A self-introductory speech made by Sibi George recently at the Doha Toastmasters club reveals his vision, wisdom, and humour. It was as follows:

" All great orators of the world had similar fate. They killed Socrates in 400 BC, They killed Abraham Lincoln in 1863, they killed Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, and they killed John. F. Kennedy in 1963 and they killed Martin Luther King Junior in 1967. They were all great orators, they were all great speakers, and they all had similar fate, slaughtered, murdered and assassinated. I was damn scared to join the toastmasters. I was damn scared to become a great orator.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and distinguished guests,

It is my great privilege to introduce to you today a young career diplomat, sincere, hard working, honest Sibi George.

He was the second famous George born on 26th July; the first was George Bernard Shaw.

Both Georges had many things in common. One was a great orator, the second is longing to be one; one was a great intellectual, the other is trying to be one, one was a great philosopher, other is longing to be one, one was a great writer, the second is attempting to be one, one was a great philanthropist and the second one pretends to be one.

There were great dissimilarities as well. One never had a happy married life; the other is happily married with two kids.

One fine morning in 1967 when there was nothing to start with, our young George resorted to crying. Crying was a panacea. It worked very well for almost a decade. It gave him all that he wanted; milk from his mother and chocolate from his father.

Next decade was one of great fun, one of great happiness. No major responsibilities. Life was like a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. It was too good to last long and too inconvenient to be tolerated.

A tryst with destiny came in. The third and crucial decade, one of hard work and discipline.

He was as Thomas Grey said in his famous poem, Elegy written in a country churchyard: He was a gem under the ocean; he was a flower in the desert.

He began to believe that life’s battles are won not by the stronger or the faster, but by the man who thinks he can. He began to realize the full potential of his life by slowly climbing the pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs. He began to seek self-actualisation.

And here today at the age of thirty-four he is a young career diplomat, sincere, hard working, honest and handsome too.

He believes in justice, social economic and political. He believes in freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship.

He believes in Gandhi’s talisman. "If you have any difficulty at any point of time in your life to take decisions, recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Always consider the plight of the poorest of the poor and take your decisions in their favour. You will always be correct."

At thirty-four he is looking forward to reading his epitaph as follows:

Sibi George, Born: 26th July 1967

Joined the Government of India as a career diplomat

Went on to become the Foreign Secretary,

Then Foreign minister and later the President of India

Later Joined the United Nations Organisation as the Secretary General

Assassinated at the age of 99.

Won two Nobel prizes: one for literature and second for peace

He went about doing good".