Clarence Saunders & his Revolutionary Super Market - Piggly Wiggly

 

Super markets - which are now a norm - have mushroomed all across the world, India included. The genesis for the supermarkets stem from a remarkable innovation that came from an young American (born in poverty) - Mr Clarence Saunders - who introduced the first ever super market to the world - the Piggly Wiggly. It was on this day - 6 September, 1916, that the first ever truly self-service grocery store of the world was opened with great fanfare in Memphis, Tennessee in US. Piggly Wiggly store was completely different from any other contemporary grocery stores of the time. The store had wooden shopping baskets (plastic ones are used in current times) open shelves, aisles for the movement of the customers, and no delivery boys to choose the products for the customer. The customer to the Piggly Wiggly was welcomed and s/he had a complete freedom to choose what to buy her leisure, walking through the aisles of the store and check out paying for what s/he picked to buy – all of which were previously unheard of. The rest, what they say is history.

The humble neighbourhood किराना (kirana) shop (grocery shop), which most of my generation grew up with, has changed with time as a result of Clarence Saunders and so also with technological advancements. It was not until the era of economic liberalisation in India that the humble kirana shops remained the prime movers of serving grocery and such other utilitarian food items to their customers. My generation and so also those who live in the hinterland of the country continue to depend on the humble neighbourhood kirana shop for their grocery needs. The Kirana Shop - grocery stores of that time - encouraged their customers to prepare a list of the groceries that they wish to buy and this hand written list - on a small piece of paper often times on the back of a used envelope or a newspaper etc. - was required to be presented to the boys manning the kirana shop, standing behind the owner who would be seated on a chair controlling cash box. These boys would then gather the groceries and other materials listed on the piece of paper from the store shelves. Although the customers did have the facility to see some small quantity of samples what they wish to buy, but most often they had literally no choice to touch and feel the product they wished to buy.

Clarence Saunders, a dynamic and innovative man, who was serving as a sales man in a whole sale grocery store in US, was expected to increase the sales. This mandated Saunders to travel extensively and meet retailers hold discussions and motivate them to place orders with his whole sale store. During this period, Saunders watched very carefully each of the retail shops and how they are functioning and how their owners are managing their stores and how they interact with their customers. He was convinced that the method followed by all the retail stores resulted in wasted time and expense. He also observed that often times the customers were expressing their unhappiness for not being able to personally see and select what grocery items they wish to buy for their homes. He, therefore, came up with an unheard-of solution that would revolutionize the entire grocery industry. He developed a way for shoppers to “serve themselves” and the result was the founding of the first self-service super market concept which we now take for granted. He strangely called his grocery shop Piggly Wiggly, a rhythmic sounding name, which also speaks of his interest in poetry. The supermarkets and the ultramodern stores, which we see today - with an ever-improving technology embedded in these super markets - owe their genesis to a journey of their evolution that began with the outstanding innovation by Clarence Saunders, who founded his revolutionary concept of self service in the retail market.

Clarence Saunders was born on August 9, 1881 in a poor family in Virginia to his parents Abraham Warwick and Mary Gregory Saunders. Mary was the second wife of Abraham. Clarence was born when his father was 47 and his mother just 26. As fate would have it his mother died when he was 6 years. This meant that Clarence had no formal education. He went to school only for two years and the rest of his learning is all self-taught. He started working for a shop when he was just 12 years of age at 4 Dollars a month remuneration. He was expected to clean the lanterns and the wicks used in these old and decorative lanterns. He worked so passionately on his job and wanted to be the best lantern cleaner in the city. His vision to be the best in the market was taking roots at this young age. He worked in this shop from early morning to late night. Impressed by his commitment and his impeccable workmanship, his boss doubled his remuneration in just a month. The character to excel in whatever you do started taking shape in the young Saunders. He then changed many workplaces, each time gaining not just the experience but also increased remuneration. Even as he was working so very hard, he found time to read books, particularly literature and had up made up his mind to be self-taught. He also learnt maths – arithmetic - which he thought was important to succeed in life. This would serve him well in his career. At age 14, Saunders started working part time in a grocery store.

Armed with his experience of working in a retail store, Saunders soon found a job in a whole sale market at age 19. In 1904, at 23, he moved to Memphis and landed up with a good job in Shanks Philips and Company as a salesman in the whole sale market at 85 Dollars a month. All through this period he had continued to be self-taught including taking keen interest in literature and poetry. His love for books drew him closer to be his wife – Caroline Amie Walker who he married on 6 October 1903. His wife too loved books, particularly poetry. He wrote poetry for his wife. In just two years of his joining Shanks Philips and Company, his salary was increased to 125 Dollars a month. This gave him space to improve his living life style and provided space and time for his entrepreneurial ambitions. While serving in this company he made fair number of notes and observations on how the retail stores work. He had also established good rapport with many of the retail stores. In fact, he had motivated an organised movement of the retailers who had collectively formed a store with all their stakes in this store.

Having made a name for himself as an expert grocery wholesaler, Saunders decided to embark on a plan of revolutionizing the grocery store - common supermarket. He believed that there must be a better way to serve the customers. He therefore, envisaged removing unnecessary material handling boys – clerks - creating elaborate aisle displays and rearranging the store to force customers to view all of the merchandise. His experience and innovative mind helped him found a new revolutionary concept, of self-service shopping in retail market. All these features were some of the characteristics of Saunders’ Piggly Wiggly stores, which was opened on this very day, 6 September, 1916.  It became   a ground-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. Though the Piggly Wiggly Store was in complete variance from its competitors, the style became the standard for the modern supermarket, and in 1922, just six years after it was opened, Piggly Wiggly had grown into 1,200 stores in 29 states.

