Read the story, watch their speeches here.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Students graduating from DePauw University and Harvard Law School were treated to two of the most entertaining commencement speeches of the year, as Hollywood stars Kal Penn and Mindy Kaling used their trademark humor and wit to teach the outgoing students valuable lessons about life.
Penn gave his speech at DePauw University, a private institution in Indiana, on Sunday, May 18, while Kaling gave hers at Harvard Law School (HLS) on Wednesday. Both celebrities are among the most recognizable Indian American faces in the world, and their comments were greeted with an equal mix of laughs, cheers, and quiet introspection.
Kaling, in particular, got a huge number of belly laughs during her nearly 16-minute address. In fact, at least half of her speech was essentially a stand-up routine, in which she talked about everything from how nerdy law school students are, to how attractive one of their professors is, to a faux-miscommunication in which Kaling thought she was getting an honorary law degree because of how much Law & Order she watches.
But eventually, Kaling got serious, telling the graduates that their Harvard Law degree would follow them around wherever they go, and that they must make sure to uphold the standards set by the institution, and even said that some of them will go onto become “evil” lawyers, saying “it’s just the odds.”
“With this diploma in hand, most of you will go on to the noblest pursuits, like helping a cable company acquire a telecom company,” said Kaling. “You will defend BP from birds. You will spend hours arguing that the well water was contaminated well before the fracking occurred. One of you will sort out the details of my pre-nup. A dozen of you will help me with my acrimonious divorce.”
Kaling’s speech followed an appearance by fellow Indian American Preet Bharara, who is the District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Kaling poked fun at the Harvard Business School, saying that their Wall Street crimes are the ones that lawyers have to defend, no matter what – ironic, since Bharara has made a career out of pursuing white collar crime on Wall Street.
““You are entering a profession where, no matter what the crime, you have to defend the alleged perpetrator,” she said. “Across the campus, Harvard Business School graduates are receiving diplomas, and you will have to defend them.”
Penn, on the other hand, toned down his humor, and while his speech was completely bereft of one-liners – at one point, Penn clarified for the “confused” white parents in the back of the audience that he was not “CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta – Penn chose to focus on the kinds of things students can expect from life right after graduating.
“It will be so easy to get caught up in the job hunt, in networking, in being opportunistic, in trying to climb a ladder and get ahead, but try to have a balance, and try to remember the things that actually matter,” Penn advised.
Specifically, Penn said to call friends once a week, send a physical birthday card via postal mail on birthdays instead of sending a text message, and go to your friends’ weddings, even if you’re sick of buying gifts and renting tuxes, or if you don’t have a significant other yourself.
The speeches were warmly received by their respective institutions, as well as their intended audiences, with students using Twitter to praise the speeches. Cosmopolitan magazine even called Kaling’s address “the best speech [given] to Harvard Law students, EVER.”
Kaling’s and Penn’s speeches, in that order, can be viewed below: