The Great Indian Democracy

The Great Indian Democracy

The 17th parliamentary elections, the greatest of Global spectacle that herald the democratic traditions of independent India, are over and as we head towards the D day of counting, less than 8 hours hours from now, it is time to pay respect to the people’s mandate when results are announced and not play politics and blame and tarnish the Election Commission and its paraphernalia that include the EVMs and the faceless hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers of the Election Commission who have tirelessly worked towards making this Himalayan task a grand success time after time and election after elections. Democracy in India has gained from strength to strength and has made much progress over the decades. When we attained independence and declared ourselves Republic in 1950, our erstwhile rulers the British and the rest of the world were highly cynical about our survival, let alone our democracy. From the first elections in 1951-52 to the current 17th election in 2019, we have come a long way and our democracy has grown from strength and the world now treats Indian democracy as a triumphant role model. Let us cherish this.

Notwithstanding the naysayers and losers allegations regarding the so called rigging of EVMs, we the electorates must trust the Election Commission, the Institution which has served the nation incredibly. This is borne out from the recent statement made by our former President Dr Pranab Mukherjee, who praised the Election Commission for conducting the 17th Lok Sabha polls in a “perfect” manner. He went on to say “If we want to strengthen institutions, we have to keep in mind that institutions are serving well in this country, and if democracy has succeeded, it’s largely due to the perfect conduct of elections by all Election Commissioners starting from Sukumar Sen to the present Election Commissioners”. So irrespective of who wins the 17th Parliamentary elections the NDA, UPA or the Third Front, we must all collectively respect the result as a true mandate of the people and not play politics over the results and blame the Election Commission (EC) and the EVMs.

Ever since the era of TN Seshan, in the early 1990s, the EC, like the Indian Army, has arguably become our most respected institution. The respectability of the EC can further be appreciated when we realise that the EC has helped several other nations run their elections better. EVMs have played a significant role in this transition, which has seen a drastic reduction in voting malpractices. Therefore all those who either blame the EC or the EVMs and demand a rollback to paper ballots, I strongly feel are grossly wrong. I do agree that the Murphy’s Law has its own standing and no technology is infallible and therefore credible allegations of EVM tampering must be taken seriously and we must appreciate that the EC does take all such allegations seriously. Demand for rollback to ballot box or dumping the EVMs is like forcing us to go back to horse drawn carriages. Can any of us even imagine doing so. Despite the real risks of road accidents, we don’t abandon motor vehicles, do we. Instead, we implement safety measures like speed limits, seat belts and helmets and so should it be for the EVMs and introduction of the VVPAT is a step in this direction.

Central to the beauty and vibrancy of the Indian democracy are the Indian electorates - the rich and mighty, the powerful and powerless, the poor and the insignificant, the lettered and unlettered, sheltered and unsheltered, the males, females and the transgender’s, the believers and non believers, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, religious and non religious, young, middle aged, old and the very old - all standing as equals, each rubbing shoulders with one another, in the true spirit of equality and humanity first, who make our democracy thrive. They have all voted and rightfully deserve to get the government that they have voted, so let there not be any politics over the results and let us not believe or encourage the losers who are likely to blame and shame the EVMs and the conduct of the Election Commission. Have we all not heard this idiom “bad workman blames his tools”.

Incidentally, allegations of vote fraud through tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is not new to the parties or the candidates or only to this election. This tradition began right from the very first instance of the use of EVMs, when the Election Commission tried out a pilot project of use of EVMs in Indian elections during the Kerala assembly elections way back in 1982. The case went right up to the Supreme Court, which in 1984 ruled against the EVMs. However the ruling of the Supreme Court was based on the legal technicality, and not about the functionality or the fundamental suitability of the EVMs. This technical flaw was corrected by a 1988 amendment to the RoP Act, which provided the legal framework for the use of EVMs in Indian elections. Ever since the EVMs have served us very well.

Let naysayers continue to crib, which the losers will, but let us all rejoice the Indian democracy, which the world acclaims.

Jai Hind and Jai Indian Democracy.

Mega Science Projects: Quest for understanding the unknown, micro to macro universe. (2 Days seminar at the Nehru Science Centre 8th and 9th May 2019)

Mega Science Projects: Quest for understanding the unknown, micro to macro universe.

(2 Days seminar at the Nehru Science Centre 8th and 9th May 2019)

The Army’s tweet regarding the findings of the ‘mythical creature’ Yeti’s footprint on the foothills of Himalayas, which featured on the front page of Times of India and several other media, though ridiculed by many on the social media as hogwash and unscientific, brings to focus the need for addressing such issues scientifically, through peer reviewed evidence and research. Such issues also accentuates the need for better understanding the unending mysteries of not just the mythical creatures like the Yeti, but also the universe, of which we are a small part. The mysteries of our universe stretches from an extreme unseen universe of subatomic particles - quarks, muons, positrons, Higgs Bosons (god particle discovered at the LHC, at CERN, Geneva) etc. - to the extreme, beyond the observable, unseen macroscopic universe. The quest for study and understanding of such extreme scales of universe and its nature has become a necessity for scientists in their endeavour to collectively aim at pushing the frontiers of science.

The need for research on pushing the frontiers of science has led to international collaboration in pooling of men and material resources and establishing global partnership. And the resultant outcome is the Mega Science Projects, in which India is also a partner. To show case the significance of such Mega Science Projects, particularly the Indian contributions in these projects, three Government of India institutions; Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and the National Council of Science Museums, have joined hands to present the first ever “VIGYAN SAMAGAM”, an exhibition of seven mega science projects and a plethora of events, panel discussions, debates, programmes etc. involving the best of scientists from India and abroad and other stakeholders in the field, including industry.

“VIGYAN SAMAGAM: Pushing the Frontiers of Science”, a first-of-its-kind Mega Science event, will be inaugurated by Dr V K Saraswat, Member NITI Ayog, at the Nehru Science Centre, on the 8th of May 2019. A galaxy of distinguished scientists and dignitaries including Prof VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, Dr. K N Vyas, Chairman Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary DAE, Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, Dr. Baum Andreas, H.E, the Hon. Ambassador of Switzerland to India, and others shall be present during the opening of the exhibition, which will be followed by two days “scientre stage” mega events. The event will also showcase a special exhibition which has travelled all the way from CERN, Geneva and seven other mega-science projects in which India is collaborating with other international scientific bodies namely ; European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Square Kilometre Array (SKA), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

The Scientre Stage” two daylong event, will commence with the key note address by Prof VijayRaghavan. Each of the seven mega science projects will have a dedicated session of their own, with one common session for each session dedicated to a panel discussion on “leveraging collaboration for Indian Science and Industry”. The session will start with the CERN project and will include; address by Dr. Tsesmelis Emmanuel, on “CERN - India perspective”, Dr. Bordry Frederick, Director of Accelerators and Technology, CERN, will speak on “Accelerators and future Projects” and Dr Srivastava, will speak on Indian Contributions in CERN. A session on “Doing business with CERN” will be conducted by Mr. Unnervik, Anders, Head, Procurement and Industrial services, CERN. The FAIR project sessions will include a lecture by Dr Giubellino, Paolo, Scientific MD, GSI&FAIR on “FAIR The Universe in the Laboratory” followed by a lecture on “FAIR, the next generation Accelerator, a technology marvel “by Dr, Bhandari, IUAC, New Delhi. This will be followed by a lecture by Dr Subhasis Chattopadhyay, Program Director FAIR Project on “Indian Industries at FAIR”.

