Being Taught

We can give ourselves all the excuses for not doing what we wished we would have done. And there is no dearth of excuses either. But when a student comes to us, there is no choice but to shake-off the inertia and keep aside all those excuses. By inertia, I mean - inertia of motion and NOT inertia of rest, Mind It! - in the Rajani style :-)

About 10 days back, a 3rd year UG student came to me at the end of a lecture class. Though I ask many times if anyone has any difficulty to follow and not to feel shy about it, there may be few who would prefer one-to-one discussion to clear any doubt. But this time, the attention was sought for a different reason. "Sir, many students here follow your blog or facebook postings. Could you please share one of our effort that aims to serve the society? If you do, then it will reach out to many." 

I requested him to send the material. Always wondered if what I scribble here or share in facebook are having overtones that may not be a big draw for general audience. Watching 'Two States', 'Bang-Bang' or 'Haider' does not necessarily make one contemporary or understand general psyche of today's youth. Heard from our cinema projection team that the student show of 'Haider' was more than full-house - even the stair-cases were not spared. The other occasion when I got little off-balance years back was an IEEE student symposium. In that,  at the end of my introduction that ran through my CV, there was an additional reference to me as a 'blogger.'

The adjoining facebook conversation says it all. The effort of this student group tries to come up with a database of voluntary blood donors. One can enroll oneself by filling-up this online form (KGP BloodConnect). One can also give suggestion to the young team to help them deliver better and I may add, a word of encouragement would motivate them a lot. 

In coming up with this post, found that the previous 'Teacher's Day 2014' post (Link) was remaining half-done for more than a month now. Completed it with Sept. date stamp. Without that the Sept. field would have gone empty! The month Sept. gave us opportunity to get taught by teachers where the teaching was delivered outside classroom. We had host of guest speakers at IIT Kharagpur speaking about what they learnt from life about life. The following videos may please be considered as return gifts to that section of students who teach us virtues of what we do and enhance our self-belief!! The video description describes the speaker and the occasion.

Swami Suddhidananda on 11th Sept., 2014 during Chicago Day celebration:

Prof. Ajoy K. Roy on 16th Sept., 2014 during Hijli Martyr's Day celebration: 

Director, IIT Kharagpur; Sri Chandrasekhar Ghosh, founder of Bandhan; Smt. Subhashini Mistry, founder of Humanity Hospital on 9th Sept., 2014 during Teacher's Day celebration of IITTA:

Happy Independence Day

The daughter told yesterday evening that she would be accompanying me to Independence Day flag-hoisting function. Many of her class-mates would be performing there in a dance program on patriotic theme. It was
not possible for me to take her in earlier years as I had to go quite early and remain engaged with NSS team, food-packet distribution to school children and other responsibilities. With baton passed to next in line there, it was possible to say a big yes this time.

Listened to Prime Minister's address on television and then we two joined the audience of institute function. While my daughter paid a brief visit to her school-mates who were ready for performance and greeted them, I did the same to my NSS, IIT Kharagpur colleagues and student the team. Unfurling the national flag, Director, IIT Kharagpur said the following among other things in his address (Link), 

"Independence gave us the freedom to shape our own destiny. On the altar of sacrifice of our countrymen, our founding fathers handed over to us this Institution to build, where the Indians of the future will be developed, who can transform the country to one where equality and prosperity go hand in hand. We at IIT Kharagpur are privileged and have been empowered by the citizens of India to do so. It is therefore our onerous responsibility to live up to their expectations. The people of this country pay for our sustenance in the hope that we shall change India and usher in a better future for them. We cannot afford to destroy the hopes and faith that they have bestowed on us.

What India shall we build my friends? What sort of Indians shall we become? How shall we ensure

that this gentle giant, as our country is historically known to be, is able to avoid the pitfalls of intolerance, belligerence, falsehood and timidity that challenge us today and help give its citizens, especially the illiterate, poor, oppressed and helpless, the education, empowerment, happiness and quality of life that they deserve?  How shall we become great not only in expertise and experience to make our people and the people of the world prosperous but also display qualities of fearlessness and sacrifice that will sanctify and guard our prosperity and happiness with the fence of virtue?

We, the fortunate, owe our forefathers for whom we are able to celebrate this day, a great debt  - to make the poorest of the poor smile, the oppressed empowered and help our fellow countrymen meet their dreams. Let these be our dreams. Let us strive to do our bit with the courage, devotion and dedication it deserves. Let us build the India that will make people like Swami Vivekananda

happy to see that his beloved people have again arisen and will stop not till the goal is reached." 

In this year's Republic Day function the then Director quoting Vivekananda said (Link1, Link2), "No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses in India are once more well educated, well fed, and well cared for. ... three things are necessary to make every man great,every nation great. (i) Conviction of the powers of goodness (ii) Absence of jealousy and suspicion (iii) Helping all who are trying to be and do good ... The road to the Good is the roughest and steepest in the universe. It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles...Be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon any one outside, but be a man, stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find, that is always true. Get hold of yourself."

The goal is clear. The road is cut out. We need to make us move avoiding all sorts of procrastination.

After dropping the daughter at quarter went to a place called Bhowanipur (about 7 KM from campus) where a group of young people from local colleges organize themselves following ideals of Vivekananda. On a holiday like this, they held an extended study-circle. On the way felt proud to see many colours of Independence Day celebration.