Prasthutha is a student organization of The Indian Institue of Science, which, I have proudly been associated with, during those two golden years back in IISc. Our catch line was "Relevant thoughts for responsible people". How relevant the thoughts were, and how responsible the people were, shouldnt be judged by how procrastinating I am. The aim of this organization when Rama and Nagesh came up with it, I am told, was to educate the young budding engineers about the current affairs and the Indian culture- minus the media-reinforced spin. Of course, you might argue researchers do not have time for all this... but seriously I only quit drinking tea for the umpteenth time- spent at most 20 mins/ day on average (and if you cant spare that much time from your research and still havent won a nobel prize, I say go find another job).
(In picture: a happy Prasthutha core group)Prasthutha strived to bring in the experts on a particular subject to the researchers in IISc and present them with a chance and perspective to interact with the experts in the field. Praharshini is a cultural sister organization, which brings out programs on arts, yoga et al. Prasthutha also engages itself in organizing educational programmes/ quiz etc for the children of the employees of IISc and in Bangalore in general.
The way I see it, you cant be ONLY good at science, you have a social responsibility and that is precisely what struck me when "Leadru" (a friend, philosopher and guide.... ah, also my senior lab mate) introduced me to the gang (ue? ;) . I met a lot of people in Prasthutha- Ravi, Suresh (Leadru), Kow-boy, P J, and a host of others. We would invite dignitaries to speak on a wide range of topics and share the duties for accomplishing this among us. That in itself was fun. I remeber having been associated with the talks from Elst, Rajeev Srinivasan, Michel Danino et al.
Prathutha members were primarily PhD/ ME students and hence the link is critical. ME students leave in 2 years (of which the 1st year is ultra-grilling) and hence you effectively get just one year to be involved. Of late I have been informed that the membership in Prasthutha is on a slow decline. This indloent attitude of which I am no stranger to, is not healthy for us. For all you know it is more important to be aware of your Government, your Country and your Culture than most research work you can carry out in your lietime. This is my view and any clarifications will be meted out at request. {sarcastic} I agree people need not be aware of their culture to be truly patriotic. That, they can burn the flag of their country and still be patriotic. That, they can align with the enemies of their country and still be patriotic. or even worse, call siachen glacier a barren land unworthy of protection and still be a PM of our country and get to "Discover(y of) India"{sarcastic}
I have always been of the opinion that it is your duty to be a good citizen, that one must strive beyond his normal obligations towards one's society- of course to which most have been opposed to- with this argument that beyond your fixing the 4 bolts and nuts as an engineer and casti(gati)ng a vote to the local candidate and paying (or avoiding) taxes, you are not expected to be overtly a part of society to be a good citizen. I say, if this is so, you stand no right to be hypercritical of the lack of economic growth/ corruption or any of your other cribs in life. Criticizm, when delivered from an arm-chair has that much less worth than when associated with some responsibility/awareness. Speaking for India, our strength is our human resource. Awareness and aggressive involvement in our society is our backbone to development. And that is the "responsible" and its need in: "Relevant thoughts for responsible people". (I will elaborate on "relevant" sometime later). (Kindly also refer to another incomplete set: here)
Coming back to Prasthutha, when I left IISc, many of the ME students graduated with me and most PhD students were going out too. We feared for the fate of our organization. But with so many new and enthusiastic people coming over to the mainstage, our fears were allayed. My communications with the people back in IISc and in Prasthutha, enforces my view that good engineers/researchers can be responsible people of a society too. I was pretty tentative how much we could do to Prasthutha after we left IISc. But definitely dedication to a cause knows no boundaries of space and to an extent, time limitations. The aluminus constantly interact through email/groups. A few of us who can contribute financially do it to the best of our abilities and a few of us back in India also do the groundwork, the GIVE2 stage I mentioned in one of my previous post. In picture is Ravi and Shetty with a happy crowd of students/ teachers in a remote village in Chickmagalur in Karnataka.
(In Picture: Pradeep Shetty and Ravi in their GIVE2 stage)For me, this one picture marks the culmination* of my association with Prasthutha, something that gives me confidence and motivation in the relevance of being responsible itself in the first place, and a result to your thoughts, (which for me mostly gets confined to my mind itself). It indicates two things-
1. No matter who you are, you can be responsible and have the right attitude/ dedication to your society
2. There is more joy and pride in being involved in something practical than all the noble ideas you came up with that never saw a world out of paper/ mind.
My life has definitely changed by my association with Prasthutha- for the better.
PS: Prasthutha programmes have listings/ transcripts/ audio/ video of programmes on its website. Kindly do go through them and if you are interested in joining us or even arguing with us please let me know.
*Culmination, as in fruit-bearing. I am in no way parting ways- in fact, am looking for more such ventures which will ultimately materialize into something good.
2 comments:
K Boy, good post.
nice one
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