KOCHI: Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar has called upon the people to be good human beings, before striving to excel in their field of activity. The governor was speaking after presenting TNIE’s ‘Devi Awards’ to 15 exceptional women, selected from various sectors, on Thursday.
Calling the ‘Devis’ (award winners) “good-hearted people”, Arlekar said one should be good at heart to excel in whatever field they are associated with. “There is nothing like a good advocate, a good judge, a good chartered accountant, a good IPS officer, a good IAS official, a good politician.... You need to be basically a good human being and then you can become anything.... These Devis are good at heart, good human beings. They teach us how to go ahead,” he said.
More than the economic factors, a humane touch should be provided to every endeavour that one makes, and being humane is the need of the hour, he said.
“These GDP/economic concepts should emerge out of it (humane thinking)...something different to think... different to make the society better. That’s what is needed,” he said.
The governor also had a word of praise for the people of the state, whom he termed as “more humane in nature”. “That’s the difference I find here. In Kerala, people are more humane,” he said.
Arlekar warned against the rising drug use among the youngsters in the state. “We have to do something for the next generation. I asked all the vice chancellors of our universities to frame action plans to tackle this issue. However, the responsibility to solve the issue lies with everyone,” he said.
Arlekar urged the younger generation to turn to books to escape from the drug menace. “Many of the students are reading only textbooks. I used to tell them, books are our friends, our philosophers. We need to reiterate this to our students, who are using drugs,” he said.