Amar Bose a tribute

Prof Amar Bose: A Tribute

Prof Amar Bose, a great teacher, technology pioneer and Indophile has passed away. I spent many hours with this endearing giant to understand him and his technologies....a couple of articles I wrote give a glimpse...

1) http://reflections-shivanand.blogspot.in/2007/07/amar-bose-portrait.html

2) http://reflections-shivanand.blogspot.in/2007/08/perception-and-technology.html

May he rest in peace......

Shivanand

(Photographs: Palashranjan Bhaumick)

Prof Rajshekhar Bhoosnurmath

An inspiring teacher and gentle mentor:

My memories of Prof Rajshekhar Bhoosnurmath 

(This article appeared in "Vaibhavi" --Felicitation volume for Prof Rajshekhar Bhoosnurmath on his 75th Birth Day) 

Shivanand Kanavi

My interactions with Prof Rajshekhar Bhoosnurmath (RaBhoo) during the period 1969-72 bring back happy memories. They may be 4 decades old and some details might have blurred but a few things clearly stand out.

As a teacher he was outstanding. We were particularly fortunate to have several excellent teachers in the Physics department of Karnatak Science College in those days. Professors Katti, Mrs Tigadi, Gadad, Maralappanavar were all very good, inspiring teachers, who were simultaneously teaching us various subjects.

He taught us Electricity- Magnetism and Kinetic Theory of Gases and Heat and Thermodynamics. They were not particularly modern or subjects considered “cool” by students, unlike Atomic and Molecular Physics or Nuclear Physics or Quantum Theory, which used to fascinate us being more contemporary and mysterious. He had been assigned topics which were classical, primarily developed and well understood in the 19^th century. The names one often came across were; Faraday, Ampere, Coulomb, Volta, Tesla, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Carnot ; whose pictures in text books looked forbidding and distant like some ancient Rishis.

He managed to weave a web of fascinating concepts even in these dry and “settled” subjects. I can still remember his child like enthusiasm in explaining the Maxwell’s Demon-a thought experiment, Second law of Thermodynamics or the Continuity Equation leading to completion of Maxwell’s quartet of electromagnetic equations which predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves and a great triumph of classical physics.

Besides being a good teacher with good black board work he was extremely accessible. He encouraged us to read Feynman’s Lectures in Physics and many other books which were not prescribed. He was also in-charge of the departmental library and made sure that we could have free access to the same. Those were also the days when a far reaching agreement was signed between US and Indian governments and a large number of books on science and technology and text books by US authors, were brought out in inexpensive and accessible Indian editions. He made sure that the library had copies of all these books.

He took keen interest in students’ activities and encouraged us to form a Physics Association. It had been hardly a few months since Neil Armstrong had stepped on the moon when we were all glued to our transistor radios to listen to the live commentary on the Voice of America. We used to have plenty of films from the USIS about the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes, which used to be screened with 16 mm projectors. The atmosphere was right for us to be excited about science and technology and be engaged in extra-curricular activities in the same. We were able to organise some enlightening lectures. I particularly remember one on Quantum Physics and Wave Particle Duality by Prof Katti and on Space-Time by Prof Korwar. As a mentor to the Physics Association, RaBhoo constantly encouraged us.

Besides these “official” interactions in the college, I made bold to walk into his home in an evening with a couple of friends without a pre-arranged appointment. He welcomed us and treated us to tea and snacks and we engaged in “guppa” on science. He encouraged us to read on philosophy of science. His favourites were Bertrand Russell and A N Whitehead. He once mentioned to me that he was keen to do his doctoral thesis on Whitehead’s philosophy but various circumstances conspired against it. We became regular Atithis (uninvited guests) at his home in the evenings, enjoying the hospitality of Mrs Bhoosnurmath and the conversation with RaBhoo. I remember reading Russell’s “ABC of Relativity” and George Gamov’s books on astrophysics at his insistence. I greatly benefitted from both.

While I was keen to read more on science and especially popular expositions of advanced topics, he had slowly turned from science to science fiction. His science fiction stories started appearing in Sudha and other mass circulation Kannada magazines and started a new genre in Kannada. As voracious teen age readers we were hooked on to Alistair Maclean, Ian Fleming, Herald Robbins et al. RaBhoo encouraged us to read classic science fiction of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke as well and generously lent us books from his personal library. RaBhoo went on to become a prolific writer in this genre in India and has been a train blazer for Kannadigas. I wish his writings get translated into English and International science fiction aficionados recognise his creative genius.

He was happy and wished me well when I joined IIT Kanpur for MSc in Physics and later went to US for higher studies. Our regular interactions stopped nearly 40 years ago. I was delighted a few years back to receive a call from him. He was visiting his son Vishwanath in Navi Mumbai and we were again able to reconnect briefly and catch up. As usual he was brimming with ideas and plans to initiate new activities.

As I near sixty years of age, I now realise that though I consider myself a proud product of Dharwad, in actual fact I have spent two third of my life away from it! But clearly those formative years have left an indelible print and Karnatak College and RaBhoo are all part of what I am made of and I remember one of the few shlokas from childhood, learnt from my father:

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Binsar Conference on Traditional Knowledge Systems 2013

“The 21^st Century needs Traditional Knowledge Systems”, Dr D P Agrawal

Binsar, Uttarakhand, April 11, 2013

Kumaon Himalay from Khali Estate Binsar

G S Rautela

Vibha Mishra

O C Handa

Shivanand Kanavi, G S Rautela, D P Agrawal, Shabbir Imani, Shekhar Pathak

D P Agrawal and Shivanand Kanavi

Yours Truly

Shekhar Pathak, Vasudha Pant

At the Conference on Traditional Knowledge Systems held in Khali Estate, Binsar, Uttarakhand April 8-11, 2013, organized by Lok Vigyan Kendra, Almora in collaboration with  SPARDHA, over thirty research papers were presented and discussed by scholars from Uttarakhand and other parts of India.

The topics covered a wide range of subjects about natural resources, arts and crafts, medicinal plants and therapeutic systems, metallurgy, agriculture, water management, hydraulics etc etc of various parts of Himalay as well as other parts of India. Prominent scholars in the field also deliberated on the future of these Traditional Knowledge Systems; balanced economic development of Uttarakhand; and employment generation and entrepreneurship.

Many well-known scholars like Ajay Rawat, G S Rautela, D P Agrawal, Shekhar Pathak, O C Handa, Vibha Tripathi, Krishna Bisht, Vasudha Pant, Shahida Ansari, Jivan Kharakwal, Madhu Jain, Shabbir Irmani, Shivanand Kanavi, Mukti Dutta, Diva Bhatt, C S Chauhan, Lalit Jalal, Kailash Rautela, Deepchand Bisht deliberated for three days various aspects of Traditional Knowledge Systems, moreover a large number of students from Kumaon region actively participated in this important conference.

At the end of the conference the distinguished gathering discussed at length the vision and direction for future work in this field and unanimously adopted an important Vision Document: Binsar Declaration 2013.

Binsar Declaration 2013

Uttarakhand region has been an important cradle of Indian civilization, its philosophy and way of life. It has not only been the source of the life-giving holy Ganga and Yamuna but also knowledge and wisdom. While our Shastras have well documented for millennia all these things, what is not very well known is the richness of Traditional Knowledge Systems of this region that have been largely in the oral form.

These Traditional Knowledge Systems have great value in today’s world where the balance in our life is being lost by the relentless onslaught of consumerist globalization and changes in the Indian and world economy. However this knowledge which has resided in our people’s arts, crafts, health care systems, agriculture, metallurgy, forestry, animal husbandry, water management, architecture, cuisine etc is on the verge of being lost to future generations due to displacement, migration and onslaught of mindless urbanization and poor education, which is driving us to unhesitatingly reject our own heritage and wisdom while accepting everything Western indiscriminately.

1)      For the sake of our present as well as future generations, it is imperative that we research these knowledge systems which are mainly in the oral form and document them with modern electronic and digital technology to preserve and popularize them. It is necessary to scientifically validate their claims and if possible provide protection to their Intellectual Property in various forms, which will have economic reasons as well as gain them greater acceptability and visibility. It may also be possible to revive some of them under modern conditions for the economic benefit of its practitioners and the larger benefit of society.