The session on the INO project will start with a lecture “Neutrinos New Window to the Universe” by Amol Dighe from TIFR, Mumbai. The lecture by Prof Vivek Datar “On Why INO” will hopefully shed light and address several issues on the need for this project. The other sessions of the INO include a lecture on “Spin Offs and Social Benefits of the INO Project” by Dr B Satyanarayana, TIFR. The ITER session will include lectures by Dr Shashank Chaturvedi, Director, IPR Gandhinagar on “India’s Plasma Science & Technology Program and Spinoffs”, Dr. Laban Coblentz, Head Communications, ITER, France, will speak on “The ITER Project the way to New Energy”. The LIGO project session will commence with a opening lecture by Dr Reitze David, Executive Director, LIGO on “The Gravitational Wave Astronomical Revolution: India’s Emerging Role”, and will be followed by a lecture on “LIGO-India Project – Optical Instrumentation at its limits” by Dr Sendhil Raja, Head Laser & Optical Instrumentation section RRCAT, Indore and a lecture on “LIGO India: Opportunities for the Industry” by Prof. Subroto Mukherjee Head LIGO Division, IPR, Gandhinagar. The SKA sessions will include lectures that will commence with “Square Kilometre Array: An Astronomers Dream Science Machine” by Prof. Braun Robert, Science Director SKA, a lecture on “Technology Challenges on the Road to designing and building the SKA” by Prof. Yashwant Gupta, Centre Director NCRA, TIFR Pune and a Lecture on “Indian Industry Engagement in the SKA: Current status and Future Projects by “Prof. Yogesh Wadekar, NCRA. The last session of the Mega Science Projects addresses the TMT project and will include lectures by Prof Ravinder Bhatia, Associate Project Manager on “Thirty Metre Telescope”, Prof A N Ramprakash will speak on “Challenging Technology Horizons for Expanding Discovery Space” and the last lecture of the series will by by Dr Ahmed Mushtaq on “Building Distributed Telescope Control System”. The two day sessions will end with a session for the Industry in which the discussion on all the seven mega science projects with a perspective on Indian Industries will be discussed organised between the scientists and the Industry representatives.

The two-month long exhibition at the Nehru Science Centre will also have a dedicated week for each of the seven Mega Science Projects and series of curated events and activities concerning these projects will be organised during the exhibition period. The exhibition and events will also be organised in Bangalore at the Visvesvaraya Museum, at Kolkata in the Science City and at the National Science Centre in Delhi.

The primary objective of this mega event is to spread a message that all developments in science and fundamental research in basic sciences leads to new knowledge and will hopefully provide scientific capital. The mega science projects create an opportunity from which the practical applications of knowledge can be drawn for the benefit of society, this is all the more relevant today than ever and history has shown that basic research is the pacemaker of technological progress.

Dr Gagandeep Kang, FRS.

Prof. Gagandeep Kang has become the first Indian woman to be conferred with the prestigious fellowship of the Royal Society and in the process she has joined the illustrious company of the greatest of scientists who have been conferred with this honour and that include among others, Isaac Newton (1672), Charles Darwin (1839), Michael Faraday (1824), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Albert Einstein (1921), Francis Crick (1959), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), J C Bose (1920), C V Raman (1924), M N Saha (1927), H J Bhabha (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944) S N Bose (1958) etc. The first Indian to be conferred with this honour, however is Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia.

The Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, is a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists. Founded on the 28th, November 1660, the Royal Society was created on the 15th July, 1662 and it now boasts of some 1700 plus fellows - including the latest entrant Dr Gagandeep Kang, who has been conferred with the honour recently and will be allowed to use the post nominal title FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society). True to the spirit of this prestigious scientific body and central to its philosophy, the motto of this institution is ‘Nullius in verba’ meaning ‘Take nobody’s word for it’. Announcing the new members to its August body the current President of the Royal Society, Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan said “It is our Fellowship that has remained a constant thread and the substance from which our purpose has been realised: to use science for the benefit of humanity”.

Prof. Kang has not been new to extraordinary acclaim that she has been receiving in the recent past for her groundbreaking work. Some of the awards that Dr. Kang has been conferred with recently include; Woman Bioscientist of the Year, from the Government of India (2006); election to Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology (2010), the Indian Academy of Sciences (2011), National Academy of Sciences (2013), Ranbaxy Research Award (2014), the Faculty of Public Health in the UK and Dr. SC Parija Oration Award, Indian Academy of Tropical Parasitology (2015), and the Fellow of Indian National Science Academy and the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences (2016). The latest addition, the FRS, is another befitting honour for Dr Kang.

Prof. Gagandeep Kang is a physician scientist, who for many years worked as a Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Division of Gastrointestinal Sciences and the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory at the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore. Prof. Kang has made pivotal contributions to understanding the natural history of rotavirus infections as well as other enteric infections, which are important causes of mortality and morbidity in India. Dr. Kang is known for her interdisciplinary research of enteric infections among children. She has played a significant role in developing indigenous vaccines against typhoid and rotavirus in India.

Rotavirus is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality, with India being one of the hardest hit countries. It is estimated that the rotavirus kills approximately 453,000 children under five years of age worldwide every year, which includes an estimated 98,000 from India. The WHO describes rotavirus as a major threat to the health of children across Southeast Asia. It is for this reason that India has launched the rotavirus vaccine as part of the national immunisation programme, inspired by the works of Dr Kang.

Dr Kang’s fellowship is pathbreaking in many ways particularly because women in science, a domain that has largely remained patriarchal, is something which is hard to come by. This recognition for Dr Kang is sure to motivate women scientists to dedicate their lives to research and be instrumental in changing our lives, for the better. It is also hoped that her recognition will immensely benefit young girls to peruse science as a career.

Prof. Kang is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Translational Health Service and Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Heritage on Wheels: Vintage Car Exhibition at Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai

Heritage on Wheels: Vintage Car Exhibition at Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai

The Vintage car exhibition is back again at the Nehru Science Centre, this year with completely different models of cars and bikes of yesteryear’s. The exhibition, which opened on the 19th of March will conclude on the 7th of April to make way for yet another fascinating and state of the art Mega Science (विज्ञान समागम) exhibition which is slated for its opening on the 8th of May.