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 six 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 first Piggly Wiggly in 1916 had 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. He went through bad times in his business including losing his Piggly Wiggly and starting new ventures, which initially succeeded but later failed.  Having built and lost two major fortunes, Saunders died on October 15, 1953. Leaving behind a legacy which will remain etched in the annals of history and he will be remembered as the man who brought the retail store into the twentieth century.

On this day which happens to be the 106^th anniversary of the first super market – Piggly Wiggly, we must remember that we go to a supermarket, we must spare a thought for Clarence Saunders innovation, which made these self-service markets possible. 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 and today when we are celebrating our seventy five years of our independence – Azadi Ka Amrut Mohotsav – it is time for us to invest more in the field of science, technology and innovation as we aim towards becoming the second largest economy of the world much before the targeted year, 2047.

———————————-+++++++++++++++—————-

 

Ganesh Festival, Mumbai: A Religious - Cultural Saga that Exemplifies the Cosmopolitan nature of the City.

 

Ganesh Festival, Mumbai: A Religious - Cultural Saga that Exemplifies the Cosmopolitan nature of the City. 

After two-years of COVID pandemic restrictions, the Ganesh Festival (Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav) - the socio cultural, religio-spiritual tradition, celebrated with great fervour across Mumbai and Maharashtra, the history of which goes back to the late 19 the century that has subsequently spread to most other parts of India – a ten-day mega festival will be celebrated without any restrictions or limitations in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. The Ganesh Festival is celebrated by the devotees of Lord Ganesh, the god of wisdom and good fortune, to mark “his birth” during the Chaturthi Tithi of Shukla Paksha of Bhadrapada month (August or September). This year, the Ganesh Chaturthi has fallen today - August 31, Wednesday. Accordingly, the Ganesh Visarjan will take place on Anant Chaturdashi, September 9, Friday. Ganesh Chaturthi is also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi and is celebrated with much enthusiasm across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Kerala, among other states.

The announcement of the decision to remove all the restrictions in organising the Ganesh Festival this year had motived the organisers of the Ganapati Pandals (Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav) to make a beeline at the BMC seeking approval for their respective mandals for organising the Ganesh festival. The Mumbaikars, who could not celebrate their favourite Ganapati Bappa festival in the last two years, in that quintessential manner that Mumbai is known to celebrate this festival, are eagerly waiting to celebrate this year’s Ganesh festival with great religious fervour and fanfare. The organisers of the Sarvajanik Ganapati Mandals in Mumbai are once again vying with each other to bring out their creative best in attracting as many devotees as possible to their respective Pandals. Approximately some 3490 applications were received by BMC for the erection of Ganpati Pandals this year, and 2284 mandals have been given permission. This almost matches to the pre pandemic level when in 2019, BMC had received 3723 applications out of which 2483 pandals were approved for erection.

This year’s Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival has a special significance since it owes its genesis to Indian independence and this year marks the completion of seventy-five years of our independence – Azadi Ka Amrut Mohotsav. Therefore, it is apt to recall how the Ganesh Festival began to be celebrated as a community festival owing its genesis to the freedom struggle. The Sarvajanik Ganesh festivals have played their role in freedom movement by uniting all sections of the Hindu society to gather under one platform as devotees of Lord Ganesh and to seek his blessings for a free India. The Genesis for the celebration of the Ganesh Festival in public goes back to the nineteenth century – 1893 to be precise.

The first battle of Indian independence fought in 1857, which the British had dubbed as the Sepoy Mutiny, had given an impetus for the freedom movement in India. A communal flare up between the Hindus and Muslims in 1870 and the fear that it can adversely affect their governance, the British Government in the year 1892 imposed a ban on any gathering of native Indians more than 20 in number. This had made it difficult for the nationalist leaders and reformers to address any gathering and create any socio- political awareness. The ban however, allowed only the public gatherings in form of ​Namaj or Muharram ​taboots procession by the Muslim community, who are known for offering of their prayers in public. The British were clever not to hurt the religious sentiments of their subjects, more so Indians who are largely religious.

The use of public gatherings to create an awareness in the society was first used by the social reformer, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. He founded Satyashodhak Samaj (a society of truth seekers) under whose auspices he encouraged public gatherings - called Jalsas. These Jalsa’s had proven to be an effective medium to take socio- political messages to all cadres of society. Realising how adversely the 1892 ban was impacting the public gathering and how impartial the ban was towards the Hindus, Bal Gangadhar Tilak conceived an innovative idea to bring Lord Ganesh out of individual homes and onto the public space. Moreover, Tilak needed a platform where he could bring together all the Hindus, who were a fragmented society divided on the caste lines - this division was encouraged by the British who believed in the policy of divide and rule.

Tilak was aware that Lord Ganesh was a God of the masses in Pune and Maharashtra and that Lord Ganesh was worshipped by all sections of the Hindu community. The city of Pune, from where the movement for Sarvajanik Ganesh festival started, was ruled by the Peshwas who served as the Prime Ministers to the Maratha kings.  Peshwas worshipped Ganesh as their kul devta and therefore it is no wonder that Poona is surrounded by Eight Temples of Ganesh - Astha Vinayak. Incidentally even today the Ashtavinayak Yatra or pilgrimage covers the eight ancient holy temples of Ganesh which are situated around Pune. Each of these temples has its own individual legend and history, which is distinct from each other.

The history of the annual worshipping of Ganesh - by consecrating the statue of lord Ganesh and offering Pooja in individual houses - actually dates back to at least 16th century in Maharashtra. However, the Ganesh Festival was mostly observed in the aristocratic individual households of the Peshwas - the Prime Ministers in the Maratha regime, who were also responsible for making Ganesh the God of the masses.

In 1892, the year when the British imposed a ban on public gathering, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wanted to defy this order but lawfully. He knew how intricately Lord Ganesh is connected with the people of the region. Tilak conceived of an idea to bring Lord Ganesh out of the individual royal households and onto the public space to channelise, unite and ignite a divided Hindu society for a larger national sentiment against the oppressive British rule. Incidentally, this movement also helped lord Ganesh to become Lord Ganapati, the God of the masses. Bal Gangadhar Tilak had commissioned two newspapers, Kesari, in Marathi and Mahratta in English, which were published from Kesari Wada, Pune. Tilak used the loop hole in the 1892 ban imposed by the British, which exempted the Muslims from their Friday prayers, to appeal to his readers to start the Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival. He was sure that this being a religious festival the British would be afraid to ban it. More so since the British had permitted the Friday prayers of the Muslims. Tilak used his Kesari Marathi paper to drive home this message among the Hindu community and he appealed to the people to organise community Ganesh Festival.

This was a well thought out decision. Tilak knew how religious the Indian society was. He was therefore sure that the British, who were successfully managing to crush the freedom movement, particularly gathering of large number of people on the streets with that inhuman and barbaric force that is associated with the colonial rule in India, would not succeed in disrupting a religious gathering of people. He knew that the call for the Sarvajanik Ganesh Festival would serve two purpose, first it would unite the divided Hindu community under single platform and second the platform could be used in strengthening the freedom movement by creating a sense of cultural unity among the people. The Ganesh festival provided the much needed impetus for the freedom struggle and ever since the Ganesh Festival has come on to the public space in Mumbai and Maharashtra and has also spread across different cities and towns in India. The Ganesh Festival, particularly in Mumbai, connects to people of all faith and is considered more a cultural worship space. One can witness this across different section of society in Mumbai, which I am privy to for several years.

The first Public Ganesh Mandal - Keshavji Naik Chawl Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal at Girgaum - in Bombay, as it was known then, was commissioned in 1893 and ever since the Ganeshotsav Mandal in Girgaum has been celebrating this auspicious Ganesh festival in the same traditional way each year. Lord Ganesh, the moorti of the elephant god, comes in varying sizes and in different shapes and styles, which depend on where the lord is commissioned for the worship. The Girgaum Ganesh pandal does not use loudspeakers nor expensive lights, or any of the modern day style pooja traditions, which are observed in most of the Ganesh Pooja pandals across Mumbai and other cities in the country. The Keshavji Naik Chawl Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal in Girgaum has continued this tradition for over a century now.  However, there are other public Ganesh Pandals, across the city including the famous Lalbaug ka Raja and so also in various other cities in India - Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad etc.- which celebrate the Ganesh Pooja and the festival with modern day fanfare with DJs and lights and sound and crackers and what have you. This year all this will be back to its peal in Mumbai and Maharashtra, owing to the removal of Covid restrictions. 

Post-independence, the festival has undergone a change and during these 10 days of celebration, the economic activity gets accentuated leading to increased employment, income and production of variety of goods and services. In that sense the Ganesh Utsav has become a ‘cultural product’ of the city, which has great economic and market value. Today, the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav is one of the most celebrated festivals of Mumbai. One of the primary reason for the success of the auspicious Ganesh Festival in Mumbai is the Mumbaikars - 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, the believers and non-believers, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, the religious and non-religious, young, middle aged, old and the very old. That undying spirit of unity in diversity in India gets exemplarily played out during this festival in Mumbai.

The Ganesh Festival in Mumbai has now become a ‘cultural product’ that has large economic impact. It includes goods and services bought for reasons other than those that are used purely for the utilitarian purposes as envisaged by Abraham Maslow. Interestingly, festivals such as the Ganesh Festival in Mumbai, are among the fastest developing cultural events in the world. Currently, festivals are treated as an important element in promotion of cities and regions which attract tourists and encourage them to spend their money. In that sense we must all encourage celebration of the Ganesh Festival, which besides being spiritual and religious in nature it also serves as a catalyst for the economy and job creation. The economic imprint of the Ganesh Festival is evidenced in a study conducted by ASSOCHAM (2015). The study revealed that the annual revenue from Ganesh festival was around Rs. 20,000 crores in the year 2015, growing annually at CAGR of 30%. The GSB ​Seva Mandal​, known to be the richest Mandal in Mumbai, sought an insurance coverage of Rs 300 crores in the year 2018 for their Pandal, which further evidences the market value of the festival.

