EI with a refreshing look for the year 2011

2010 was a very good year for Education Informal (EI). Through our school visit program we reached around 500+ students conducting around 10 sessions across various schools in Bangalore. In this year, the special focus was on conducting more Vedic Mathematics sessions and training young students with the fundamentals of Vedic Mathematics. We got positive feedback about our sessions from students, teachers and parents. We also collaborated with Vision Bangalore to conduct free healthcare camps at schools. 

Education Informal is one of the 12 NGOs to be featured in 2011 calendar based on community service theme [The calendar is brought out by Vakil builders]. IBM also recognized Education Informal for its initiative to introduce Vedic Mathematics to young students across various schools in Bangalore. Soon an article about EI will be published in the IBM website. 

New EI website was launched to project EI activities in a better way on the WWW. The new website is intended to reach volunteers, students, and other members who intend to contribute under the EI platform. EI will be focusing on introducing new sessions/programs and broadening its school visit program to higher grades. We thank all the people who have helped us to conduct our programs/sessions through out the year. We look forward to work with you all in the coming year 2011. 

WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2011

An Insight into Health care in today's India

Since the beginning of Ayurveda till today medicine in India has gone through numerous changes. The term Ayurveda was given to the ancient Indian system of medical education literally meaning the knowledge of life. Although origin of Ayurveda is uncertain, it is considered to be a branch of vedas. 

 

The evolution of medical sciences in ancient India has been difficult to follow accurately. The two monumental treatises Charaka samhita and Sushruta samhitaa written by Charaka (Physician) and Shushruta (Surgeon) respectively are  considered to be the two basic treatises considered to this date for practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine in India. In ancient India medical education was institutionalized. The two well known centers for medical education in ancient India were the residential universities of Takshashila and Nalanda. Both these universities offered a well organized institutional type of training to its students  intermingled with Gurukula system with a Guru taking under him a fixed number of students. 

 

In medieval times, it is difficult to understand how a system of medicine which had reached great heights in the surgical as well as medical side, in the course of centuries faded away. Not to despair we still have doctor s  studying and practicing Ayurveda in India and abroad. The British rule in India marked the advent of Western medicine into India. During their rule, the British passed various acts for the improvement of public health in the country. Even after India got its Independence, the western system of medicine which had gained world wide acceptance by then got more support from the Governments that got formed.

Today Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae (MBBS) is awarded as a first professional degree upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities across the world that follow the tradition of United Kingdom(UK). 

Recently getting into medical schools has been a challenge to most of the aspirants in India. The tough competition in the entrance tests, huge amount of fees, arduous and long course, low initial salaries have resulted in a drastic reduction of aspirants who are willing to choose a course in medicine. The lucrative salaries offered to Engineers in India and abroad which have got the benefits of less fees, comparatively shorter duration of the course, high initial salaries, job offers before graduation make students mesmerized to opt for Engineering courses unless for a some really interested aspirants. 

It is no doubt that with so much of trouble that the doctors would have taken for their current position they charge for services according to their whims and fancies. I heard from a friend of mine who has done his MBBS, that in US and UK doctors spend a fixed amount of time for treating patients and plan the remaining amount of time for research and evolving themselves for new approaches in medicine[strict formal process es are laid by the authorities]. In contrast, in India most of the doctors spend their time treating patients without properly engaging themselves in research. I also heard from my friend that, a doctor who does not participate in research and seminar for certain duration will be derecognized. As to this, we should now understand how many of the doctors around us are recognized!  We also lack a proper central system to manage health records of patients which might save precious time of doctors by avoiding unnecessary dialogues with patients about the history of the disease and related details.

I always wonder, in spite of having the second largest population in the world, sanity conditions being below par causing illness to most of the population, India has not been a favorite in medicine learning. There is a lot of disparity among the disciplines of Engineering, Medicine and Basic sciences. I always compare them to Cricket and other forms of sports played today in India.

As we are beginning to step into the 21st  century, we should tactically solve this problem of disparity and provide a more reasonable and justified solution which offers equal opportunities to all sections of society to pursue education based on healthy competition  rather than on mundane things like end result(payment), course fees, status etc. Although i may sound superficial without any such thought, our contribution to the field of medicine may fade away and our medical processes might become more diluted.

The unconquerable land

Ayodhya a land which has grown to international importance, has its name come from the sanskrit root word yudh, meaning "fight" or "wage war" and it translates to either "not to be fought" or, less literally, "unconquerable." It may seem to anyone that it has grown to importance for its root origin (fight, wage war) rather than for its complete meaning (not to be fought). 

Most of us are aware of the history of events that took place at Ayodhya way back since 1992 when Babri masjid was demolished till the recent Allahabad HC verdict in 2010. Without touching any of the above known events there is a recent development reported in a news paper which i thought of sharing with my view point. 

