They are the golden boys and girls (pictured) who struck gold at the prestigious Saraswati Sanman Awards at the House of Lords on March 14. With their extraordinary academic accomplishments, they brought the house down, literally proving success leads to money.
Academically meritorious Indian sub-continent students – who had excelled in 2015 A-level examinations – were honoured by the Rt Hon Lord Dholakia PC OBE DL and Karma Yoga Foundation with Saraswati Sanman at a function in Parliament building in Westminster, London.
These UK-settled high grade achieving students from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – irrespective of religion, caste or creed – were felicitated with cash awards on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Lord Dholakia told students: “It is not what you take for yourself but what you do for your community that builds your character and the character of the community that you come from. So always remember we have a responsibility in this country to be part of the political and other processes within which you should make your contribution. Not because we are Indians or not because we have knowledge, but beyond that it is our duty and responsibility to be good citizens of the country in which we live in. And this is lesson number one in your education process.”
Lord Dholakia urged students to lend a hand wherever possible. He said: “Some of you may have tremendous success, others may not. You should give a hand, lift our people to be able to make sure we also have the ability to assist others to achieve what we have been able to achieve for ourselves.”
He said don’t waste your time sitting in front of TV. This country has so much to offer, explore it. He asked rhetorically: “How often you go to museums, art galleries, how often you go to local organisations that work for other people, how often you tie yourself with charities that work for society, how often do you say to yourself let me have a walk in the park, there are lot of things to do and we should be part of this process.”
He said there are so many opportunities in this country. Be part of that process. “I don’t care whether you are Labour, Conservative or Liberal. I care whether you are part of process where you can take decisions, you can be more informative, you can contribute, you can reflect the opinion of your community.”
Lord Dholakia said this is an ongoing project for all of us to recognise the potential of our young people. This is just the beginning of what you could achieve in future. “I want you to always remember that in life money will come and go, but what nobody can take away from you is your education, the knowledge you gather nobody will ever take away from you.”
Finally, he said it is for you to lift the other community people forward and make sure they also play very important part and if there is one objective for which Saraswati Sanman is awarded then that is this. “Always make sure you did your best, you achieved your best, there are goals to be achieved – you are the people who will help them achieve them.”
Mr Kanti Nagda, Trustee/Secretary of Karma Yoga Foundation, gave an overview of Karma Yoga Foundation.
Mr Nagda said Karma Yoga Foundation was established in 2011 with the following aims and objectives:
1. The advancement of education for the benefit of the public through the provision of educational grants and scholarships;
2. The prevention or relief of poverty anywhere in the world by providing grants, items and services to individuals in need and charities or other organisations working to relieve poverty; and
3. For any such other purposes deemed charitable by the law of England and Wales as the trustees shall from time to time determine.
He said to date over £130,000.00 has been donated to the following organizations and institutions: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Akshaya Patra, Devdaya Charitable Trust, Sarvam Trust, Triveni Sangam, Silver Star Appeal, Anoopam Mission, Hare Krishna Temple, Moorefields Eye Hospital, Lohana Community and many more.
He said it has been argued that high rates of education are essential for countries to be able to achieve high levels of economic growth. Empirical analyses tend to support the theoretical prediction that poor countries should grow faster than rich countries because they can adopt cutting edge technologies already tried and tested by rich countries.
He said in the Indian culture Saraswati, the Goddess of knowledge and arts, represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. Saraswati is the daughter of Lord Shiva and Goddess Durga. It is believed that Goddess Saraswati endows human beings with the power of speech, wisdom and learning. She has four hands symbolically representing four aspects of human personality in learning – mind, intellect, alertness and ego.
Mr Nagda said higher education that used to be free for all is no more the case in the UK. Almost 400,000 students received their grades in 2015 when A level examination results were declared. The trustees were concerned about the UK-settled children from the Indian sub-continent who needed to be encouraged to achieve best results. And once the achievement was accomplished they felt it was the society’s duty to assist and honour them to progress further; hence the Saraswati Sanman Awards were established.
He said: “This is the first time such a Sanman has been established. I admit we could have planned it in a better way. We have learnt that such a function should take place during university break so that students’ studies are not interrupted. A number of nominees could not take part in this function because of ongoing exams. While one student has travelled from Wales to be here, others have come from various parts of the UK.
“We will make sure that we improve on the lessons we learnt this time and I promise you next year’s function would be much better.”
The following rewards were presented on the occasion.
Platinum award, a cash prize of £2500.00
Three Gold awards each of £1001.00 and
Three Silver awards each of £500.00
The award recipients were:
£2500.00 – Shiv Patel
£1001.00 – Sita Navin Shah
£1001.00 – A cheque was presented to Pruthvi Amin by Mr Steve Reed MP for Croydon North and Shadow Minister for Local Government.
£1001.00 – Rushing Bakhai
£501.00 – Alishiya Tanna
£501.00 – Jay Kapuria
£501.00 – Nimish Atulbhai Patel
Lord Bhikhu Parekh also attended the function and congratulated the awardees and the Trustees of Karma Yoga Foundation.
Each recipient spoke brilliantly about their course and what they would like to be in future.
Jashen Litesh, a Mechanical Engineering student at Imperial College London, said: “Attending the Saraswati Sanman function at the House of Lords was something very different from my day-to-day life at Imperial College London.
“I take great pleasure for being nominated for this award and I am truly thankful to Lord Dholakia and Karma Yoga Foundation for consolidating my dream. It is not a small thing. Not every day a person like me will get a chance to attend an event at House of Lords in the Parliament.
“The awards ceremony has inspired me more to achieve my dream of working for a Formula 1 Team in future and maybe one day I can give back to the community.
“If you work hard, anything is possible. My main advice to youngsters is not get pressurised into taking a course which you might have been forced into. Pursue your passion. Go for a course which you like and are passionate about.”
Saraswati Sanman is the first such initiation to encourage excellence in education within Asian community irrespective of caste, creed or nationality. We got representations from substantial number of students in the first year itself. Lord Dholakia and other jury members had reviewed the shortlisted nominations and finalised the names of the winners.
Karma Yoga Foundation is a modest effort by a private business which allocates sizeable sums for various human service activities, including promoting education.
