Foundation Day 2023

Today is IIT Kharagpur's 73rd Foundation Day. The institute program at Netaji auditorium was to start at 9:30 AM. I was taking my 2-wheeler out from the common garage of our Chitrakoot complex. One of our neighbors was also there for the same purpose. He lovingly referred to my first name, Goutam. Of the three security staffs of our residential complex, two have the same first name. They are from Nepalese / Gorkha background. They are the followers of Goutam Buddha, and the name Goutam is quite common among them.

My name was called in the Foundation Day program before but once when I received an award. But, today, my name came up in the lips of three on the Netaji auditorium stage on three different occasions. And that made me remember one big Budhha idol that I visited once. It was situated in a dark cave. If light from a lantern falls on it from one side, one can see that Buddha is smiling, happy. If light falls from the other side, one could see a pensive, sad face. And, if light falls from the front, one can see him in total peace - neither happy, nor sad.

We the lesser mortal, swing from a state of fulfilment and unfulfillment, joy and sorrow. Of the three occasions of today, two gave a feeling of accomplishment to see our own students getting success in big stage as entrepreneurs and connecting that to their more than decade old student days' experience here - one curricular, the other extracurricular. The third one reminded of an unfinished work in which we elders are yet to realize the dream of a dreamer who was an inspiration to many.

Vidya Bhushan was a UG student of our E & ECE Department. For his final year B.Tech. project, he picked up a challenging problem in neurosignal processing area. Our collaborator from the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London had a key role in defining the problem statement. He completed his BTP requirement in time (2010) but continued with the work even after leaving the institute. He got a job in Ericsson from the campus placement. In 2012, when he was in IIM Ahmedabad, his BTP work got published in a good journal. The start-up he founded after brief stop-overs at two companies following IIM degree, has now foot prints in 43 cities and was valued Rs. 100 Cr. sometime back, expected to reach 200-250 Cr. mark soon. Today, he referred to that BTP work when awardees were asked to speak a few words after receiving the award from the dignitaries on stage.

Imbesat Ahmad was not from our department. National Service Scheme (NSS), IIT Kharagpur was our common chord. I was in-charge of NSS at that time and together with faculty colleagues and young student volunteers (1st and 2nd year UG), took up various projects in neighborhood villages and slums. Imbesat was primarily in teaching activity but played a key role in the bigger team-based activities. Imbesat's current recognition as a young achiever is for his social enterprise that makes education accessible. He started in offline mode in an unreached place and achieved excellence. To scale up, he started online delivery where a doubt is attended within 16 seconds. This enterprise now has 60000 touch points. His podium speech referred to his 1st year NSS teaching experience.

Other young alumni achievers too, shared their thoughts which depicted how IIT Kharagpur helped them gain valuable experience in their student days here. Felt proud for each one of them. Congratulations to all awardees!

When Dr. P. Arun, Director, Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata, one of the Guest of Honour of today's function rose to speak, my name was referred for the 3rd time. He recollected how much we two wished to fulfill the dream of a cancer survivor who was inspiration to many. We failed to move beyond a point for reasons beyond our control and felt sad for it. We should make a second attempt and try to bridge the gap. We owe it to that dreamer, Mr. Ananthakrishnan, who is no more with us - the relapsed cancer took the great soul away but his dream remains.

The Maruti 800 Uniq LE

 

The above pictures were taken today after the weekly Tech. Market visit. It is not far that this companion of us will become part of our memories. This is our Maruti 800 Uniq, Limited Edition which was bought in Nov. 2008. Companionship is of 14 long years where it never put us in any awkward situation. Even today, it is as young as it was when it first joined us, going as strong as it always used to. It can serve next 5 - 6 years easily (after re-registration), if not more, with regular annual maintenance. Thus, there is no reason as such to bid it goodbye, except one in which the new one joining us in place of it, whenever it happens, gives us company for a reasonable length of time, till my retirement from this institute.

Rajdoot RD175 was the first motorized 2-wheeler I purchased after getting my first job when I was 22 years old. This was on joining Tata Steel in 1990 after finishing B. Tech. from here. Age was then in my side and drove it quite a lot (unlike this Maruti car which averaged less than 1000 KM per year, of course there were two other 2-wheelers which were usually used for solo travel) in Jamshedpur and then it came with me at Kharagpur when I joined Tata Bearings, a division of Tata Steel. Baba (Father) was not keeping well at that time and then he left us in 1992. I returned to Academics in 1994. From GT Hostel of Kadma, Jamshedpur to small Railway Quarter of Kharagpur (travel to Tata Bearings) and then to two residences at Bhabanipur, Kharagpur (travel to Tata Bearings and then to IIT Kharagpur) - the Rajdoot was in full use. For the brief two years spent in Bandel before joining here as a faculty member in 2002, the Rajdoot went to Bandel and then returned to Kharagpur and became a part of our campus life. The following picture is taken when my daughter was returning from play school in the campus on this bike. 

In 2006, we felt the need of a new bike that would provide better technology and service. A Honda Shine was bought and the Rajdoot was taken by someone. I felt very sad later when a senior dada (brother) at KVYM told if the bike itself could have been upgraded by some means for use as my father rode it at certain point of time. My father visited Midnapore town, too as a pillion rider. I am sure that the Dada will feel that this 4-wheeler which is running fine should not leave us to make room for a new one. My mother who is no more, used it so many times. Therefore, it is a difficult choice to make. But, we now have entered the window in which the decision is to be taken, may be within a month.

One 4-wheeler and two 2-wheelers (currently three 2-wheelers, one is to leave soon) are more than our necessity. Either we retain the old 4-wheeler or let it go to someone where it is of that person's use rather than making it rot for non-use - that overwhelmingly is the decision emerging.

Therefore, it is expected to remain with us for one more month or so. The grief of leaving the old one outweighs what is associated with the welcoming of a new one. But, that perhaps is life. The old is to make room for the new ... applies equally well to each of us as an individual!

Department Visit

There was a notice circulated by the Head asking all faculty members of E & ECE department  to be present at the NKN Room at 4:30 PM. Some alumni of this department is to visit us. This is part of the Alumni Meet which had to be rescheduled due to pandemic situation. Since our alumni base is very large, different batches get preference in different years.

The NKN Room is at the 2nd floor of front block. Student volunteers were standing at the entrance and at the 1st floor, 2nd floor staircases, waiting to receive the alumni and guide their way to NKN. This 2nd floor is a relatively recent addition for the alumni who completed their study in 1980. An escalator is under construction now and is expected to be operational soon.

The student volunteers made us, the faculty members too, feel special. The in-person interactions have just started. While verbal communication has its own place, it is the non-verbal communication, even if it is a smile or a gentle nod, that creates the bond, the human-to-human connect, makes us part of one big family. 

On entering the NKN Room I was sweetly surprised. The 90 capacity room was filled to the brim except, of course, leaving some chairs vacant for the visiting alumni and Head who would accompany them. The major part of the room was filled by the 2nd year students. The 4th year seniors used this occasion to get them  integrated with the Department. This was first such opportunity for the 2nd years as they were online till now.

There will be separate meeting with all 2nd years when all of them arrive in the campus. In alumni meet, emotions run high as they relive in their past, there is time spill-over etc. Thus, we were waiting and it occurred that it would be good to have mutual introduction of 2nd year students and the faculty members. Previous Head, under whose tenure these 2nd year students were supposed to join the Department, took lead and then Prof.-in-Charge, Department Society took over from him.

I do take class of these 2nd year students. The offline / hybrid class started the previous day. In fact, ours was the 1st day, 1st class after 2 years of online mode of teaching at IIT Kharagpur. There was an informal meet before with these 2nd year students. That experience and the interaction here showed that all possibly were not bad in this pandemic phase or they staying home taking online classes.

After the introduction round, one faculty asked some of the 4th year seniors present there managing the show, why many of their batch-mates are moving away from core electronics to computer science / coding related project or career. Another faculty made them aware of the requirement of large number of skilled Electronics & Communication engineer to make the country self-reliant. It was also asked, according to these final year students, what is needed to buck the trend.

And came what many faculty members felt and told, but for one specific reason the same could not be taken up. The senior students told that it is the first year days that are most important in this context when impressions are formed, the opinion about one or the other career path is developed. In the first year, in their formative days, unfortunately, the students are away from departments taking some common courses from departments they do not belong to. 

The senior students continued. During their own 1st year days which were not online, their seniors used to come to their wings in their hall of residences and give all sorts of funda about career opportunities. And this funda was that a good job is waiting if one learns coding. The young kids coming fresh from their schools would accept anything from their godly seniors which is anything but not the fun of the core of the Department one belongs to. And, it is a vicious cycle. 

The remedy these senior students suggest is to have reasonable presence of Department subjects from 1st semester itself with some hands-on. Why is it not implementable? It is the department change option that needs to be included in the curriculum where a select few can change their department based on their 1st year performance while 95% of the students cannot. 

The opportunity to change the Department after 1st year seems to be very attractive. It may be all in perception as regard to what we gain and what we lose by going one way or the other. There might be some objective assessment in future by performing cost - benefit analysis. That might bring changes that these senior students indicate. That might not be too difficult in a curriculum that gives option of Minor, Micro in other Departments as well as Inter-Department dual degree program.

These 2nd year students missed those funda sessions as they are arriving now in the campus! This 2nd year, 4th semester is effectively their 1st year, 1st semester. And, they straightway land into the Department subjects. In a way, they wake up to see their core. The freshness, the purity, the receptiveness is evident in their approach and attitude in comparison to earlier batches. Hope, it continues and the department is able to deliver what it is mandated to.  

The alumni members started walking in. They spoke briefly. Among them was Professor Susmita Sur-Kolay, who was the first woman President Gold Medal (PGM) winner. She told that there are only six women PGM in whole IIT system till date. There were only 4 girl students in their batch coming through IIT-JEE but she is happy now to see improving gender-ratio in IITs. 

She said that IIT Education made her foundation strong for which she could learn anything new easily (so important in a fast moving technology space). The following short video gives a glimpse of few other things that she said. The second half of the video has Mr. Kabindra Daga, another alumnus who was introduced as an "accidental non-Bengali", where he sings a Bengali Bhatiali song. 

Head made a short presentation of the Department. Several unique features of the Department, its achievements, its current research focus and future direction were shared. It was highlighted that the Department ranked 92 in the recent QS global ranking, a reasonable improvement over its earlier rank within 100-150 space. Had international faculty and students been not a factor and also, if there was inclusion of undergrad performance for which IITs are better known, the rank would have been much better. The 2nd year, 4th semester freshers listened to these with rapt attention. At the end of the program, there was a walk around the Department corridors.

It was 6:30 PM. The faculty member who wanted to know from the the senior students the reason for current trend where many are seen coding-bound and, how to change the direction for greater good, came to my Department office room. We chatted for about one hour before heading for home. Of many different things, the following came in our discussion.

It is said that when a baby is born, whoever it sees first, it considers itself to be part of their clan. There is an anecdote where a lion cub raised after birth by a herd of sheep used to act like them and used to flee the place if a lion was around. In that story, one day one lion could catch hold of the cub and forced some remedial measure. But the lion was a lion and the cub was still a cub!

Fresh Air

It was 4:15 PM. I was waiting at the Nalanda entrance, near Subway. An informal meet was arranged where some of the 2nd year UG students of my course were expected to be present. The movement related restrictions got eased. There is no requirement to have passes to leave halls. My 2nd year course is in the list for which hybrid classes have been announced this morning. Effort is on to get the remaining students back to go fully offline in this course.

Pandemic showing the sign of turning into endemic, the two year wait is now almost over. The stage is all set to open another dimension for us - for both teacher and students. The on-screen 2D presence is going to have a 3D makeover! The students had online class till 4 PM. The cycles from the nearby halls started hitting the stand.

In the online class, voice of a few students are more frequently heard. One of the faceless name from that list started the Teams chat this morning as regard to when and where we meet. As the students started arriving, initially, I tried to find that face for my own comfort by asking "Are you __?" One and half month into the course. We were not completely strangers to each other. Neither side was not that nervous, but somewhat hesitant to begin with.

The number gradually swelled to 20 - 25. There could be more trickling in. Was there a better option than standing in arc on the road at Nalanda entrance? Thanks to the authority in-charge, we got a place to sit in a classroom of adequate size. Stepping into a classroom with students after two years was an experience by itself, even if it was an informal interaction, a prelude to upcoming hybrid class. 

What followed next was a purge of fresh air that left each of us oxygenated with elevated SpO2 level!!

Covaxinated

                                                            Covaxin-ated to Co-win

Joined the queue at 10:15 AM. Was told before by the experienced ones that by 11:30 AM it would get done. However, pleasant weather - cloudy sky and gentle breeze, brought many like me out today. It became 11:45 AM to get the jab for sequence number 53.