2)      The Binsar Conference 2013 on Traditional Knowledge Systems appeals to all intelligentsia, artisans, and practitioners of traditional knowledge; academics in universities colleges and research institutions; the youth and our elders; to participate in this endeavor and verily develop this into a living mass movement. It appeals to all our elected representatives and the government to support this endeavor with all their resources and administrative capabilities.

3)      While our hills and our Rishi-Munis and Gurus have brought wisdom and peace to the world and all visitors to the region, the economic changes brought about by British colonialism and now globalization have gravely affected our life and has led to large scale migration. While the diaspora of Uttarakhand are contributing productively to the Indian economy and global economy and have brought fame to our region, it is also a fact that many of the youth do not have required skills, expertise or entrepreneurship to dramatically improve the quality of their life in this highly competitive world.

4)      This Binsar Conference 2013 on Traditional Knowledge Systems also urges the government and all our elected representatives to urgently take steps towards skill development and creating an ecosystem required for developing and entrepreneurial culture among the youth of Uttarakhand for a balanced and all round growth of this region and its people. Setting up an Uttarakhand Centre for Entrepreneurship would be a first step in this direction.

The participants of Binsar Conference 2013 will take concrete steps to take these decisions forward and will work with all individuals and organisations that have similar aim in mind. They once again call upon the researchers, practitioners, academics, youth and students to make this a mass movement and call upon our elected representatives and the government to wholeheartedly support these initiatives.

End

Dr Anji Reddy--A Tribute

Dr Anji Reddy, founder of Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) passed away yesterday on March 15, 2013. I had met Dr Reddy many times and discussed the issues in Indian Pharmaceutical industry as well as the research and development in his company. His passion to discover new drugs, rather than just copy and manufacture the generics of what others had already discovered, even though he himself was a large player in the generics business, was visible in all our interactions. Below are some excerpts from an article I had written about him in Business India in December 2001.

http://reflections-shivanand.blogspot.in/2007/08/dr-anji-reddy-profile.html

Dr K Anji Reddy (1940-2013)

"Reddy showed promise in research long ago. According to his elder sister Rajamma, he used to open up germinating beans when he was four to see how the seedling was coming out. Reddy spent his childhood in a small village across the Krishna river near Vijayawada, where his father was a prosperous farmer growing turmeric. His early education took place in Hindu College and Andhra Christian College, Guntur. He has really fond memories of his days there. When we accompanied him to these places he was distressed to find that his chemistry lab had been shifted from its old premises at Andhra Christian College. A sentimental Reddy told the principal and head of the department there, “I will give you all the modern equipment to build a modern analytical lab. My only request is that you restore my old lab to the same premises.”

After his BSc in Guntur, Reddy joined UDCT in Mumbai to study pharmacy. He was greatly influenced by the atmosphere at UDCT. “The academia there was very close to industry. I liked it,” recalls the entrepreneur in him. He then went to National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, to study for a doctoral degree. This time he decided to switch his field from pharmacy to chemical engineering, since bulk drug manufacture was mostly chemical engineering. Not an easy switch. “In fact I was very hesitant to take him on as a student,” recalls L.K. Doraiswamy, a distinguished chemical engineer who later became the director of NCL and is currently Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering Emeritus at Iowa State University.

But Reddy did not disappoint him. “Indeed, I have rarely taken a better decision in recruiting students, and even scientists. He not only produced a very fine thesis, but also worked on a side problem to produce a paper in a matter of weeks, which to this day is quoted in practically all books and reviews on Properties Estimation. The Reddy–Doraiswamy equation developed by him (with little assistance from me) for predicting liquid diffusivities has lost none of its original flavour,” he declares.

Anji is a short form for Anjaneya or Hanuman, who was the village deity of Tadapalle and every family had an Anji in it. According to the epic Ramayan, Anjaneya carried the mountain of gandhamadan to cure the battle- wounded Laxman, since he did not know the taxonomy of the herb sanjeevini that was needed. Anji Reddy, however, does very focused research into molecules and does not bring a mountain.