Automobiles of yesteryear’s have always attracted huge eyeballs, no wonder why lots of our visitors throng to this exhibition. These artistically crafted, elegant beauties, painstakingly restored and maintained by their respective, passionate owners have no parallels. Even while most modern car manufacturers announce new range of cars every year, the craze for ageless beauties of yesteryear’s cars remains unparalleled. The Nehru Science Centre, in collaboration with Vintage and Classic Car Club of India (VCCCI), is organising the "Heritage on Wheels: Vintage Car" exhibition at the Nehru Science Centre second year in a row.

On display are some 40 plus ageless beauties (cars and motorcycles) manufactured during the period from 1900 to 1950s. The assortment of cars on display include the Rolls Royce, Bentley, Humber, Daimler, Ford, Packard, Chrysler etc. These cars belong to the period referred to as the golden age of design in which some of the cars are so artistically designed and exquisitely engineered that they transcend mere transportation to become works of art. The vintage cars on display can be considered as rolling sculptures, and to see them is to think, “That car belongs to an art gallery.”

The Silicon Valley : Dissent and Treachery

The Silicon Valley : Dissent and Treachery

Bangalored, a neologism, which became famous because of Barack Obama’s, (former American president) election address to the Buffalo audience, where he spoke on the dangers of the Buffalo (American) youngsters loosing their jobs to their Bangalore counter parts in India, reminds us of the spin off benefits that the exponential growth of Silicon Valley in San Francisco Bay Area has brought for India.

Silicon Valley is inextricably linked to Innovation and entrepreneurship and it is/was here that the so called ‘geeks’ work passionately in an informal work culture, alongside their unending and night partying- to give birth to the future. The origin of the raise and raise of this new knowledge culture in the Silicon Valley, where disruptive innovation is a norm, goes back to the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s of the twentieth century, the traditions of which have continued to remain uninterruptible even today. And this culture of creativity, in the Silicon Valley, has spread to far off places across the world including in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurugram in India.

The semiconductor industry was and is the engine that drives the Silicon Valley, which ushered the much heralded Information Revolution, the computers, cell phones, satellites, internet etc. all of which have completely transformed our lives and are collectively leading to the knowledge society and to what is termed the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The history of the Silicon Valley is an interesting management case study, particularly for those in the Information Technology and knowledge industry that thrives on innovation and creativity. Creativity and treading unchartered path are inextricably linked to the Silicon Valley and often times they have come as a result of dissent and treachery, notwithstanding the hierarchy. The mother of all such dissent and “treachery’ by the famous eight, resulted in the formation of the Fair Child Semiconductor company, the torch bearer of most companies in the Silicon Valley.

It was on September 18, 1957, that eight of the brilliant workers (Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Gene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts) and would be entrepreneurs at the Shockley Semiconductors, fed up with their eccentric Physics Nobel laureate boss, William Shockley, revolted and walked off the job on this day in Mountain View, California. William Shockley had founded the Shockley Semiconductor company in the hither to unknown west coast and hired the best of minds to work for his semiconductor company. However, when Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors and continued to ignore the request and counsel of eight of his best minds and also resorted to ill treating them, the eight of them, under the leadership of Robert Noyce, got frustrated and decided to walk out and chart their own new path. These eight best minds — who would become known as "the traitorous eight" — went on to form their own company the Fairchild Semiconductor company, which ushered in unprecedented growth and innovation and laid a strong foundation for the Silicon Valley.

Founded in 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor company, quickly reached heights of influence and prestige including the invention of the integrated circuit (the ubiquitous IC) in 1959. Then beset by inept absentee management woes, it began to hemorrhaging key people who founded new semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD, National LSI Logic and many others. It is estimated by some that more than 400 companies can trace their roots to the Fairchild Semiconductor company, which was formed by those "Fairchild Eight" the most famous being Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, who co-founded Intel Corp. in 1968.

So next time when one of your bright subordinate or a junior disagrees with you, don’t call her a traitor, but encourage her to follow her own wisdom failing which be prepared to loose the best of minds for your company. Happy dissenting to all those genius minds.

Exploring Brain & Mental Health : An exhibition from the Harvard School of Medicine (McLain Hospital) USA.

Exploring Brain & Mental Health : An exhibition from the Harvard School of Medicine (McLain Hospital) USA.

“Health is Wealth” is one phrase, which every one of us are familiar with. We call ourselves healthy if we are not affected by any disease or infirmity. Mental health - a manifestation of the mind and brain - most unfortunately has not received the same importance as that of the physical health. Fortunately the World Health Organization (WHO) has helped in making amends by defining health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. It goes on to add that “there is no health without mental health”.

Although both physical & mental health are collectively responsible for the holistic well being of human society, yet most tragically what we see in India is that a person with a physical disability is seen with empathy while one with mental disability is seen with apathy and most shockingly mocked at. One of the prime reason for this behaviour is lack of awareness on mental health issues. We can see physical disabilities, so it’s easy to understand, but because mental disabilities cannot be seen, we are quick to judge, even though the person going through them is no less human than another. If we unlearn and get over our conditioned biases, there would be no stigma about mental health. The magnitude, suffering and burden in terms of disability and costs for individuals, families and societies suffering from mental health, are staggering. Mental health has been hidden behind a curtain of stigma and discrimination for too long. It is time to bring mental health issues out into the open and help de-stigmatise mental ailments from Indian society.

Fortunately, off late, mental health issues are slowly beginning to be discussed with increasing frequency in public and media. The Nehru Science Centre, which has a mandate in spreading awareness on scientific issues and also an objective of creating scientific temper in society, has joined hands with the Mclean Hospital (an affiliate of the Harvard Medical School) and Dr. N. S. Vahia Foundation, to organise this Harvard Medical School exhibition “Exploring Brain & Mental Health” to help in accentuating awareness on mental health issues. This exhibition was opened at the Nehru Science Centre on Monday the 11th of February, by Mr Pravin Pardesi, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, in the August presence of the legendary Australian Leg spinner, Shane Warne and other distinguished dignitaries that included Mr Ranjit Barthakur, Dr Vivang Vahia, Prof Mayank Vahia and several other leading doctors and mental health specialists both from Mumbai and Harvard.

Crazy that we Indians are for the game of Cricket and its practitioners the opening ceremony was completely dominated by Shane Warne who did not disappoint the media and sportingly held the Human Brain, which had come all the way from Harvard, in his gloved hands and went through the exhibition and listened to the triumphs and tribulations of dealing with mental health issues, from Experts. This exhibition spread over a week, will be supplemented with learning sessions conducted by McLean Hospital experts and Indian volunteers, series of lectures, panel discussion and a plethora of other events and activities in which passionate volunteers from several partnering NGOs will help visitors in understanding this all important issue of mental health. Topics relevant to people across all ages will also be discussed at a series of lectures by eminent speakers.

Mental health affects our own family, friends and neighbors, and sadly, those who suffer from mental health are often stuck dealing with it all alone and that too in the shadows. We earnestly feel that this exhibition and the series of events and activities will help in creating an incremental awareness and understanding of what the victims and the care givers of mental health are going through, because sadly there are far more people around us suffering from this scourge than what many of us suspect. What is more horrific is that in addition to the health and social costs, those suffering from mental illnesses are also victims of human rights violations, stigma and discrimination. Although there are people, institutions, trusts and NGOs working in this highly neglected area (www.adhar.org www.omcreationstrust.org and others) considering the tyranny of numbers that we are confronted with, we need many many more institutions and individuals in this field and most importantly these institutions need to be supported both physically and financially.

Fortunately effective treatments and interventions, that are also cost-effective, are now becoming increasingly available to combat mental ailments. It is therefore time to overcome barriers and work together in a joint effort to narrow the gap between what needs to be done and what is actually being done, between the burden of mental disorders and the resources being used to address this problem. Closing this gap will be an obligation not only for the Government but also for the medical practitioners, health workers, NGOs, civil society, corporates and business houses, foundations and research institutions. The ever increasing agrarian distress and the resulting farmer suicides and so also the suicides committed by our teenagers and adolescents in the modern pressure ridden Indian society, can vastly be reduced by creating awareness on mental health issues. I am sure our joint efforts with McLean Hospital and the NS Vahia Foundation in organising this exhibition and a plethora of week long events and activities, though a tiny step in this direction, will go a long way in leading towards a giant leap in the years and decades to come in addressing this issue.

Piggly Wiggly : Revolutionary Innovation in Retail Market

Piggly Wiggly : Revolutionary Innovation in Retail Market

Super markets, which are now a norm, have mushroomed all across the world, India included. The genesis for these supermarkets stem from a remarkable innovation, which came from an applied mind of an American boy (born in poverty) - Mr Clarence Saunders - who introduced the first ever super market to the world - the Piggly Wiggly.

The humble neighbourhood किराना (kirana) shop ( grocery shop), which most of my generation grew up with, has changed with time as a result of innovation and technological advancements. The supermarkets and the ultramodern stores, which we see today, owe their genesis to a journey of their evolution that began with the outstanding innovation by Clarence Saunders, who founded a revolutionary concept of self service in the retail market.

Clarence Saunders, who served as a grocer boy in a shop, had observed the customers and believed that there must be a better way to serve the customers. His experience and innovative mind helped him found a new revolutionary concept, of self service shopping in retail market. He opened a grocery shop with his new concept under a strange sounding name “Piggly Wiggly”, in 1916. One hundred years ago this new concept was a path breaking enterprise that changed the face of retail market. When Piggly Wiggly opened its doors in Memphis, Tennessee on September 6, 1916, it became the first truly modern American supermarket.

Until the beginning of the Piggly Wiggly stores, customers were typically forced to wait behind a counter to request items stored beyond their reach and view. With limited employees manning the counters, often times, the customers had to wait a while for their turns to get what they wished. If other customers were in line, people had to wait even longer. In the newly opened "cafeteria grocery", Saunders moved the stockroom into the front of the store and allowed customers to roam the aisles and select their own groceries, the idea of which was truly revolutionary in 1916.

Saunders innovation, the Piggly Wiggly a strangely sounding name, turned the then existing retail market model on its head. Shoppers no longer needed to be at the mercy of the grocer. They were invited into the store, handed a shopping basket, and left free to move around the grocery store to touch and feel their chosen items and know the price of each of the items. Shoppers to Piggy Wiggly could pick and choose what they liked at their own pace and fill their cart and checkout of the stores paying for whatever they selected. This may not sound very impressive now, but imagine this concept one hundred years back when no one had ever thought of self-service grocery shopping the way Saunders thought of it. Commemorating the centenary of Piggly Wiggly innovation the TIME magazine paid tributes by stating “Piggly Wiggly was the original grocery store, which not only introduced grocery carts, but also price-marked items, employees in uniform, and the supermarket franchise model.”

Piggly Wiggly permanently changed the face of grocery shopping not only in America but around the world. When people asked Saunders why he gave his grocery store such a funny little name, he is reported to have said, "So that people will ask that very question." It seems to have worked, because even after the centenary of the Piggly Wiggly stores, people still ask the reason for naming it with a strangely looking name. Saunders was also a master marketing man and the launch of his new store was truly memorable and one could quite easily compare his launch with the launch of the Apple products by their founder late Steve Jobs. Saunders grand opening of his Piggly Wiggly included a jazz band on top of one of the refrigerator units, a beauty contest, flowers for the ladies, and balloons for children. History was made, and reportedly several thousand people showed up to witness Saunders self-service grocery shopping.

Piggly Wiggly store was an immediate financial success -- quicker for customers, less labour intensive for the shopkeeper, the new format allowed multiple customers to shop at the same time, and led to the previously unknown phenomenon of impulse shopping. Saunders soon patented his self-service concept, and began franchising Piggly Wiggly stores. Within five years, the chain had more than a thousand stores, and was the nation's largest grocery retailer. Sadly, during the Great Depression, Saunders was forced to sell the company after a long financial battle with Wall Street investors.

Next time whenever you go to a supermarket, please spare a thought for Clarence Saunders innovation, which made them possible. Long live Innovation, which is more than mere conversion of knowledge into a workable technology. It implies an S&T-led solution that benefits economy and human society.

International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019) : Commemorating it’s sesquicentennial year.

International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019) : Commemorating it’s sesquicentennial year.

The profundity and extraordinary significance of the periodic table - a prophetic invention of Dmitri Mendeleev, which in its sesquicentennial  year has been deservingly recognised by the United Nations General Assembly and the UNESCO, for celebration as the IYPT2019 - can best be appreciated from the epiphanic statement of Richard Feynman; “If some universal catastrophe was to engulf the world and humankind could retain only one scientific concept to rebuild civilization, what would it be? The chemist’s answer is almost invariably the Periodic Table of the Elements”.

It was one hundred fifty years ago (1869) on 6th March, that a Russian scientist, Dmitri Mendeleev, published his monumental findings on the Periodic Table in an obscure Russian journal, that gave to the world a periodic predictive order to the chemical elements. The German translation of his work, which appeared shortly thereafter, facilitated his periodic arrangement of the chemical elements to reach far and wide drawing a wide scientific audience and recognition. Mendeleev also recorded his new findings of the periodic table in his popular textbook, Principles of Chemistry, which were published in many editions in Russian, German, English, and French thus increasing the awareness and popularity of his Periodic Table.

The periodic Table (PT) is as omnipresent (particularly in science class rooms, research institutions and labs) as the calendars, but with a difference. The Periodic Table needs no replacement at the year end, unlike the calendars which are replaced every year. The world that we see around - including the unending cosmos - is made up of matter, which is formed from the fundamental building blocks of the chemistry, the chemical elements. Ever since the dawn of organised knowledge, the Scientists are constantly untangling the mysteries of the world by discovering and inventing new found scientific knowledge and harvesting this knowledge for the benefit of human society and for this, the Periodic Table has been their constant companion. The PT facilitates a orderly and predictable organisation to the whole of chemistry. An awareness of the PT is therefore essential and the UN recognising this aspect has rightfully declared this year as the IYPT, which will be celebrated by our centre and the whole of NCSM and so also the other scientific institutions and science centres from across the world, by organising series of events, lectures, exhibitions etc.

Commemorating the IYPT, the Royal Society of Chemistry, England, has come out with an outstanding Periodic Table App, which is so very user friendly and will serve as an all important tool in creating an awareness among the public about the PT. I would appeal to all friends to please download this App and help spread awareness on the PT. http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table

Like most other scientific discoveries and inventions the PT findings of Dmitri Mendeleev has also been built by “standing on the shoulders of the giants”. As more and more elements began to be discovered it necessitated a rationale looking into the physical and chemical properties of the new elements and by the early 1800s, chemists started working in this area. A German chemist Johann Döbereiner, in 1817, made an early attempt to organize the chemical elements in some order. He noticed that certain sets of three elements had similar chemical properties. For example, lithium, sodium, and potassium, which had been discovered by electrolysis, had similar chemical properties. He called such groups triads. His ideas weren’t taken too seriously by other chemists because only a few elements fitted into the triad scheme. By 1860 there were about 60 elements which had been discovered. Italian chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro and a British chemist John Newlands also worked on arranging the chemical elements in some order. It was however the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, whose findings on the periodicity of the chemical elements and the subsequent publication of his PT, formulated in 1869, that was to be one of the major conceptual advances made in the history of science.

Julius Lothar Meyer (1830–1895) German chemist, also published his classic paper (1870), independent of Mendeleev, which too presented the periodicity of atomic volume plotted against atomic weight. Meyer and Mendeleev carried on a long drawn-out dispute over priority. But it was Mendeleev’s predictions of yet-unknown elements that etched his name and fame in the annals of human history. The most famous of these predictions was for eka-silicon (germanium), a new element, which not only did he postulate its existence, but also its properties in its chloride and oxide combinations.

Mendeleev’s classification of the then unknown chemical elements makes an interesting connect with Sanskrit. The eight elements that Mendeleev used Sanskrit text to describe include; Eka-aluminium for Gallium, Eka-boron for Scandium, Eka-silicon for Germanium, Eka-manganese for Technetium, Tri-manganese for Rhenium, Dvi-tellurium for Polonium, Dvi-caesium for Francium and Eka-tantalum for Protactinium. Mendeleev used the prefixes of eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit one, two, three) in the naming of the eight predicted elements. I shall not dwell any further on the subject of Sanskrit and Mendeleev’s Periodic Table lest I am dubbed as Bhakt, not withstanding fairly established connection. For those who are interested in Knowing more on this subject, you may please refer https://arxiv.org/vc/physics/papers/0411/0411080v1.pdf

Wishing you all, a year long celebration of the IYPT2019.

Makar Sankrati : Another opportunity to “ring out the old, and ring in the new”

Makar Sankrati : Another opportunity to “ring out the old, and ring in the new”

“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” - Alfred Tennyson.

Tennyson’s above poetry is what worked in my favour to try and motivate my wife to let go of the past to ring in the new. The end of the year - 2018, and beginning of the new year - 2019, have not particularly been fair to us. We lost our father on the last day of 2018 - December 31, 2018, and if that was a terrible beginning for the new year which was to dawn soon, we had a much more worse shock that was yet to come. Just when we were coming to terms with the loss of my father, another tragedy of the untimely death of my brother in law, Pramod Angadi (my wife’s younger brother), struck us on the 7th January. We had just completed all the rituals associated with the death of our father and were returning back to Mumbai from our native place on 6th Jan 2019. We reached Mumbai on that night at around 9 PM and we were informed that Pramod was admitted to the hospital. We rushed to the Hinduja Hospital in Khar, where he was admitted to the hospital. But then destiny perhaps had a different plan. My wife could not even talk to my brother in law, since he had already gone into a Comma, when we reached the hospital to meet him. He was just 47 and died of some unexplained medical complications in the Hinduja Hospital, which the hospital authorities attributed to “Sepsis Shock”, a shock that none of us, particularly my wife could come to terms with for a very long time.

It has been a week since the tragic death of my brother in law, yet my wife has continued to be in a state of shock and was unable to move on, despite my best of efforts. The shock of her brothers death has already started taking a toll on her health and my wife is not able to understand that she must come out of the shock as early as possible else. No amount of my love, affection and counselling is helping her to try and come back to normalcy and start taking food normally. Like her brother she too is a diabetic patient and therefore I knew that indifference towards taking food timely will have a consequence on her health and I had to act fast to try and bring her back to normalcy as early as possible at-least in terms of taking timely food and medicine. The Makar Sankranti, which is celebrated as a New Year’s Day in Karnataka and many other parts of India,  helped me in convincing my wife to let go of the past by quoting Alfred Tennyson “ring out the old, and ring in the new”. I spoke to her of the importance of the Makara Sankranti and how and why this festival is quite important for Indians and that in many parts of India this festival is celebrated as a new year. 

Makar Sankranti (Sankranti meaning ‘movement) is the first major Hindu festival in the Gregorian calendar, celebrated with much fervor across most parts of India. This auspicious day - the harvest day - marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac Capricorn (Makara). This holy festival symbolizes the arrival of spring. Like the socio cultural diversity that spans across India, the Makar Sankranti too has its own geographical variants across the country, yet this day is celebrated with the same enthusiasm all across India. Makara Sankranti is celebrated as Lohri in North India by the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs, Maghi in adjoining Haryana and Himachal, Sukarat in Central India, Magh or Bhogali Bihu in Assam, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Ghughuti of Uttarakhand, Magh saaj of Himachal, Makara Chaula of Odisha, Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Paush Sankranti in Bengal, Bihar, uttarayan in Gujrat and Rajasthan, Sukaraat in Madhya Pradesh and Khichdi Parwa in parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and Saen-kraat in Kashmir. This festival is also celebrated in our neighbouring countries as Maghe Sankranti in Nepal, Songkran in Thailand, Moha Sangkran in Cambodia, Thingyan in Myanmar and  Pi Ma Lo in Laos. Makar Sankranti is also associated with kite flying, dances, bonfires, fairs and mass pilgrimages to sacred rivers.

