, especially in the education world. I think it is the belief we need to have within ourselves where the drive, passion and motivation can be created to make people and children of this country move forward,” he pointed out.
Wishing success and power to initiatives which focus on the early childhood years as well as educating parents, he concluded with a couplet: ‘Hum kya banane aaye the aur kya bana baithe, Humare se acchi zaat toh hai parindo ki, kabhi mandir par, kabhi mazjid par jaa baithe.’ Much food for thought there…
Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar is Trustee – Vidyadan Trust, Trustee – Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Executive Director – Lake Palace Hotels & Motels Pvt. Ltd., Executive Director – Historic Resorts Hotels Pvt. Ltd. and President – Maharana Pratap Smarak Samiti.