The civic volunteers managing the queue, two young men on two computers, the lady with the log book, two sisters administering vaccine, the lady keeping an watch that none leaves before 30 minute observation period (made a failed attempt to attend a 12 noon meeting) - all were highly efficient and disciplined. The pictures here partially capture the process.

The hall where vaccine was administered in this Hijli Rural Hospital (not far from IIT Kharagpur Campus) looked familiar. Found a picture taken four years back where ICMR-IIT Kharagpur MedTech interns were given an initial brief in the same hall. After that, the interns had a guided tour of this hospital to get acquainted with its activities. This extended to a visit of the interns to far-off villages being served by this hospital together with designated ASHA workers.

The IITB senior Prof. and colleagues were considerate for joining the meeting late and offered valuable post vaccination tips!

Making of Low Cost Ventilator

Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra announced on Twitter that its specialised team at its Igatpuri and Mumbai plants have responded to the occasion and developed the first ventilator prototype in under 48 hours. "Anand Mahindra also tweeted that these medical ventilators developed by the team at Mahindra would cost under Rs 7,500, whereas other dedicated systems cost anywhere between Rs 5-10 lakh." This news was published on March 26, 2020. [1]

Yesterday's ToI carried an article where Dr Rajeev Chauhan, Assistant Professor at PGIMER said that the device claimed by Mahindra team was originally developed by PGIMER and IISc together from their one year effort and they have applied for 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕. With the spread of the pandemic, they began talks with Mahindra group for large scale production. Dr Chauhan further said that representatives from the business house took details of his invention and 48 hours later introduced the ambu bag as their own product. Mahindra spokesperson denied this saying that they had in fact developed their product following 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 designs from a variety of sources. [2]

The BBC article, dated 1st April, titled, "Covid-19: The race to build coronavirus ventilators" starts with "The world needs more ventilators – but scaling up production is more complex than it seems. Around the world, thousands of volunteers are working hard to fill the gaps." The article continues, "In terms of their core function, ventilators are not extraordinarily complicated machines. Basically, they are sophisticated pumps ... So why are they so difficult to design? Because it isn’t their function that is difficult. It’s that they have to operate in an extremely reliable way in a high-stakes environment." [3]

Of various 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 initiatives, the MIT News of March 26 shares an article titled, "MIT-based team works on rapid deployment of 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆, low-cost ventilator". ln this, "Clinical and design considerations will be published online; goal is to support rapid scale-up of device production to alleviate hospital shortages." The material cost is estimated to be USD 450 (~ Rs. 35000) instead of USD 30000 for standard ones. The article, continues, "The key to the simple, inexpensive ventilator alternative is a hand-operated plastic pouch called a bag-valve resuscitator, or Ambu bag. A tube is inserted into the patient’s airway, as with a hospital ventilator, but then the pumping of air into the lungs is done by squeezing and releasing the flexible pouch. This is a task for skilled personnel, trained in how to evaluate the patient and adjust the timing and pressure of the pumping accordingly." [4]

MIT has come up with a dedicated website for this 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆 project and is releasing information as and when it reaches a particular benchmark. The key ventilation specifications to be achieved by this low cost device is non-trivial. It is not just pumping a fixed volume at a fixed rate. Other than spec., hardware and software design details are being populated there (free registration). The download section as of now says, "𝐖𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧, 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭." Between March 20 and April 01, MIT team has conducted 4 testing; the first one was a comparative study on animal with their first version of the prototype against Medtronic's PB 840 ventilator system. [5]

Meanwhile, TechCrunch in its 31st March article titled, "Medtronic is sharing its portable ventilator design specifications and code for free to all" has Medtronic spokesperson saying, “We are sharing the design specifications for the [PB 560] to enable participants across industries to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19.” It’s worth noting that Medtronic 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏-𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒈 the PB 560’s design exactly: it’s issuing a special “𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆” specifically for the purposes of addressing this global coronavirus pandemic, and 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐎𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧 (𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐂) 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭. [6]

1. https://www.financialexpress.com/…/coronavirus-pan…/1910200/

2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/articles…/74986644.cms

3. https://www.bbc.com/…/20200401-covid-19-the-race-to-build-c…

4. http://news.mit.edu/…/ventilator-covid-deployment-open-sour…

5. https://e-vent.mit.edu/

6. https://techcrunch.com/…/medtronic-is-sharing-its-portable…/

Teacher's Day

Was listening to a very senior Professor from Vidyasagar University in a Teacher's Day function few days back at the office of SDO, Kharagpur. He gave example of parents of a five year old seeking advice from a learned on how to raise their kid. The learned said that the parents were five years late as a child learns from the very first day and the conduct of the parents leaves a lasting impression.