The festival of Makara Sankranti marks the onset of Uttarayan - a period when the Sun starts its six months journey towards the north and making the days longer with more light and less darkness. This period is considered as auspicious for the Hindus, who observe a wide variety of spiritual practices on this day. Many take a holy dip in rivers, to absolve them of their ‘past sins’. The festival is also known for a rich variety of food delicacies, which are prepared and offered as ‘Prasada’ to the deity while thanking almighty for a good harvest. Many sweets, like laddoos made of til and jaggery, patishaptas, jaggery and rice pudding, among others are prepared during this period. The day is spent singing traditional songs, dancing and even preparing a bonfire in the evening.

India is a land of diversity with many religions, languages and regional cultures, which coexist in social harmony. This diversity also gets carried to the calendars that govern peoples’ social and religious lives. If one asks many Indians, when is the Indian New Year’s day, it is very easy to get different answers. The history of calendars in India is a remarkably complex subject owing to the long continuity of Indian civilization and to the diversity of cultural influences. At the time of our Independence and a decade later, it was observed that there were about 30 calendars in use for setting religious festivals for Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains in India. Some of these calendars were also used for civil dating. These calendars were based on some common principles, though they had local characteristics determined by long-established customs and the astronomical practices of local calendar makers. In addition, Muslims in India used the Islamic calendar, and the Indian government used the Gregorian calendar for administrative purposes. With so many calendars in vogue in India, the Government of India under Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, deemed it fit to have a wholistic view to the issue of calendars and their usage.

It is for this reason and in observation of the fact that there were many different calendars that were used in India, each of which had slight differences, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, (CSIR) Government of India (of which NCSM was a part until parting ways in 1978) appointed a Calendar Reform Committee, in November 1952, under the chairmanship of the renowned scientist Dr. Meghnad Saha, with the following terms of reference ; “To examine all the existing calendars which are being followed in the country at present and after a scientific study of the subject, submit proposals for an accurate and uniform calendar for the whole of India". The distinguished Calendar reforms Committee consisted of Prof. M.N. Saha, (Chairman), Prof. A.C. Banerji, Vice-Chancellor, Allahabad University, Dr. K.L. Daftari, Nagpur, Shri J.S. Karandikar, Ex-Editor, The Kesari, Poona, Dr. Gorakh Prasad, D.Sc., Allahabad University, Prof. R.V. Vaidya, Madhav College, Ujjain, and Shri N.C. Lahiri, Calcutta (Secretary). (Dr. Gorakh Prasad and Shri N.C. Lahiri came in place of Prof. S.N. Bose and Dr. Akbar Ali who were originally appointed but were unable to serve).

The committee studied various calendars that were in vogue in India and after close examination of these calendars recommended a uniform all-India calendar for both civil and religious use. They recommended a unified solar calendar for civil use. The Government of India accepted the proposal and introduced it as the Indian national calendar with effect from 22nd March 1957. The Government of India however continues to use the Gregorian Calendar for administrative use.

The proposed National Calendar is a modification of the existing Indian solar calendars. The principle unit of the calendar remains the civil day. The solar era chosen is the Saka national era. The national calendar is made to approximate the tropical year and not the traditional sidereal year. The calendar year starts on the day after the March Equinox day (March 22/21). Unlike the traditional solar calendars the solar months have fixed number of days restricted to either 30 or 31 days. This length still depended on the time taken for the Sun to travel the concerned tropical rasi instead of sidereal rasi. The first rasi, Mesh begins at the March equinox, which is also the starting point of the sayana year. The five months from the second to the sixth have mean lengths of over 30.5 days and so their lengths are rounded up to 31 days. The remaining months have 30 days. Names for the solar months are kept the same as those of the Indian solar calendar. The first month in the Indian calendar is named as Chaitra, followed by Vaisakha and so on.

The traditional New Year, which is celebrated across most parts of the world on January 1 is therefore not the only new year for the Indians. Besides the Makar Sankrati, there are other days which are celebrated as New Year’s Day. Some of these include, as per the lunar calendar, the spring harvest time in April which is celebrated as Vaisakhi or Baisakhi in north and central India, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Tamil Putthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, Bishuva Sankranti in Odisha and Poila Boishakh in Bengal. Ugadi is the New Year's Day for the Hindus of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. Gudi Padwa is celebrated in Maharashtra, Goa and Konkan belt as new year. Cheiraoba in Manipur, Navreh in Kashmir and Cheti Chand is celebrated by Sindhi Hindus as new year. In Gujarat, Bestu Varas is celebrated around October/November time as new year. We therefore have many more opportunities to celebrate the new year and to “ring out the old and ring in the new”.

For those of you for whom the new year 2019 (as per Gregorian Calendar) has began on a bad note don’t be disappointed, there are other days ahead, when you can ring out the old and ring in the new. Wishing you all a very happy Makara Sankaranti and a happy new year.

National Museum of Indian Cinema dedicated to the Nation

National Museum of Indian Cinema dedicated to the Nation

The National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC), an idea that was mooted several years earlier with an aspiration to make it a reality during the centenary of the Indian Cinema (2013), finally came to light with the magnificent inauguration of the Museum, by the Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, on the 19th January 2019. The jam packed, star studded audience tempted the PM to begin his inaugural address in filmy style. He was at his cinematic best when he invoked the popular line from the recently released film “Uri: The Surgical Strike” with a “How's the josh” question. He repeated his question when he did not get a resounding response from the audience, only to be reciprocated with a thunderous applause and an unequivocal “High Sir” from the alert audience who by then had realised the contextual “Uri” question from the PM. The Honourable PM spent considerable amount of time visiting all the dour exhibition halls in the new building and also the exhibition at the Gulshan Mahal. I along with couple of my other colleagues from CRTL Kolkata were privileged to witness the historic opening of the Museum in which NCSM has played a pivotal role in the curation and development of all the museum exhibitions.

The Films Division and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, had tasked the NCSM to curate, design and develop this museum on turn key basis and ever since, two of the units of NCSM, the CRTL, Kolkata and our team, the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai, have painstakingly worked on the curation, research and development of this Museum and we are very proud that finally, after several moments of tribulations and few triumphs, the Museum has been opened and dedicated to the nation by the Hon. PM.

A galaxy of distinguished dignitaries were present during the opening of the NMIC, which included the Honourable Governor of Maharashtra, Shri CV Rao, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the union minister of I&B, Shri Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Shri Ramdas Athawale, Shri Shyam Benegal the Chairman of the Museum Advisory Committee and Shri Prasoon Joshi, Chairman CBFC. A galaxy of past and present Bollywood personalities that included; Manoj Kumar, Aamir Khan, A.R. Rahman, Asha Bhosle, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Randhir Kapoor, Karan Johar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Kiran Shantaram, Boney Kapoor, David Dhawan, Rohit Shetty, Waheeda Rehman, Jeetendra Kapoor, Asha Parekh, Pankaj Kapoor, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Kangana Ranaut, Parineeti Chopra, Divya Dutta, and many others were also in attendance during the opening of the NMIC.

