In March this year, actor/politician Rajinikanth made his first political speech after his grand announcement about entering politics. He was at Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute to unveil the statue of late TN CM MG Ramachandran. One of the highlights of his speech was his advice to students gathered there. "College life is the best time of your life, at the same time, challenging. If you work hard these 4 years, you can take care of the next 40 years comfortably. Be aware of politics, but don't get into it while you are studying. Education comes first," he said.

Latha Rajanikanth, the superstar's wife, couldn't agree more. "Children must be aware of politics. They should definitely know what's happening around them. It should be treated like one of the subjects - Civics," she said.

The couple believes that education becomes the strong base that establishes a comfortable life for the future. "Children can put politics to good use by fighting for a good cause," Latha said. As the founder of an educational institution in Chennai - The Ashram - Latha intends to provide a fair mix of formal education with an array of activities, philosophy and more. "They need to be given all these choices and they need to be self-guided. That's the only way they can fix their goal in life," she said.

While Latha agrees that life and politics bring with it its share of stress, "education need not be stressful". You are all of 16 when in college, right at the crossroads deciding your career path. One of the movies of Rajinikanth, 16 Vayathinile (meaning: at the age of 16), sees him play the villain. But both Rajinikanth and Latha insist that 16 is an age to study well to be the hero for the rest of life.