Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Grad­u­ates of Na­pari­ma Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do have been urged to be in­no­v­a­tive, mo­ti­vat­ed and am­bi­tious. "Be a lover of life and oth­ers. Fall in love with your ca­reer and your fam­i­ly," said promi­nent con­sul­tant urol­o­gist Dr Lall Sawh, as he re­turned to his al­ma mater for a prize-giv­ing and grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny last Sat­ur­day.

Sawh, who has been list­ed as one of the top 100 urol­o­gists in the world is al­so a na­tion­al award re­cip­i­ent, a Cha­co­nia gold medal, for his con­tri­bu­tion in the field of med­i­cine. He quot­ed his men­tor Dr Prem Ratan as say­ing, "No re­spectable na­tion can arise from peo­ple who cher­ish graft, cor­rup­tion, dis­hon­esty and no pros­per­ous na­tion can arise from a peo­ple who are spend­thrifts and clock­watch­ers."

He urged stu­dents to be "ro­man­tic and pas­sion­ate." "Be a lover of life and oth­ers. I am not en­cour­ag­ing promis­cu­ity. Love what you do with a pas­sion and make the na­tion a bet­ter place by your per­for­mance. Be­come an ac­ro­bat and jug­gle your time so that you do not ne­glect your chil­dren, and of course your wife," Sawh said.

He said Mi­crosoft founder Steve Jobs made en­e­mies by be­ing over-pas­sion­ate about his dream. "Jobs lived that dream and to­day the world is a most ef­fi­cient place es­pe­cial­ly where in­for­ma­tion dis­sem­i­na­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion is con­cerned," Sawh said. School prin­ci­pal Dr Michael Dowlat told grad­uands that they must seize the op­por­tu­ni­ties pre­sent­ed to them. "Stu­dents must be a part of con­struct­ing the knowl­edge and skills they need to achieve their goals and am­bi­tions."

He said each stu­dent must be an agent of change. Dowlat al­so praised the par­ents, staff and alum­ni of the school for con­tribut­ing over $2 mil­lion for new ceil­ings, air con­di­tion­ing and in­fra­struc­tur­al works in the au­di­to­ri­um/gym­na­si­um.

Dowlat al­so said that all sci­ence lab­o­ra­to­ries are now re­fur­bished up to OS­HA stan­dards and the Form Five class­rooms were all air-con­di­tioned. He re­vealed that the school will soon buy a 25-seater bus cost­ing $700,000 and that $40,000 had al­ready been giv­en in bur­saries to needy stu­dents. Among those ho­n­oured on Sat­ur­day were Pres­i­dent's Gold Medal win­ner Mar­cus Be­las­co and na­tion­al schol­ar­ship win­ners:

Jon Russ Jhin­goorie

Marc Jaikissoon

Kris Ram­lo­gan

Ravin­dra Bas­deo

Aadam Khan

By­ron Gopaul

Nicholas Man­na

Ra­jiv Maraj

Ste­fan Ram­nar­ine

Veeresh Ram­nar­ine

Cur­tis Jage­sar

Damion Bas­deo

Dario De­ok­ie

Dil­lon Ra­jh

Justin Dho­ray

Keenan Ma­hadeo

Mi­tra Ma­haraj

Naren­dra Sam­lal

Richard Ameer­lal

Samir Mo­hammed

Sher­ard Sadeek

Shi­va Nand­lal

Stef­fan Ramharack

Va­roon Ar­joon

Vikash Badasee

Vivek Math­an­gi

Ste­fan Seep­aul