When we visited his village he showed us the railway bridge he used to cross over the Krishna in spate to reach Vijayawada on the other side. The old bridge has vanished and modern bridges are in place. As we walked with him across the bridge he was able to recall many an old story with brief intermissions for conversation with his research teams in Hyderabad and Atlanta on his mobile phone.

As we walked with him we realized that Reddy is truly crossing a bridge in his career. From a generics manufacturer, to a research - based Pharmaceutical company; from an Indian footprint to a global one.

What does a “visionary” mean? Is it that others around him are blind? No, most people can only see what is around them. They cannot see what is not there or what is in the distant future.

A visionary can. "

T S Sankaran- A Tribute

T S Sankaran at one of the many public consultations of Lok Raj Sangathan

Memories of T S Sankaran

January 6, 2013

Friends,

I am unable to be present at this meeting in memory of T S Sankaran. I would like to present a few thoughts on what I learnt from him.

The unresponsiveness and callousness of Indian state towards the poor and oppressed is legendary and any aam admi can attest to that. It clearly needs a thorough renewal. Its colonial attitudes and procedures need to be jettisoned. While such a demand may seem very reasonable and necessary in the interest of democracy, the weight of vested interests in the status quo will resist such changes tooth and nail and make such a logical and democratic demand require a massive revolutionary effort.

However does that mean that there is no place for mass agitation towards legislative reform, administrative reforms, new social security schemes to give some relief to the downtrodden? We all know that in our parliamentary democracy dozens of bills can be passed in a single day without a figment of a debate, because there is a consensus among ruling circles about them. But anyone who has made bold to suggest small reforms in the system in favour of the poor and oppressed, leave alone a radical new law, knows how the system can deaden all your good and reasonable ideas, even if backed by large mobilization of democratic opinion and people.

This inertia for change in the oppressive status quo has historically pushed a large number of socially active individuals towards revolutionism and even armed resistance with no better results to show.

How does one strike a balance between the tenacious, persistent effort to reforms in favour of aam admi and dreaming of, and organising for, a real democratic and responsive governance in the future, where people are empowered, where there is direct democracy? These are the problems that haunt a person who is socially active for any considerable length of time.

T S Sankaran through his life and work showed all of us, how to do both with his own example.

In the last three decades we have been through extraordinary times in our polity and economy, replete with: insurgencies; state terrorism; pogroms of minorities; violence against all democratic movements; draconian laws that sanctify violent and arbitrary activities by state agencies against the life and liberty of people; destruction of livelihood of many; extreme rise in the cost of living and at the same time an ardent desire rising among increasing number of people that there is a necessity for change; that we need to be empowered in this polity to realize our individual and collective dreams.

T S Sankaran responded to these events and developments as an upright individual. Moreover, he also worked with other likeminded people, to build organisations and work as a team, to sacrifice ones individuality to an extent and come under a collective discipline for the greater good of society.

All these values were reflected in his work in the working class particularly among the “unorganized” informal sector; in his leadership role in the Committee for People’s Empowerment and Lok Raj Sangathan; his relentless championing of democratic rights, trade union rights, human rights, rights of nationalities; the movement for electoral reforms; the movement to raise awareness about direct forms of democracy with a fully empowered citizenry and so on.

He not only exercised leadership through his enlightened ideas and proposals for action, but also in his method, as a leader, of dealing with difference of opinion that are bound to be there in any gathering or a meeting.

He did not exercise tolerance.

He actually respected others’ views and not just tolerate them. He was always a considerate listener. He was a living example of the Indian tradition, which believes in the relativeness of truth, of partial nature of truth understood by different individuals. He followed the tradition that expects a full understanding of the other view, the poorva paksh, and a humble presentation of one’s own views to carry the dialogue forward.

This did not mean endless debate and paralysis but one was always aware of the partial nature of one’s understanding, which itself brings in humility and destroys the hubris of certainty.

He practiced this profound approach in every meeting, which led to united action despite at times differing perceptions. That is what made him a unifying leader.

He was a father figure, who many like me affectionately called Mama. His wise presence will be greatly missed but his memories and lessons from his life and work will remain.

—Shivanand Kanavi