First of its kind not just in India but also in South Asia, the NMIC has been established in two phases at a cost of 144 Crore Rupees and is housed in two separate buildings. The first phase of the Museum has rightfully come up in the historic 19th century majestic Gulshan Mahal - sprawling Victorian Gothic bungalow -, which has been restored to retain its pristine grandeur. The second phase of the Museum has come up in the adjacent ultra modern state of the art building, together (the old and the new) the two buildings provide a holistic presentation of the story of the Indian Cinema with some spectacular artefacts, original film posters, lobby cards and innumerable other film memorabilia including the best of cameras of yesteryear’s, editing machines, lenses, magic lantern, lights, recording machines, film projectors, costumes etc. The Museum also boasts of some of the very rare film footage that include films like Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra and Kaliya Mardan. The display also includes cameras and editing machines that the film maestros like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and V Shantaram used. The museum gives a visual narrative of the matinee idols and the silver screen divas and delves into the new wave, film certification, Regional Cinemas and the methods of film making.

The newly built state-of-the-art NMIC building, adjacent to the Gulshan Mahal has five floors and two mezzanine floors with a total built up area of 12000 square metres. The ground floor which includes the reception area also houses two state of the art auditoriums with the best of technological equipments and very well-equipped modern amenities and facilities. The building has four exhibition halls covering an area of some 2000 square metres. The first floor presents an exhibition titled “Gandhi and Cinema” which is a tribute to the father of the nation on his 150th birth anniversary. Gandhi, perhaps the most filmed personality, has an interesting connect with Cinema, which has been presented in this gallery. The next gallery in the second floor is the “Children’s Film Studio”, which presents children an opportunity to use some technological tools that are used in modern day cinema for producing special effects. The third floor exhibition is titled “Technology, Creativity and Indian Cinema” and houses some of the rare and vintage artefacts that include a range of cameras, and all other technological tools of yesteryear’s used in the making of the films. The fourth floor presents an exhibition titled “Cinema across India”, which covers the fascinating story of the Indian cinema spanning more than a century and covering the regional cinemas as well. This is the first museum dedicated to films in India. Through movie clips, photographs, film equipment and other film memorabilia, it will take visitors through the history of cinema from across the country.

Ever since the beginning of the technology that resulted in the development of the moving images, an idea which occurred to Thomas Alva Edison, which he describes in his famous quote “The idea occurred to me that it would be possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear”, there have been constant technological developments in the world of cinema the beginning and premiership of which goes to the famous Lumiere Brothers, who were among the first film makers in history. Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean, Lumiere patented an improved cinematograph, which in contrast to Thomas Edison's "peepshow" kinetoscope allowed simultaneous viewing by multiple parties. This was the beginning of the cinema which started in 1895. The Lumiere Brothers came to present their historic cinema in Mumbai and on the 7th of July 1896 they presented six of their films at the famous Watson Hotel, the episode of which has been immortalised through projection mapping in the Museum.

The museum will be a delight not just for the movie buffs and researchers but also for all the Cine lovers. It is a testimony to India’s rich history of cinema that encompasses not just the bollywood but all other regional cinemas as well. Please do visit the Museum.

Time and Tide Wait for No Man : श्रद्धांजली to my beloved Father who passed away on 31st December, 2018

 

The phrase “Time and tide wait for no man” whose origin is uncertain, yet almost certain that it predates modern English, played out its certainty and took away our beloved father on the last day of 2018. True to the spirit of the phrase, the year 2018 is now history and so will its highs and lows, the hits and misses and the triumphs and tribulations including the worst tragedy in our personal life of loosing our beloved - doting yet daunting- father (Retired teacher Shri Murugendrappa Sharabanna Khened), who left for his heavenly abode at the age of 94 years, on the 31st December 2018, at our native place in Raichur.

Though coming from a very rich land lord family, my father was completely and solely a self made man and studied at the Veerashiva maths, which offer free education, and completed his intermediate and went on to become a teacher and served for 37 long years until his retirement. He was one among hundreds of thousand young Indian teenagers who were jailed during the quit India movement in 1942. He however did not avail any of the benefits of freedom fighters with the belief that it was the least service that one could do to their motherland. In his long years of existence the little wealth that he made was a small house in Raichur and the best of education that he gave his children and the values of impeccable honesty and integrity and selfless service to nation, which he has passed on to us. He was an avid teacher who went beyond classroom teaching to educate innumerable informal students particularly the English language, which he was giftedly proficient.

My father leaves behind a very large grief stricken family of seven children - two daughters and two sons including yours truly (the youngest of the four children to his first wife, late Smt. Channamma Khened) who was just eleven months old when my mother passed away on the very day (14th April, 1962) when the legendary Sir M Visvesvaraya, bid good bye to this world. My father often used to remind me of this date. He also leaves behind his second wife Smt. Sharada Khened and her two sons and one daughter and four daughter in laws, two son in laws, eleven grand children and twelve great grandchildren. Both my wife and I were lucky that we had come to our native place on a two weeks vacation (22nd December to 4th Jan, 2019) and were by his side along side a vast majority of his very large family, during his last days.

My father, though not highly formally educated, was a prolific reader on social, religious and philosophical matters and was an ardent follower of Swamy Vivekanand and donated a small amount to the Ramakrishna Mission, for establishing a Vivekananda Memorial and Cultural Centre a copy of the receipt of which I accidentally discovered today. He was perhaps one among very few - in the little towns that he served as teacher - who had command over the Queens language - English. He was also an avid Yoga practitioner performing some of the most difficult of asanas until his advanced age. He was well known for his navali asana one of very difficult asanas. I vividly remember that in a place called Mudgal - a small town in the district of Karnataka, where I was born, - where he served as a teacher for more than a decade, his command over the English language was extensively used by the Christian Missionaries - two of whose names I remember even today, Father Evangelist and Father Kensington, as their official interpreter and also for learning the local Kannada language.

We finished all the rituals of the funeral rites of our beloved father in the Veerashiva traditions on the 1st of January, and the mortal remains of our beloved father was laid to rest in the traditional Veerashiva / Lingayat traditions at the Veerashiva rudrabhumi in Raichur in front of a large gathering of family, friends and his well wishers including the famous somwarmath seer - the mathadhipathi of Somwarpeth math. Today, while recollecting nostalgic memories of my father - who was to me both a mother and father- I was looking through some of the papers, which he had kept very close to him and found a write up on death that he wrote. He used to always script some thing or the other on scrap papers and one such brief write up was the note on death that I am sharing. The other images that I found with him include a photo of my son sitting on his lap when we celebrated our Sons second birthday in New Delhi. He also had with him one of my photos with the then PM Shri P V Narasimha Rao.