According to the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshutsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), a Ganesh Mandal coordination committee in the city, a single major Ganesh Mandal normally spends about 3 crore rupees for the 10-day spectacle. An estimated fifteen to twenty lakh visitors visit a single idol, ​Lalbaugcha Raja, ​ over ten days, with as many as five lakh visitors on a single day, contributing about 25 crore rupees in cash as their offerings, while a similar amount is also raised by the auction of gold- silver and presents, which are also offered by the devotees to Lord Ganesh. The scale of operations of this 10-day Ganesh Festival event was constantly increasing until Covid played spoilsport, during the last two years. It is so heartening to note that the enthusiasm among the public and also the organisers will ensure that the years lost due to Covid will more than be compensated this year and the years thereafter and that no untoward incident happens.

The economic impact of the Ganesh Festival is also seen in the opportunities of employment and income generation that this festival offers for the Mumbaikars around the ten days of the Festival. The Festival creates demand for the music industry - in terms of composition and productions of devotional music albums. It creates market opportunities for the Gold, silver and gems & jewellery - both for the purpose for offerings to the Lord Ganesh as well as for personal use. The flower and decoration markets experience a much larger turnover during these ten days. The sale from food industry – primarily sweets - increases many more times than regular. The city enjoys higher number of offers for sale and discount from the real estate sector and financial sector. A conservative estimate of all these economic activities are destined to give a push to Mumbai’s economy to the tune of Rs. 25 thousand crores for which owe our reverence to Lord Ganesh.

Whether a sombre pooja or an ostentatious collective celebration, one thing remains central to this Ganesh Festival, which every Mumbaikars and Maharashtrians celebrate - the festival is celebrated with Shradha and Bhakti. This in essence is the very spirit of India - the socio, cultural and spiritual land that is home to most religions of the world. The administration and all other stakeholders, including the public, who ensure that this extraordinary 10 days Ganesh Festival passes of peacefully with the immersions of the Ganesh murthis and the festival becomes a grand success time after time and festival after festival, must be saluted for their efforts to make this grand festival successful.

In the CSMVS Museum campus, where we are currently staying, Mr Sabyasachi Mukherjee, DG, CSMVS, organised a community Ganesh Pooja for the families who are residing in the staff quarters - inside the campus - and we all had the honour to celebrate the Ganesh Festival in a traditional Maharashtrian way with devotional songs and offerings for the Lord of wisdom. Incidentally every year we also celebrate the Ganesh Festival at home, bringing home Lord Ganesh. It was on this Ganesh Chaturthi day in 1958 that my elder son was born and ever since our family has been celebrating the Ganesh Festival brining home Lord Ganesh.   

May Ganapati Bappa bless us all and may he guide this nation to ever increasing heights with peace and prosperity and may the people living in the bottom of the pyramid and all other disadvantaged section of the society continue to be blessed to lead a happy life.

Ganapati Bappa Morya.

Rabindranath Tagore: A Tribute to the Polymath on his 81st Punyatithi

It was on this day - 7th August - in the year 1941, that Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore departed for his heavenly abode at Calcutta (now Kolkata) at the age of 80 years. He was the first Asian and also the first non-white to be conferred with the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature (1913). Rabindranath Tagore was an exemplar polymath whose outstanding contributions in the multitudes of creative endeavours continue to inspire generations. Today, on the occasion of his 81st Punyatithi, while I am writing this tribute and paying my reverence to this great Indian genius polymath - a versatile poet, a par excellence short story writer, great nationalist, novelist, playwright, essayist, artist, rationalist, as well as a talented painter - I am reminded of those last few years of Tagore which preceded his passing away. The later incident relates to a surgery that Tagore underwent, which he was not prepared to. There were different opinions that experts had whether Tagore should or should not undergo the surgery. Tagore himself was averse to the surgery and any allopathic medications and believed more in the traditional Ayurveda and homeopathic medicines. Unfortunately, he went by the advice of his Doctors and Tagore could not survive the surgery and passed away on 7th August 1941. 

 The last four years of Gurudev’s life - 1937 to 41 - were marked by chronic pain, urinary and kidney problems and two long periods of illness, which Tagore had to endear. It all began on 10 September 1937 in Shantiniketan where he collapsed and lost his consciousness due to an attack of ‘erysipelas’. He remained in a state of comatose and near death, for some sixty odd hours. In those days, there was no proper means to send out SOS communication for the medical team to arrive from Calcutta (now Kolkatta). Therefore, Tagore remained in a state of Comatose at Shantiniketan until the arrival of the medical team from Calcutta and their effective medical treatment. Miraculously, Tagore started responding to the medication and regained his consciousness fully on 15th September. The creative genius that Gurudev was, who had fallen in love with painting in his sixties - the last of his creative contributions - as soon as he regained full consciousness on 15 September, the indefatigable Gurudev asked for a brush and colours. Notwithstanding the fact that he had just recovered from his painful ailment, Tagore started painting a landscape on a piece of plywood. The result was “a dark wood with streaks of yellow light breaking through its gloom,”. This was one of his many remarkable paintings all of which are now classified as national treasures. Ten days later, 25 September, he wrote the first poem of a series of eighteen poems, which he scripted on life and death, dying and after death. These poems were published under the title ‘Prantik’. 

 In just three years, September, 15, 1940, while in Kalimpong, Tagore once again faced another attack and he complained of pain in his bladder. He was unable to pass his urine and suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed. He was rushed back to his Jorasanko house in Calcutta. With dutiful attendants attending to Gurudev in the presence of his near and dear ones and under the supervision of Nilratan Sarkar and Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, Tagore was soon on the path to recovery. But then he continued to suffer from his urinary problems and prostate issues, which aggravated. On 16 July 1941 Doctors advised him to go for a surgery. Tagore preferred homeopathic and Ayurvedic medications and he was against allopathic treatment and that included the surgery, which he was advised to undergo by his Doctors including by Dr BC Roy. Tagore had great faith in Dr BC Roy, who incidentally is also responsible for the establishment of the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, the mother museum, which later gave birth to the NCSM an organisation with which I was associated for 35 long years. 

 Dr BC Roy was considered as one of the greatest of Doctors of his time and incidentally even today his birthday, 1st July, is commemorated as the National Doctors day in India. On his advice a makeshift operation theatre was created at Jorasanko Thakurbari and Tagore, against his own wishes, was asked to undergo surgery. Although most Doctors, including Dr BC Roy had decided that operation is the only solution to Tagore’s ailments, there was another famous Doctor, Nilaratan Sarkar, who had a different opinion. Dr Sarkar was of the opinion that due to his old age, Tagore will not be able to withstand the operation. Dr Sarkar and Dr BC Roy, it is said, argued bitterly and even had fight on this issue. But then sadly the opinion of Dr BC Roy and those who supported him prevailed. 

Dr Lalitkumar Bandopadhyay was tasked to perform the operation on Tagore on 25 July, 1941 at the make shift operation theatre which was created at the residence of Tagore. Dr Bandopadhyay was assisted by Dr Satysakha Maitra and Dr Amiya Sen. The operation for ‘suprapubic cystostomy’ was carried out by the Doctors, who inserted a drainage tube into the urinary bladder of Tagore to help him drain his bladder via the urethra. Unfortunately, after the operation, Tagore complained of a burning sensation, and fell unconscious. His condition continued to deteriorate even while he was unconscious. His kidneys stopped functioning on August 4 and he was kept on medical support with saline and oxygen administered extraneously. His condition could not improve, despite the best of efforts from the team of Doctors who were attending to Tagore. Finally, on the night of August 6, his condition worsened and Doctors gave up all their hopes and Rabindranath Tagore was declared dead on 7 August, 1941. 

Today when we are observing the 81st Punyatithi of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, I am happy to share a tribute, which I had written for Tagore on his birthday in 2020 on my blog whose link is appended for those interested.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2020/05/rabindrnaath-tagore-tribute-to-polymath.html

Jai Ho Long live Tagore. 

Images : Courtesy Wikipedia and NGMA Mumbai.

Kargil Vijay Diwas, Screening of Saga of a Brave Heart and NGMA Bengaluru – My Connect.

 

 

Kargil Vijay Diwas, Saga of a Brave Heart and NGMA, Bengaluru resonate with yours truly and therefore it was a pleasant surprise to receive an e invite for the celebration of the Kargil Vijay Diwas - which included screening the Saga of a Brave Heart Documentary, from NGMA Bengaluru.  Speaking of Kargil Vijay Diwas, commemorated to celebrate the Indian victory over our enemy, Pakistan, it reminds me of the exemplary courage shown by the Indian Armed Forces, which included my one year senior Ajeet, at the Sainik School Bijapur, Colonel M B Ravindranath, Vir Chakra, under whose command Indian Armed forces achieved their path breaking success of capturing the Tololing peak. Here is a link to the blog which I had written on Kargil Vijay Diwas last year, as my respect and tribute to Col M B Ravindranth and about the extraordinary valour, which the Indian Army exemplified while winning the Kargil battle.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2021/07/kargil-vijay-diwas-remembering-col-m-b.html

My second connect is with the Saga of the Brave Heart. And this saga, so beautifully and passionately scripted and published as a book by our dear Bhabhi ji, Smt Shakuntala Bhandarkar, the Veer Nari and the exemplary wife of Late Lt Col. Ajit Bhandarkar, Shaurya Chakra (Posthumous), relates to my class buddy Lr Col Ajit Bhandarkar, who made that supreme sacrifice in service of his nation. Ajit was my class buddy at the Sainik School with whom my class mates and I spent seven long years at the residential Sainik School Bijapur during the most impressionable age - 9 years to 16 years. All of us, the classmates of Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar, had joined hands to create a memorial in honour of our dear buddy and that memorial now stands tall as Ajit Dwar at Sainik School Bijapur. Here is the link to the Blog and a tribute which I had paid to our dear class buddy Lt Col Ajit Bhandarkar.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2019/10/lt-col-ajit-bhandarkar-25-rr-to-brave.html

 The Third connect relates to NGMA Bengaluru, which is celebrating the Kargil Vijay Diwas by organising three days’ event (29-31^st July) at the NGMA. I had the honour to head NGMA Bengaluru - as the Director of NGMA Bengaluru – for four months from October 2011 to January 2012. This was an additional duty which I had the honour to shoulder over and above my main responsibility of Director Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bengaluru.  Although my association with NGMA was very brief, I had fallen in love with that extraordinary creative ambience of the Manikyavelu Mansion which is now home to NGMA, Bengaluru. I have therefore requested my classmates in Bengaluru to use this opportunity to visit NGMA Bengaluru to witness the screening of the Saga of the Brave Heart in the beautiful auditorium of NGMA.  

