Graduation Ceremony

We celebrated the Graduation ceremony for the 10th and 12th class students, which was also a farewell to the outgoing students. It was really a nostalgic moment for everyone as most of the students were here for Seven to Eight years and Abhyasa was like a home to them. We had specially invited Mr Kondal Rao Garu as a Chief Guest for the function. Sri Kondala Rao Garu was born on 3 rd November 1936, he did his B.E in civil engineering from the batch of 1957 at Govt College of engineering Kakinada .He has worked in various capacities and retired as Chief Engineer, panchayati raj on 31st October 1995. He is currently working as technical advisor to government of Andhra Pradesh since November 1995. He has executed all projects of Sri Sathya Sai drinking water supply from 1995 onwards. His family consists of his wife, two sons, daughter-in-laws and four grand children. His sons are engineers as well and are working aboard in USA & Canada. Senior Technical Consultant to Govt. of Andhra Pradesh for the Sri Sathya Sai Water Supply Project, and also the Chief Engineer supervising the Chennai Water Supply Project. Sri Kondal Rao Garu had been closely working with L&T in the execution of these projects. He is very closely connected to Puttaparthi even now.

Some of the Excerpts from his speech are given below:- He said that he was very happy to visit this school and felt envy for the students who get opportunity to study in schools like Abhyasa. He shared how he got in touch with Sri Satya Sai Baba. In 1991 he got an opportunity to meet Baba. Swami told him that there has to so much of love for oneself and for others to become a pure being and this purity leads to divinity. Service of the poor is also very important. He always sent students to villages to serve the poor and told that the happiness you get one will never forget in his lifetime. Swami always shared that you should always help the down trodden and if you have excess money share it with poor people, If you don't have money then you can offer food and if you can't even offer that you can atleast offer your prayers for the poor people. Swami always prayed Samasta Loka Sukhino Bhavantu. He explained to me that work is worship and duty is god.

Swami had a vision for providing drinking water to everyone. As a chief Engineer he called me to discuss about the drinking water project and asked to make an estimate for drinking water project for Anantapur. I took a week and did all the calculations and it came to around 90 Crores. But after one more week of calculations it came to around 180 Crores. Swami called me and asked what happened about the project and I explained him that the cost of the project would be 180 Crores and it would take a long time to get sanction from the Government for the same. Swami called me and said ok let us go ahead with the project and asked me to get in touch with the authorities. I put the project in front of the authorities and it was sanctioned immediately. This was a real shock for me, getting sanction for 180 crore project within sucha short span of time was a real miracle. And then swami said that I want this project to be completed by 23-11-1995. This is swami's birthday which was just 8 months time. Normally a project with such magnitude would take 3 to 4 year's time. But I said to Swami that I will try my level best. Getting approvals from different departments is very difficult. But with swami's blessings everything went smoothly and we completed the project in surprising time. Unless there is divine intervention this cannot happen.

Then again Chennai was facing Drinking water problems and Swami asked me to work out a project for Chennai. I said to him that it does not come under Andhra Pradesh but he said you just get in touch with the Authorities in Chennai. So I contacted the Authorities and asked them to work on this project. They worked out a project which would cost 1000 Crores to provide 1 TMC of water and their requirement was 12 TMC water. I worked on the same project which was getting water from Krishna River with a 153 Km pipeline and made a project of 200 Crores and with a supply of 12 TMC of water supply. This is only because of the divine blessings. Mr Kondal Rao Garu said life is all about learning. It is an unending process. You should study vedas. Lot of foreign countries are adopting the knowledge that is there in vedas in their day to day life. 8000 years ago it was mentioned in the vedas how to manufacture an aeroplane. Then Mr Kondal Rao Garu talked about culture. He gave a simple example. He told how we follow foreign culture in everything. India is a hot country and we try to follow the exercise regimen which is followed by athletes in foreign countries. This is not going to suit our environment. As students you should be disciplined and make it a part of your life which will help you when you grow up and will help you settle in your life. Finally he said give a lot of respect to your parents and your teachers who give you knowledge and wisdom. Always give as much as you can to these people in your life. And achieve big things in your life and try to become scientist and make our country proud.

Then our Founder Principal and Director gave his speech and said that this batch has really made everyone proud with their achievements in the year that has passed. Especially he mentioned the massive wins in Horlicks and the A. P Regional sports meet. He said that we have with us two great personalities and Sons of Andhra Pradesh Mr Kondal Rao Garu and Mr Prabhakar Rao Garu who served as DGP of Andhra Pradesh and who is also serving on our Director Body. It is only through service you can enjoy fulfilling life. Whenever we face problems we always run to Astrologers and temples but the people who do service of the poor never have to go to these places. They have found that happiness in life through service. He also thanked Mr Kondal Rao Garu and all other Chief Guests who shared the Dias for giving their precious time and sharing their wisdom with our students. He also thanked Mr Shastri Garu who also was the Guests, and ended the speech with Samasta Loka Sukhinou Bhavantu.

Some students also shared their views and became nostalgic as it dawned on them that they are going to leave the campus within a day or Two. There was some entertainment program after this and a lavish Dinner was served to the Guests and all the parents who attended the function. It was a grand affair.