A dream come true for a Great Person

28th of April 2009 was a very momentous day indeed for many of us - but for one person, it was a dream which had turned out to be a reality due to sheer his hard wok and dedication and having contributed to the society till date with not expecting anything in return, despite the physical age and health condition. I am talking about the Dream of Dr Bala Balachandran to have a world class facility for his child - The Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai. it is OK for a man to show his emotions was what we all felt when he became emotional when he started talking about his inspiration coming from his mother and her love for him and how though she is just 4th grade, has enabled and instilled him a great value and thirst for great things.

I am really proud to be part of Uncle Bala, our affectionate, energetic, young old man's great vision.

Just to quote from some of the Newspapers -

Chennai’s five year old leading business school, Great Lakes institute of management (Glim) has established a new campus at Manamai village near Mamallapuram. Adi Godrej, CMD, Godrej Consumer Products remotely inaugurated the green campus from the Chennai trade centre on Tuesday in the presence of industry leaders and officials. It has come up on 18 acres with a built up area of 1.65 lakh sq ft in the first phase. Great Lakes founder Prof Bala V Balachandran said that the total investment in the campus would be between Rs 85-100 crore. The environment friendly green building has been designed to be Leed platinum rated green campus and would be one of the first in India and among very few in the world. There are different blocks dedicated to research, faculty offices and housing, administration, student residences and recreation centres. Stating that his dream has come true, Prof Bala recalled the support he got from leading industrial groups in the country for promoting the B school in his home State. So far, five batches of students have passed out from the campus in the city and the next batch will pursue their MBA programme from the new campus. Inaugurating the green campus, Adi Godrej said lot of people in the country feel it is the infrastructure bottleneck that stood in the way of India becoming a strong nation in the world. While this should be overcome, he is of the firm view the biggest hurdle to be overcome is in the field of education.

The residential campus has been designed with eco-friendly principles in mind and is among the first in India to receive a Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating, a global standard for green buildings. The campus is 100 per cent day-lit and will recycle all its waste and water. “It is a dream fulfilled,” said GLIM founder Bala V. Balachandran. “We wanted to give our students not only the greatest of faculties but also the right environment to help them realise their potential.”

CHENNAI: Building a world-class education system and optimising the country’s human resources are key to India achieving its potential on the global stage, according to business leaders present at the inauguration of the Great Lakes Institute of Management’s new campus here on Tuesday.
“A lot of people feel that the big bottleneck is [lack of] infrastructure… To my mind, the real bottleneck, the real hurdle that we have to overcome is [lack of] education,” said Adi Godrej, chairman and managing director of Godrej Consumer Products.
“A lack of leadership across the board is the bane keeping India from reaching the heights,” said Madhur Bajaj, vice-chairman of Bajaj Auto.
“Our country has genuine problems with both the hardware and software of development,” said Shashi Tharoor, former under-secretary general of the United Nations, who delivered the GLIM convocation address earlier in the day. He defined the ‘hardware’ as the roads, ports, airports and sanitation systems that “need colossal amounts of work.” However, he felt that the ‘software’ or human capital needed even more work. It was not just a matter of education, he said. If the country could not ensure food, shelter and basic healthcare for all, there was no point in just filling people’s brains, he pointed out.
He encouraged GLIM graduates to stay in India to provide much-needed vision and leadership. “Twenty years ago, I said that the only place in the world where Indians haven’t succeeded is India,” he said. “I think the time has come for Indians to succeed in India.” Chief secretary K.S. Sripathi went a step further and urged graduates to stay on in Tamil Nadu, saying that the State would see a higher growth rate in 2009-10.

Sir, we are all with you in achieving what every you are dreaming about still further.

Sarada