 

Manikyavelu Mansion, which now houses NGMA Bengaluru, has an interesting history which dates back to many years before the foundation for the NGMA was laid some times in 2001. This beautiful building - Manikyavelu Mansion – which exhibits a rich, vibrant and an extravagant Victorian-style bungalow belonged to the royal dynasty of the Wodeyars -  the Mysuru Wadiyars. In the 1920s this beautiful mansion was bought by a mining baron, Raja Manickyavelu Mudaliar, from the Mysuru Wadiyars. When Manickyavelu Mudaliar died in 1939 this white mansion was inherited by his son. The junior Mudaliar was not as successful businessman as his illustrious father -  Manickyavelu Mudaliar, and therefore this mansion was put under auction due to financial problems in 1964. This building was then acquired by the City Improvement Trust Board (Bengaluru Development Authority) and was transferred to the Housing Board in late 1960s. This mansion and the beautiful complex in which it is situated was used - in the 1970s and 80s - to house the UN’s Asian and Pacific Regional Centre for Transfer of Technology. Subsequently, this building remained unused and unfortunately with passage of time the condition of this beautiful mansion started deteriorating.

 

The deteriorating conditions of this beautiful white mansion, located in the green ambience of 3.5-acre campus, came to the notice of art lovers of Bengaluru and rest what they say is history. Courtesy the efforts of many of the stalwart art lovers of the city and so also the government of India, Ministry of Culture – Late Ananth Kumar, Ms. Maneka Gandhi, K.N. Srivastava, Chiranjeev Singh and others -  that this magnificent building was restored for housing the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), which was opened in the year 2009. Architect Naresh Narasimhan was assigned the task of redesigning Manikyavelu Mansion to house the NGMA Bengaluru. The grandeur to which this building has been restored to house the NGMA Bengaluru can be seen when one visits this magnificent campus. NGMA Bengaluru stands testimony and demonstrates how a heritage building can be effectively reused to create the best of public cultural spaces in the city. A new annexe building was added in the same style as the white mansion to create the requisite additional space for the NGMA. The NGMA campus now boasts of the best of the greenery in the garden city of Bengaluru, interspersed with some exquisite art pieces and sculptures in the garden that is flanked by old trees, a beautiful open air cafeteria, water body and a lovely auditorium, where the Saga of the Brave Heart documentary will be screened tomorrow – 31^st July. During my brief stay at NGMA Bengaluru, I had the honour to host three exhibitions and many outreach educational programmes including film shows. I also had the honour to unfurl the national flag on the Republic Day in 2013. 

I take this opportunity to appeal to my school buddies and other friends in Bengaluru to please join NGMA Bengaluru in the celebrations of Kargil Vijay Diwas and witness the Saga of the Brave Heart documentary tomorrow.

Jai Hind and Jai Hind Ki Sena

 

Tribute to our Guru, the nonagenarian, Shri G D Kale Sir.

The day started with an extremely sad news - received in our Sainik School Batch group - that our beloved Guru, the nonagenarian, Shri G D Kale Sir, aged 91, had breathed his last, this morning around 10 AM. For all Ajeets – the students of the Sainik School Bijapur, where Kale Sir served as a teacher- Shri Kale Sir has always been that quintessential ‘Guru’, whose significance has been defined in that age old Sanskrit hymn; “Acharya Devo Bhava”. In the Indian traditions, the Guru (teacher) is equated with God and is placed on that same high pedestal, which is reverentially reserved for the Gods/goddesses in the Indian society. Kale Sir was that Guru, described in those times less Sanskrit scriptures, for all of us - the Ajeets – spanning all batches (1963-2022). He remained connected to every single Ajeet who studied and passed out from the Sainik School Bijapur, until his last breath. For every single Ajeet, Shri Kale Sir resonates with all those Gurus - Dronacharya, Kripacharya or Vashisth - who have been immortalised in our age old scriptures and so will he be for all of us and the entire Ajeets family. 

 He was a moving encyclopaedia, a computer in true sense, who strived all through his nine decades of his enduring life to create and continue to update an encyclopaedic data base of all the Ajeets, tracing them with their roll numbers, batch, year of passing out, date of birth, their current postings and many more data related to each and every Ajeet. He would call up most Ajeets and commandingly address each of them by their first name and most importantly with our roll numbers. He would make it a point to trace every single Ajeet and update their whereabouts in a database which he would share with respective batches.

 The Ajeets Alumni Association ( AAA) and the website of the Sainik School Bijapur alumni - www.ajeets.org which has connected all Ajeets, cutting across continents, owes its Genesis to our beloved Guru, who was befittingly felicitated during the Diamond Jubilee of our SSBJ at the hands of the Honourable President of India, late Pranab Mukherjee. Today every single groups of Ajeets - which are more than fifty for sure - have poured out their emotions and tributes to our beloved Guru and there was one point which was constant in remembrance of our Guru. Almost every one of the Ajeets had received a call from him which ensured that, even today, the Ajeets, stood up speaking to him on phone, such was the respect and reverence that he commanded from all of us all through his life. May 14, 2022, was the last major events of Ajeets - the Ajeets Knowledge Forum event - which Kale Sir attended. 

 I join the entire Ajeet fraternity in praying for the noble soul of our beloved Guru, father figure to all of us ( grand father to the youngsters) to rest in peace in the heavenly abode which is now home to him and May he continue to bless us all. Kale Sir and his memory and his unparalleled service to the Sainik School, Bijapur and to the AJEET Alumni Association will remain eternally etched in golden letters in the annals of the history of SSBJ. Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain.