There has always been a campaign to build a Rama's temple in Ayodhya by VHP, RSS and BJP. Chandrakant Sompura, Architect was entrusted with the designing and construction of the Rama's temple by VHP chief Ashok Singhal. The architecture of the temple designed by him has been well known to most of us. 

Parallel to the above campaign there has been an attempt to start a new campaign to build Rama's temple in Ayodhya which has been slow but surely taking shape. But this campaign is not started by RSS, VHP or BJP.    It is Swami Swaroopananda Saraswati, Shankaracharya of the Jyotipeeta (Badrikashram) and Dwarakapeeta (Gujarat) [two of the four centers of Advaita learning established by Sri Sankaracharya] who has taken this initiative.

He has been linked to politics and is perceived to have been a close ally of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and had close relations with all the three generations of Gandhi family. Sources said Swaroopanand's new plan has the unspoken support of the Congress leadership. The idea is to wrest the temple initiative from the saffron brigade and isolate BJP, VHP and the Sangh on this issue in the aftermath of the September 30 Allahabad high court order. 

Swami Swaroopanand has unveiled a new plan to build a temple dedicated to “Brahma Ram (Ram as God) as opposed to the adarsh (ideal) or purushottam Ram as advocated by VHP. The design for the new temple was unveiled at the conclave of shankaracharyas held at Sringeri earlier this year.

The latter essentially recognises a mortal or human form of Ram which the shankaracharya finds unacceptable.

“A temple in the name of adarsh Ram can be a tourist spot but not a place for worship. Only a temple consecrated to Ram in divine form as Brahma Ram will be acceptable to Hindus,” Swaroopanand told a group of mediapersons at his Kalindi Colony residence in Delhi.

The shankaracharya also pointed out that VHP's temple plan would never be realised due to the vaastu dosh (architectural fault) in its Ram temple design.He said the shilanyas held by VHP in November 1989 also suffered from vaastu dosh as it had been done for a Sinha dwar (main entrance to the shrine), far from the Ram Janmasthan (birthplace) and in the south direction, which was “inauspicious”.

Swaroopanand’s campaign is aimed at getting the temple built by the Akhil Bharatiya Ramalay Nirman Samiti. This would effectively nix the saffron brigade’s plans to get the temple constructed by the VHP-controlled Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas.

The new temple's design, proposed by Akhil Bharatiya Ramalay Nirman Samiti, is based on Cambodia's Angkor Vat Temple. The temple will be 350 ft high and have five gold plated spires built on top at a cost of Rs 100 crore. It will have a hall to accommodate 10,000 devotees at a time. There would be an extensive CCTV network that would help nine lakh devotees in the premises watch the prayers. There would be broadcast facilities for live telecast.

Photos of Cambodia's Angkor Vat Temple

Now the fight for Ayodhya has taken a new turn and it looks like the Congress is tacitly backing the new gambit. We will have to wait and watch if AYODHYA [not to be fought] will ever free itself from the fights which are happening at different planes.

Link to the actual news article published in DNA on Nov 2nd 2010 can be read here 

Launch of BHAASHYA

You might be aware of my recent posts on hindu scriptures, especially my attempt to analyze Brahma sutras. After serious thought I have decided to keep this blog for sharing my general views (as i have done so far) and create a new platform for discussing and analyzing the former topic. In this direction i have created a new blog and have moved all my articles related to the said topic to the new blog. Have a look at it and give your suggestions/comments there

The new blog is named BHAASHYA [http://bhaashya.blogspot.com/] which means commentary, which closely relates to my idea of analyzing the scriptures.

Independence Day - A Day to Act

15^th of August 2010 we celebrate the 63^rd Independence day. The generation who saw this country get the independence on 15^th August 1947 are leaving behind memories of the day. With days passing by we may end up with no one from the generation physically there to explain it. But before that why should there be someone to explain it, After all a country is not about just one generation.

The independence day is a special day for us. It is the day when India emerged as a Geo-political entity. A country had to be built from its roots [I write this with the information I have read/heard from books/people which/who have recorded/witnessed the day]. If a country had to be built, then it must not have existed before. If that is the case then what was India before? What were its roots?

In today's world, by birth we belong to one country or the other. This is one decision which we have to accept whether we like it or not. Each individual (human being) on this earth has an objective (right/wrong) for his life with exceptions where people spend their entire life searching for the objective. Considering the population our country has, and the amount of objectives the confused minds in it create, it is really a hard mathematical problem to get a set of common objectives (although not impossible). In this case is there any chance to think about a common objective for the country? If “YES” Who should fix such an objective for the country? If “NO”, then as responsible citizens where are we expecting the country to move forward?

A precursor for any individual who is fixing an objective for his life, is to get inspired about it. For e.g. if the objective of my life is to become a very good engineer then such a thought should have come to my mind only because something that inspired me to become an engineer. That something can be anything like “I read an inspirational story about an engineer”, “Some one from the family is an engineer who has got fame/name/money”, “Watched a movie about an engineer who changed the world” etc. Inspiration comes as we acquire experience and information from numerous sources (parents, teachers, books, friends etc) through out our life.

