Angad Singh Padda: 'When I was growing up, I lost two of my best friends to drug abuse', U.C. Berkeley - 2017

16 May 2017, UC Berkeley, California, USA

Thank you so much.

Class of 2017. It's late. All right. All right. All right. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. That intense beat right there, right? That was everybody's heartbeat right before we opened our admissions results. Let's be honest, all right? Man. When I got in, I was so happy. So happy, I kid you not, my face was as bright as this turban. I was that happy. When I got in, then I called up my best friends. A true story. I called up my best friends: "Guys, I got into my dream school, my dream school," and they said, "Good. Now find yourself a wife." True story.

No, no, no, no, no, no, not just a wife. She has to like Indian food.

Audience: Woo hoo.

On a serious note. On a serious note, for this speech, I need everybody's help. Everybody who is here right now, everybody's help. So, right now, help me out. For a couple of seconds, please, close your eyes, everybody. Now, think about that one problem that matters the most to you, that one issue you really need to resolve to make this world a better place. Think about that, and then open your eyes.

That right there, that right there, is the core of my speech today. When I first came to the US, my only objective was to become successful and live the American Dream, so that one day, I could use that success to go back to my home state and fix the drug problem. Real talk, no lies. When I was growing up, I lost two of my best friends to drug abuse. I did. So, that's the problem that I gotta fix, right? But when I met every single one of you, right here, I learned about the problems that you all hear about.

For example, whenever there's a kid in Oakland, who can't afford school, that's a problem. Whenever climate change wipes out a species, that's a problem. Whenever a Muslim woman gets bullied, because of her hijab, or a Jewish man, because of his yarmulka, or a Sikh man, because of his turban, that is a problem. That is a problem. The ones that you all care about. When a father in Syria cries, because he lost his entire family, to a missile strike, that's a problem. Right now, as of this very moment, Venezuela is starving. That is a problem.

So, why am I talking about this? Why? Because, you know what separates all of us? It's that all of us, much more than the profit, we all care about prosperity for everyone. That is who we are. We want to use our education to go beyond ourselves to make this world a better place. We want to unify this world. That is the core spirit of every single student over here right now. That is who we are.

So, in essence, on that note, many people are probably wondering. That's fine, but that's also nonsense. That's so impractical because unifying the world has never been done before. What are you talking about? There is no place in this world, some will say, where people have been unified like that. What if I said that there was? What if I said that there was a place like that, where people are one? So, right now, everybody imagine this beautiful village in India. It's a beautiful village. I want you guys to see the houses, the farms, the fields, the cattle, but now imagine one more thing: that the houses in that village have no doors. The houses in that village have no doors. Is that possible?

It is. There's a village in India, I am not kidding, called Shani Shingnapur, and in that village, not a single house has a door, and that's because the villagers firmly believe that there is no need for borders, or barriers, or discrimination. They are all one, and that is why in that village, there has never been a theft, or a robbery, or a single incident of violence. So, class of 2017, I ask all of you, what if all of us can use our education to create a world just like that village? Just like that village. Do you know what that world would look like? In that world, there would be no walls, or borders, none. In that world, there would be no Muslim ban, no Muslim ban. In that world, nobody would call the other person bad hombres. That is the world we have to create.

They say that dreams are not the ones that you have when you go to bed. Hell no! Dreams are the ones that don't let you go to bed, like the one that Martin Luther King had. That was a dream! That was a dream, the same way I know that everybody over here, we also have a dream. Our dream is to create a world where we are all one. The reason I played that intense drum beat over there, the main reason is because I wanted to show the world, that that is the heartbeat of every single Berkeley student. Our heart beat with that passion to create a world where there is no "I", there is no "me". There is no "I", there is no "me"; there is only an "us" and there is only a "we". That is it. That is who we are.

So, here is my ending. Here is my ending. No, I am not going to say, "Let's go out there and earn the most profit." I am going to say, "Let's go out there and earn prosperity for everyone." I am not going to say, "Let's go out there and earn the six figures." I am going to say, "Let's take away six of the world's biggest problems." I am not going to say "Let's just enter the Forbes 40 under 40." I am going to say, "Let's unify this world with 40 Pew." That is our identity. That is who we are. That is Berkeley heart, going beyond yourselves to make this world a better place, to make this world a better place.

Audience:[inaudible 00:08:58]

I love you too.

Audience:Woo hoo.

In the beginning of my speech today, every single person here from right there to right there, you all thought about that one problem that mattered the most to you, right? May 15th. May 15th, 2017. Now is the time. Now is our time, class of 2017 to go out there and fix all of these problems. Every single one of them. And so, here is my last sentence. My last sentence. You know, everybody talks about a legacy, right? Legacy, legacy, legacy. Our legacy will forever be remembered. Our legacy will be the class that not only did good business, no, no, no. The class that not only did good business, but the class that engaged in the business of doing good. The class that engaged in the business of doing good.

Peace, love and respect! Thank you so much. Thank you.