Role of Education and Information Technology in India’s Economic Development: A talk by Dr Lalit Kanodia under the auspices of Ajeet Knowledge Forum

 

The Ajeet Knowledge Forum (AKF), one of the verticals under the Ajeet Alumni Association (AAA)– a formal association of the Alumni of Sainik School Bijapur, will be hosting its sixth talk, which will be delivered by one of the founding fathers of IT industry in India Dr Lalit Kanodia, the founder of Datamatics and so also the founder CEO of Tata Communication Services (TCS) on 11th June, Saturday, 2022, at 6 PM. He will be speaking on a subject entitled “Role of Education and Information Technology in India’s Economic Development”. This is for the first time that this talk will now be open to everyone, unlike on earlier occasions when the talks under the AKF were mostly confined to the members and family of the AAA. I am happy to share the link to the You Tube where it will be live webcast and also a link for registration to the talk for those who may be interested.

The Ajeet Alumni Association (AAA) is a formal association of the alumni of Sainik School Bijapur (SSBJ). AAA is being majorly transformed and getting institutionalized by our senior Ajeets led by the untiring and indefatigable Dr Ashok Dalwai, IAS, with support from Mr Gopal Hosur, IPS, the President of AAA, senior mentors that include among others the first School Captain of SSBJ, Colonel BGV Kumar, Captain Gopinath - the founder of Deccan Airways - and many other serving and retired Generals, admirals and air vice Marshals and so also other Military officers and many more fellow civilian Ajeets from across the country and abroad. True to the motto of SSBJ : Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain – and so also its objective of preparing the boys academically, physically and mentally for entry into the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla (Pune) and also to be the leaders in other walks of life, SSBJ has produced the best of military officers and has prepared us to be the leaders in many different areas – Civil Service, engineering, medicine, entrepreneurship, legal, social service, political service, sports etc. The office bearers of AAA, senior Ajeet mentors and all the Ajeets, have now come together and are brain storming to contribute to the society in the nation building and one of the forums through which AAA is aiming to connect Ajeets and their families (and others) with the knowledge society - in which we live today - is to bring them face to face with the best of nation builders in different walks of life through the AKF platform.

 
 Under the umbrella of AAA, different chapters and forums have been constituted and one such forum is the Ajeet Knowledge Forum (AKF). The AKF was launched in August 2021 with the opening online talk by one of our legendary Ajeets – Captain Gopinath, who spoke with passion and emotion about his life journey from his school days in Sainik School Bijapur to his joining the National Defence Academy and then getting commissioned into the Indian Army and taking part in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war and then establishing his own Air Ways – Deccan Airways, which revolutionised aviation industry in India. AKF has organised 5 such lectures under its umbrella and the speakers, besides Captain Gopinath, included, Mr Subroto Bagchi, the founder of Mind Tree, eminent scientist, Padma Vibhushan, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Eminent Film Director, Padma Vibhushan, Shyam Benegal, Eminent Oncologist Dr Devi Shetty and Ms Rubi Ahluwalia the cancer survivor and Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma.

 The AKF organizes their session on every second Saturday of the alternate month and the sixth session under the AKF will be organised tomorrow between 6 – 7.45 PM and the speaker for this session is Dr Lalit Kanodia, a well-known industrialist and the founder CEO of Tata Consultancy Services and Datamatics. In this sixth session of the AKF, besides the main speaker – Dr Lalit Kanodia, we will also be having two of our distinguished alumni of SSBJ – Vice Chief of Indian Army Lt Gen. B S Raju, UYSM, AYSM, YSM and Vice Admiral M A Hampiholi AVSM, NM – the two senior serving military officers, who will be addressing the audience and inspiring young Ajeets.

 A brief information on Dr Kanodia is warranted, which I am happy to share in this blog.  Modern world of knowledge society is shaped by some of the most brilliant minds whose discoveries and invention of products and services in digital technology has ushered us into this era which is shaped by information technology led by the technological marvel – Internet. Internet is inextricably woven into the very fabric of our day today lives. Therefore, AKF is privileged to host Mr Lalit Kanodia, one of the key architects of IT in India who founded the Tata Computer Centre, which later grew to become the giant TCS company and Dr Lalit Kanodia becoming its founder CEO. Incidentally, Dr Kanodia has also played a role in Project MAC, a research project of MIT. As a member of the Project MAC, he helped build a Compatible Time-Sharing System and MULTICS (the first two multi-user computer operating systems & pre-cursors to UNIX).

He was one among many brilliant engineers in Project MAC, who laid the foundation for development of remarkable technologies, under the auspices of ARPA and DARPA (Defence Advanced Products Research Agency) founded by JCR Licklider, USA. This project later grew to become the Internet that is driving our connected world today. Dr Kanodia has a brilliant academic record with a graduation from IIT-Bombay in 1963, and masters and doctorate from MIT, USA. 

In 1965, Mr. JRD Tata, the then Chairman of Tata Group was contemplating to start a software company. He chanced upon the CV of Lalit Kanodia, who had returned back to India from US. Impressed by the CV of Kanodia, JRD Tata invited him and tasked him to study the feasibility of computerization within the Tata Group. Lalit Kanodia, after studying the feasibility wrote three Papers for the Tata Group, which led to the automation of the Load Dispatch System of the Tata Electric Companies by Westinghouse, Computerization of the electricity billing system of the company and formation of a software development Centre. He then returned to MIT for his Doctorate, which he completed at the MIT. While in the USA, Dr Kapadia consulted to Arthur D. Little and the Ford Motor Company.