My father used to tell in my younger days when majority of my extra-academic time used to be spent in Children's wing of an organization, "Influence of parents on a child is 50%, children's own will is 25% and what you all are trying is 25%. Pick up those children whose parents are supportive to get better outcome." Of course, it could not be agreed to as we didn't want to profile kids that way and father was happy about it. His was to caution us for the unique development path taken by each in which parents, the first teachers, play a significant role.

Today is father's death anniversary (Link). The teacher in him was there for anybody who crossed path. This evening, there was a lecture from a Ramakrishna order monk here.  His Mother was told by Swami Shradhhananda (initiated by Swami Shivananda, direct disciple of Shri Ramakrishna) to dedicate one of his two sons to Shri Ramakrishna during one of his visit to their California residence; there the father was working as a Microbiologist at UCLA. And, both the sons dedicated themselves with encouragement from parents.

Maharaj began with five characteristics of Shri Ramakrisna's teaching: Ever-fresh, Authentic, Allows self-assessment and self-acceptance, Makes best version of oneself, Fun. During Q & A session, he referred to what Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda wrote in the forewords of Vivekananda's Complete Works, "If the many and the One be indeed the same Reality, then it is not all modes of worship alone, but equally all modes of work, all modes of struggle, all modes of creation, which are paths of realization. No distinction, henceforth, between sacred and secular. To labour is to pray. To conquer is to renounce. Life is itself religion."

To note, Ramakrishna abandoned formal education at his village school when he was twelve as he found that was oriented only towards bread earning. Interestingly, he became the teacher of many a educated in Kolkata that included young college goers. A glimpse of his teaching, as was noted during those years by Sri Mahendranath Gupta, a Presidency scholar and a Professor can be found here (Link). A more recent article by a Stanford scholar, now an Assistant Professor at Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University in a Springer journal on unique attributes of Sri Ramakrishna can be found here (Link).

Shri Ramakrishna wrote in a piece of paper that Naren would teach and his voice would be heard in home and abroad. Narendra (Naren) remembered, "But I said to him, 'I won't do any such thing.' Thereupon he said, 'Your very bones will do it.'" Narendranath came to world stage as Vivekananda. His simple, penetrative, fearless message has something special. It is inspirational. In today's lecture, Maharaj referred to experience of an American lady who met both Czar of Russia and Vivekananda. Both were very big personalities to stand in front. But, there was an important difference and that was significant. The big personality of the Czar made her feel how small she was while the big personality of Vivekananda made herself feel big. 


      ***                             ***                        ***                            ***

On 4th Sept. evening, a panel discussion was arranged here on the topic "Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on the Society." An observation there seemed to suggest that educational institutions and teachers would not be required in time to come. Educational material will be delivered to students by AI, digital technology. Knowledge in the book will be better accessed through digital platform. Information required by a student will be only key-stroke away or will be available in the recommendation panel.


The writing on the board as I stepped into next morning's 8:00 AM class, "Happy Teacher's Day", brought smiles on either side. Dr. Radhakrishnan's, the birthday boy's thought-provoking quotes appeared as last year's FB post. Greetings, messages. Then came these words from a 2018 batch IAS, IIT Bombay BTech in the Teacher's Day function at SDO Office, "Great teachers teach from the heart and not from the book. Teaching really makes a difference."

"If you want to know India, study Vivekananda," Tagore said. If you want to know about education, there is also Vivekananda for you. "What is education? Is it book learning? No. ... Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. ... The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion - is it worth the name? Real education is that which enables one to stand on one's own legs. The education that you are receiving now in schools and colleges is only making you a race of dyspeptics, you are working like machines merely, and living a jelly-fish existence. ... We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet."

AI, digital technology seem to bring back education to its roots by revisiting the teacher-taught relationship and educational institutions getting the opportunity to grow up and beyond!!