The Icebreaker

“The greatest gift we can give to one is the gift of “unconditional love”. Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

Good morning, Toastmasters and fellow members/guests. I am Narayanaswamy Nagarajan and called shortly as nagz or nagzee.   There is a story behind this call name nagz. During my first visit to  states in 2002, everytime, I used to tell my full name Nagarajan Narayanaswamy.  200% of time, nobody could get my name and I end up spelling my name every time, like, ‘n’ as in nancy, ‘a’ as in apple etc. I decided that I should have a fancy short name.  I used to follow numerology those days.

How many of you know what ‘numerology’ is.  It is a method with occult significance to numbers  and names.  Every alphabet has a numerical value and and every number has  some associated good or bad omens. You can bring in luck just by changing your name.In India, you can often find famous personalities, mostly politicians,  changing their name to some weird spelling , hoping to get some fortune.As per Numerology, if you have a ‘z’ in your name, you will be powerful as a king.So, I formed this short name ‘nagz.  From that time onwards, for almost 14 years, people know me by name ‘nagz’, and nobody knows my full name. Some call me as nagz and others call as ‘nagzee’. I don’t care how they call me, as long as they don’t nag me to spell my full name.

When I was told that I have to tell everything about me in 4 to 6 minutes, I was thinking how I can cover ‘everything’ about me in just 6 minutes. But , when I started to prepare, I was really wondering how I can cover 6 minutes as there is nothing much interesting things about me to share.I am an Electrical Engineer and I have a masters degree in Electrical engineering from one of the prestigious institute from India.

If I have to talk about me, I have to talk about one person, without  whose sacrifices, without whose  support, I would not be standing here, I would not be who am I. It is my father, Mr.Narayanaswamy.  If I have to describe my father in one word , it is ‘ unconditional love’.

We are from a remote village in India. To reach a nearest busStand, my father has to ride 10miles in a bicycle.  Though my father struggled all through his life financially, he never shared his pains with us, and he ensured that we get everything we asked for. To be really frank, I was not aware that we are poor until I was 15.He will wear a old torn banyan with lots of holes, but he will ensure that we get a latest nice dress.  He shielded us from the poverty and pain he was going through.   I had 4 sisters and 2 brothers. I can proudly say that all us are post graduate and doing well in their life, mainly due to my father. Not only us, he even took care of his sisters and their families. There are at least some 10 families doing well now, because of this one person, my father.

So, all this degree, status, everything I owe to my father who lived his values and showed us the values.We read about  Gandhi, Mother Teresa etc., but in my view, my father was the Gandhi for me , for the values he taught us and for the life he lived.My father was a Tahsildhar . Not sure, how many of you know what is a Tahsildhar, . If I have to give an equivalent to US system, it is like a District magistrate or.a Mayor.  Like most of the countries, even in India, there is a high level of corruption in government system. In his role as the Mayor, he had lots of opportunities to make money illegally, but he stood his ground all through his career and retired as the ‘most honest government official’. The only wealth he acquired for us is the name, as the most honest person. Lots of goodies used to come home, but will be sent back to them. As a kid, I was not aware , why are we sending these back.  At that age, I was very much sure, ‘money’, the most important aspect of life, why my father is sending it back. Irrespective of right or wrong channel.

He struggled all through his life, but when me and my brothers are settled in life and having a good income, he was nomore to enjoy.

It was 16 years back, he was in the hospital. We admitted him in one of the India’ s top medical institution.Me and my brother were having this discussion with the doctor about my father. This doctor is senior most and top medical official in his field in entire India. The doctor said, we cannot do anything, please take him back to house and we cannot cure him.  We said, we can pay how much ever it takes, please see what we can do. He said, even if you pay 100 million, we cannot cure him, as he has liver cancer and his 72 years old. We cannot give chemotherapy due to his age as he is more than 70. That moment, I realized ‘money is not everything’. Money cannot buy everything.

One thing I learned from my father was, ‘love’ , ‘love’ and ‘love’.

I want to end this talk by a key message.Many of you being in Telecom industry might know what is OSI protocol. (Open systems interconnect).

To make it very simple in layman terms, this protocol explains how the information exchange happens between this phone and the phone on the other end. Or between your settop box and the service provider.

They explain 7 layers of abstraction; the last layer is the physical copper wire that connects the two phone. Whatever technology you take, VOIP , AVPN , Video, audio etc, the the last layer which is the physical copper wire is same for everything.

Likewise, we human beings can be different in terms of color, race, language etc, but at the ‘soul’. Or ‘atma’ level we are all one and the same.

At soul level , you and me are equal, so if have to help myself, I have to help you.

That’s how I want to pass on my father’s values in my life and in life’s of people around me.

Thank you Toastmaster for the opportunity.