Now, how does a country get inspiration to decide its objective. When I say the country gets inspiration, it means how do people in the country get inspired for the country and decide a road map for its progress. Such an inspiration for the country can be got only by speaking of its rich history and culture which has been the foundation of what we are enjoying now. A land with such a background has produced men and women the world would never forget. We being the modern citizens of the country should always remember that and feel blessed to have taken birth in this land. An environment that nurtures dynamic heroes of the future should be cultivated by us. We should teach everyone about the rich history of the country and how each individual has a crucial role in determining the road map for the country. Together we should all work together to fight the diseases plaguing the country like corruption, population, civic sense, illiteracy, poverty etc. and for the betterment of education system, civic sense, governance, disaster management etc.

It is a memorable day (15^th August) as some of us think, but should we celebrate it like yet another weekend or should we brainstorm and discuss ideas which we can implement to lay a road for the colorful future of the country again to remembered for its rich past and culture some 500 years from now.

Many eminent people have started contributing in this direction significantly. I have started my very minute and negligible contribution through Education Informal with the support of my parents, family and friends. My life is complete if I can work with many such people to create a bright and colorful future for the country.

The land that resonates a wonder civilization

If someone had offered me a Time Machine i would have requested it to take me to 8000 BCE(before the common era)...

About the end of the last glacial age some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago(approx), temperature rose and the ice sheets started retreating over much of North America and Eurasia, as did the glaciers in the mountainous regions such as the Himalayas. A sight probably scary but exciting when waters deliriously roared down the Himalayas, bouncing on the Shivaliks and flooding the plains below. Hundreds of paleochannels small and large might have been flowing across the plains below. It might have been without purpose that nature's fury at the time might have cooled down gradually to give birth to one of most amazing, exciting, peace loving civilization that stood the test of time & fate. Although the civilization got buried under the heaps of sand the culture it taught stands even today as a testimonial to its ancestors who laid its foundation.

My grandfather Dr J Shivananda Sastry a firm believer in God was a sincere worshiper. He performed puja(form of worship) daily to the house deity and the saligrama. Kalasha puja is one among the rituals that are performed during the puja. It is done at the beginning of the complete puja ritual. It is done to worship water which will be poured over the idols. Since i was a kid I grew listening to the mantra recitations which my grand father used to do while performing the puja. The recitations were extracted from the four [Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharvana] vedas. One of the hymns recited during this kalasha puja is of my interest in this article.

इमं मे गंगे यमुने सरस्वती सुतुद्रि स्तोमं सचात परुस्न्य अ |
असिक्न्य मरुद्व्र्धे वितस्तयार्जिकिये स्र्नुःय अ सुसोमय ||

Imam me gange yamune sarasvati sutudri stomam sacata parusny a |
asiknya marudvrdhe vitastayarjikiye srnuhy a susomaya ||

I never knew what it meant till yesterday. It literally means the following

O Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri(Sutlej), Parushni(Ravi), hear my praise! Hear my call, O Asikni(Chenab), Marudvridha (Maruvardhan), Vitasta(Jhelum) with Arjikiya and Sushoma

The hymn is part of the Nadi sukta in Rig Veda which specifically contains praise for the rivers in Ancient India. The hymn is followed by the enumeration of Indus(sindhu) and its tributaries in the west.

Source: Wikipedia

It in fact paid tribute to the great rivers (most of them we still see on the landscape) which once flowed full throttle and were probably the life lines of civilization which our ancestors were part of. The most amazing aspect of this hymn is it enumerates the list of rivers that flowed from the himalayas down to foot plains from east to west in the same order without any omissions and mistakes. A land that is bracketed by Ganga on the east and Sindhu on the west covers more than 1000 KM. It might look very simple to enumerate such a list in this modern day because of the sophistication science provides us(satellite imagery). Could we imagine how was it possible about 5000 years ago when people were defining formal methods to develop bronze tools. The people who composed the hymn were no village bard, but the most intelligent, rational beings probably existing during the time. I do not know how did they manage to enumerate all the rivers in the correct order(may be because of tight network of groups who inhabited these waters), i leave it open to the readers to find it out.

The most important of the above is the fact that the hymn which enumerates the rivers in the correct order is still recited today in spite of the fact that some of the rivers/tributaries mentioned in the hymn are dead and buried under the sands(probably seasonal flow exists).

Although i never asked my grand father why it was recited, but i feel that the hymn was recited to remember all the rivers that once were the lifelines of one of the most amazing, woderful, most remembered civilizations of all times probably from which we derive all our culture, thought, intelligence. We were a great land 5000 years back and we stood as role model to the entire world. We still are a great land and lets stand united and show to the world that we are still the role models.