My father is one of those old timers who is stickler for his daily routines particularly his Yogasanas and meditation, and will listen to none to alter them. Even in the hospital, where he was recuperating and was almost out of danger and was to be discharged soon, he would insist on his meditation. With great difficulty we had just about managed to keep him away from some of his inflexible daily routines while he was at the hospital. On the 29th December evening, he insisted that during the visiting hours on the next day, he wishes to see as many of us as possible together particularly he wished to see all his four daughter in laws together. Fortunately I was with him for most of the day on his penultimate day (30th December) and most of his very large family including all the four daughter in laws and three sons and a grand daughter and grand son in law came to meet him on the 30th evening. He was exceptionally happy to see all his four daughter in-laws together. All his actions, should have prompted us to some bad omen, which unfortunately none of us realised. As per his inflexible routines he begged us to leave him alone for 30 minutes of meditation on the 30th December evening. He is normally used to doing 1 hour meditation in the morning and one hour in the evening. We left him for his meditation and came out of the room. And after about 45 minutes of his meditation he called us back and chatted with us until the visiting hours, after which most of us left him with one of his sons - the youngest among the four of four of us - Natraj, staying back. We all left the hospital in anticipation that he will be fine and be discharged on the eve of the new year on the first of January, 2019.

On the morning of the last day of the year 2018, 31st December, 2018, which will now remain etched in all our memories, my elder brother, who has recently retired as the Professor and Principal of the famous LVD college in Raichur, received a call from our brother from hospital who stated that the Doctor has asked the two of us to come urgently and that it was an emergency. My eldest brother and I rushed to the hospital and what followed is something which we are still grappling to come to terms with. As per the routine, after his cleaning and washing my father asked my brother who was staying with him that he will do his meditation. It was around 7 AM in the morning of 31st December when he informed our brother, who was staying with him, that he will go for meditation. Our brother as is the norm left him alone for his meditation. After about 40 minutes, our brother went back to the room to speak to him. My father appeared to be still in his meditation. At around 8 AM my brother called the nursing staff who tried to wake him but he did not respond so the sister immediately called for the Doctor on duty. The duty Doctor did some tests including an ECG and a torch test for dilation of pupils and asked my brother to summon us immediately. My eldest brother and I rushed to the hospital and were in for the rudest shock of our lives. We were informed that my father passed away while meditating. What baffled us is how could this happen, since all of us had spoken to him at length just the previous evening and were eagerly waiting for him to be discharged from hospital.

By then the Doctor who had spoken to us previous day informed us some thing which I can’t ever forget. He, although being an allopathic doctor, suggested that my father may have opted for what he called “Ichha samadhi”. My own personal thoughts and the area in which I work as a science communicator does not make me believe in such unscientific thinking. Another close friend of mine - who is also a medical Doctor and an eminent Laproscopic Surgeon who practices in Gulbarga and is also very close to my father - spoke to me and alluded to the reasoning of the Doctor that my father may have chosen an Ichha Samadhi/ Maran. The exact reason of his death - though officially attributed to aged related health issue- will never be known and will remain a mystery. We have no way but to accede to the phrase “ Time and Tide will wait for no man” and pray for our fathers soul to rest in eternal peace and pledge ourselves to living up to his ideals with utmost honesty and service to the nation.

Om Shanti.

Falling standards in medical professionalism : Hard reality or an aberration?

Falling standards in medical professionalism : Hard reality or an aberration?

I am one of those privileged ones who are friends with quite a number of medical doctors and have seen them work passionately and untiringly almost all times, some times at the cost of their own family and personal life. It was therefore but natural for me to firmly and convincingly believe that the Indian Doctors work true to the ancient traditions of the “Hippocratic Oath” - emanating from the Greek medical texts, which in its original form mandated a new physician to swear, by a number of healing Gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. Hippocrates - the Greek Physician dating back to 400 BC- considered as father of modern medicine (allopathy), laid down the criteria for a perfect physician as ; observant, humane, learned, orderly, thoughtful, purity of mind and ability to gain more knowledge for its application. The Hippocratic oath mandates the Doctors to work with “Dedication and honesty for the benefits of sick: With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my art, into whatever house I enter, I will go in to them for benefit of the sick, will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption”. It further expects the Doctors to be “Proficient and deviate from evils, and that they will follow that system of regimen which, according to their ability and judgment, they consider for the benefit of their patients, further they will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked nor suggest any such counsel”. A noble thought, which perhaps rightfully equates Doctors the saviours of life with the almighty - the life giver.

Notwithstanding the reports - aplenty - appearing in newspapers highlighting falling standards and gross neglect of patients by hospitals and medical practitioners, and often used phrase of “kalyug” while describing the falling standards in medical practices, I was one of those who never alluded to this belief, rightly so I thought keeping in mind many ideal doctors that I am privileged to be associated with. But then the hard reality is “Doctors are many in title but very few in reality”. I came face to face with this hard reality recently at my native place, while I had to deal with a harrowing experience of utter neglect by a Hospital and the doctors associated with it, while providing treatment to the one who is a cause for my existence. I am forcefully restraining myself from naming and shaming the hospital and the doctor who most unfortunately work diametrically opposite to what their noble profession and the Hippocratic oath mandates them to do so. I am also restraining myself to make it personal against the hospital and the doctors, even though it rightly warrants. I am posting this as an introspection for the larger medical fraternity - who truly deserve admiration, reverence and respect- to isolate and name and shame those in their fraternity, who through their unbecoming act to make ill gotten money are bringing to shame the entire medical fraternity. Some hard facts to substantiate my hypothesis follows.

In one of the reports published in the reputed Lancet “the Indian healthcare apathy, and its poor quality of care, kills more than lack of access to treatment facilities”. The report adds that some 2.4 million Indians die of treatable conditions every year, the worst situation among 136 nations studied for the report. Poor care quality leads to more deaths than insufficient access to healthcare. A staggering 1.6 million Indians died due to the poor quality of care in 2016.

Providing health services without guaranteeing a minimum level of quality is ineffective, wasteful and unethical. It is therefore necessary to better measure the quality of our health system as a composite entity rather than be merely content with certifying hospitals and laboratories. It may be time to talk about the lack of mechanisms for monitoring quality of hospitals and doctors in India. It may be necessary that some elements of quality, as composite measures of the health system, are ensured and monitored, which most unfortunately are unavailable.

In yet another report “almost 122 Indians per 100,000 die due to poor quality of care each year, showing up India’s death rate due to poor care quality as worse than that of Brazil (74), Russia (91), China (46) and South Africa (93) and even our neighbours Pakistan (119), Nepal (93), Bangladesh (57) and Sri Lanka (51)”. The total number of deaths from poor quality care globally is 5 million per year, which is estimated to be five times as many as the annual global deaths from HIV/AIDS (1 million) and nearly three times more than deaths from diabetes (1.4 million). This was according to the study that was part of a two-year project that brought together 30 academics, policy-makers and health systems experts from 18 countries to examine how to measure and improve health systems’ quality worldwide.

These glaring reports perhaps substantiate my appeal for the medical fraternity to introspect and make efforts to have a robust regulatory mechanism to identify and name and shame those who bring disrepute to the most respected profession.