Dr Kanodia was coaxed to return to India to form and head the software development centre for the Tata Group. The result was the formation of a Company called the Tata Computer Centre in 1967, which later grew in Himalayan proportions to become the Tata Consultancy Services and Dr Kanodia became its founding CEO. He handed over the charge of TCS to the legendary F C Kohli.  
Dr. Lalit Kanodia was born March 30, 1941 in Calcutta ( now Kolkata) to Shri Surajmal Kanodia, a bullion merchant and Smt. Chandravati Kanodia, a home maker. His family moved to Bombay ( now Mumbai) in 1942. Although his family was very well to do, unfortunately tragedy struck them and his father was killed in an air crash in 1951. His mother Chandravati Kanodia brought up her children by giving them the best of education and as luck would have it and so also her dedication to educate her children, all her four children including Dr Lalit Kanodia graduated from the prestigious IIT Bombay. Dr Kanodia had a brilliant academic career. He was ranked the Best Student in the entire high school for 3 years. He then studied Science in Elphinstone College, Bombay University for 2 years where too he was ranked at the top of the class. He then joined IIT, Bombay, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. After graduating in 1963, Lalit secured admission to MIT, Cambridge, MA, where completed his MS in Management in 1965 with the highest grade in the graduating class. He was awarded the Ford Foundation Fellowship while at MIT. He returned to MIT in 1966 for his PhD in management, which he completed in 1967.

 Dr Kanodia continues to be a very active Indian Business Entrepreneur. He is befittingly credited to be responsible for creating a Software Industry of India, Dr Kanodia established the Datamatics company in 1975. Datamatics crafted an extraordinary way forward for many Indian IT companies including the BPO industry. Datamatics company started with a modest team of 10 employees, which has now grown to become a very large company with more than 10000 strong employees with its footprints across the globe. In 1979 he set-up the first dedicated offshore development centre for Wang Laboratories. He also established the first satellite link for Software development from India, between its software development centre in Mumbai and AT&T Bell labs USA in 1991. This led to the foundation of BPO services in India and Dr. Kanodia formally started another company "Datamatics Technologies Limited" with 100% focus on BPO and KPO services. The start of BPO services helped Datamatics spread its wing globally and it acquired SAZTEC and CorPay, two US based companies in 1997 and 2003 respectively. Since then, Datamatics has acquired several other companies globally to enhance its offerings and footprints across the globe.

It was the foundation and vision that Dr Kanodia had in the late sixties and early seventies of harvesting the bountiful benefits of IT for Indian companies that led to the revolutionary changes in IT in India whose benefits are evidenced today across the country, particularly in Bangalore, which is now called the Silicon Valley of India. Dr Kanodia is currently the Chairman of Datamatics Group of Companies. As Chief Mentor at Datamatics, Dr. Kanodia drives all innovation, new product development and quality initiatives. His inspirational leadership has led Datamatics to be conferred with various awards over the years, including the Most Innovative Software Product Award, the International Asia Pacific Quality Award and being ranked among the top 50 best-managed outsourcing vendors by ‘The Black Book of Outsourcing’.

Dr Kanodia has also been a teacher. While at MIT, he taught a course on Statistical Decision Theory to MBA students. Later, in India he taught MBA students for 2 years at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Bombay University. Dr Kanodia has held several important positions including the position of National President of the Indo - American Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of the Indian Merchants Chamber. He has also served as President of the Management Consultants Association of India. Today the IT industry has come a long way in India and it accounts for 8% of the Indian GDP and it is poised to increase further. IT sector is the number one employer in India and it accounts for nearly 5 million people who are working in the IT sector in India and for this we owe our reverence to Dr Kanodia and other founding fathers of IT in India.

Those interested in listening to Dr Kanodia the Doyen of IT Industry in India may please like to join the webinar by registering on the link given below or you can see it on the You Tube, whose link is given below.
Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain

https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_ajKs0au8SIqu3JfplD412Q
 
https://youtu.be/Z-0wgkNPrp0
 

World Environment Day - Only One Earth.

 

Today as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the ''World Environment Day', with the campaign 'Only One Earth', it is time for us to remind ourselves of what the father of our nation - Mahatma Gandhi - famously said 'the earth has enough resources for our need, but not for our greed'.

In the unending expanse of our ever expanding universe, which harbours billions and billions of galaxies, including our very own Milky Way Galaxy, and each galaxy birthing billions of stars that include our very own life giving and life sustaining star - the Sun - which is just one among those billions of stars that make up our 'Akash Ganga' galaxy, our Sun, as we know it today, is perhaps the only known star in the universe, which cradles our life sustaining planet Earth, where life in its myriad forms and unending diversity has evolved on our pale blue planet.

Speaking of the uniqueness of our planet, on this world environment day, we are reminded of that famous book with that poetic out look for our earth - 'Pale Blue Dot' book - written by Carl Sagan. This book was inspired by a pale blue dot image taken, at Sagan's suggestion, by Voyager 1 on 14 February 1990. The book reveals the uniqueness of our planet in those inimitable words of Sagan " Pale Blue Dot" and it makes a fascinating reading. It stresses the importance of campaign theme for the World Environment Day.
'Only One Earth'. It also reminds us all for a collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet.

Image Credit - Wiki Commons

Let us all join hands to achieve this.
Wishing you all a very happy world environment day.