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Sanskrit is ‘cool'

Generation Y is finding new ways of reaching for its roots, reports Vishnupriya Bhandaram

On weekends, Saarathi is found chilling out at a pub but on weekdays, she's busy learning Sanskrit. Why Sanskrit, one might ask? She says, “For fun. Sanskrit is probably one of the oldest languages; it's a work of art and should be propagated. It would be a shame to let it fade without even a yelp, like Hebrew!” Young guns these days are tuning into Sanskrit. And scoring marks in the exams doesn't seem to be the only incentive to opt for this language.

Tattoo enthusiasts across the town are also sporting Sanskrit words. Joysen, a tattoo artist from the city, explains that the past two years have seen a growing number of people wanting to stamp a ‘bit of culture' onto themselves. He says that the next generation is resorting to chanting slokas, and their favourites hymns are the Gayatri mantra or Mahamrityunjaya mantra that express inner power. Vikram, also a tattoo artist, says that some couples get tattooed with their partners' names in the Swastika font. There are certainly wannabes who are drawn to this language because they feel like they are doing something different or because it might make them ‘cool'. But most of the people who are learning Sanskrit are doing it as a way to reconnect with their culture and heritage.

Kaushik Vaideeswaran, an engineering graduate, says, “I used to learn Sanskrit during school, but over the years other things took priority. I want to get back to learning Sanskrit now. It's a direct connection with my origins and it's one language with a brilliant sound to it, so why not?” He adds that Sanskrit is a part of Indian culture that has not been adulterated by anything else. He finds it helps him appreciate literature that he usually reads in translation, and a great deal is lost in translation. Sanskrit deserves to be propagated, he feels, but not forced on us.

In tune with this new-found demand, schools are emerging across most cities and towns in the country to teach Sanskrit. Samskrita Bharathi, started in 1981 at Bangalore, now has a branch in Hyderabad. Shubha from the institution says, “We conduct basic classes in spoken Sanskrit and we have seen a growing response from the younger generation, with many college students and software engineers taking these language classes, especially in the conversational style.”

Akarsh Simha, currently studying in the University of Texas, says, “I think learning Sanskrit made it easy for me to understand a whole host of Indian languages and even some foreign languages (I learned German after learning Sanskrit, and could draw so many parallels), since many words and grammatical structures are common.

Sanskrit is probably one of the most structured languages, and that makes learning many present-day languages so much easier.” “I think there is still unexplored literature in Sanskrit,” he adds.

“I mostly refer to literature pertaining to the Sanaatana tradition or Hinduism. Besides, I feel that my understanding of religious or spiritual texts is largely enriched by my knowledge of Sanskrit.”

Even if Sanskrit is still not considered as hep or stylish as French or German, the trend is definitely catching on. The Sanskrit news on All India Radio might just have new listeners!

My Teacher, the man who knew Ramanujan

What a great man!  What a great life!!

http://www.pksrinivasan.com/

Indian American to lead MIT's largest department

WASHINGTON: Indian American Anantha P Chandrakasan has been named the new leader of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) largest academic department

Chandrakasan, the Joseph F and Nancy P Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering, has been named the next head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Cambridge, Massachusetts-based MIT announced Monday.

He will assume the new role beginning July 1. Chandrakasan will take over the role previously held by Eric Grimson, who was named MIT's chancellor in February.

EECS is the largest academic department at MIT; nearly 30 percent of undergraduates major in the department's programmes.

"As the largest academic department in the School of Engineering, and at MIT, EECS and its faculty are involved in an exceptional range of intellectual, educational, and research activities," School of Engineering Dean Ian Waitz said in an email to the EECS community.

"I welcome the new ideas that Anantha will bring to leading EECS and his dedication as he assumes this role."

Chandrakasan earned his BS (1989), MS (1990) and PhD (1994) in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California at Berkeley; he joined the MIT faculty in 1994.

His research interests include micro-power digital and mixed-signal integrated circuit design, wireless microsensor system design, portable multimedia devices, and energy efficient radios.

As director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL), Chandrakasan and his colleagues have conducted microsystems research in circuits and systems, microelectromechanical systems, electronic and photonic devices, and molecular and nanotechnology. Chandrakasan will step down as MTL's director, a position he has held since 2006.

Chandrakasan and his students have won a range prizes and awards, and he has been honored with the Semiconductor Industry Association University Researcher Award (2009), and election as a Fellow of the IEEE.

He serves as the Conference Chair of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, a position he has held since 2010.

Is your MP underpaid?

by Pritish Nandy, ex MP

I was a MP not very long ago. I loved those six years. Everyone called me sir, not because of my age but because I was a MP. And even though I never travelled anywhere by train during those years, I revelled in the fact that I could have gone anywhere I liked, on any train, first class with a bogey reserved for my family. Whenever I flew, there were always people around to pick up my baggage, not because I was travelling business class but because I was a MP. And yes, whenever I wrote to any Government officer to help someone in need, it was done. No, not because I was a journalist but because I was a MP.
The job had many perquisites, apart from the tax free wage of Rs 4,000. Then the wages were suddenly quadrupled to Rs 16,000, with office expenses of Rs 20,000 and a constituency allowance of Rs 20,000 thrown in. I could borrow interest free money to buy a car, get my petrol paid, make as many free phone calls as I wanted. My home came free. So did the furniture, the electricity, the water, the gardeners, the plants. There were also allowances to wash curtains and sofa covers and a rather funny allowance of Rs 1,000 per day to attend Parliament, which I always thought was a MP's job in the first place! And, O yes, we also got Rs 1 crore a year (now enhanced to Rs 2 crore) to spend on our constituencies. More enterprising MPs enjoyed many more perquisites best left to your imagination. While I was embarrassed being vastly overpaid for the job I was doing, they kept demanding more.

Today, out of 543 MPs in Lok Sabha, 315 are crorepatis. That's 60%. 43 out of the 54 newly elected Rajya Sabha MPs are also millionaires. Their average declared assets are over Rs 25 crore each. That's an awfully wealthy lot of people in whose hands we have vested out destiny. The assets of your average Lok Sabha MP have grown from Rs 1.86 crore in the last house to Rs 5.33 crore. That's 200% more. And, as we all know, not all our MPs are known to always declare all their assets. Much of these exist in a colour not recognised by our tax laws. That's fine, I guess. Being a MP gives you certain immunities, not all of them meant to be discussed in a public forum.

If you think it pays to be in the ruling party, you are dead right: 7 out of 10 MPs from the Congress are crorepatis. The BJP have 5. MPs from some of the smaller parties like SAD, TRS and JD (Secular) are all crorepatis while the NCP, DMK, RLD, BSP, Shiv Sena, National Conference and Samajwadi Party have more crorepatis than the 60% average. Only the CPM and the Trinamool, the two Bengal based parties, don't field crorepatis. The CPM has 1crorepati out of 16 MPs; the Trinamool has 7 out of 19. This shows in the state-wise average. West Bengal and Kerala have few crorepati MPs while Punjab and Delhi have only crorepati MPs and Haryana narrowly misses out on this distinction with one MP, poor guy, who's not a crorepati.

Do MPs become richer in office? Sure they do. Statistics show that the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested last year grew 300%. And, yes, we're only talking about declared assets here. But then, we can't complain. We are the ones who vote for the rich. Over 33% of those with assets above Rs 5 crore won the last elections while 99.5% of those with assets below Rs 10 lakhs lost! Apart from West Bengal and the North East, every other state voted for crorepati MPs. Haryana grabbed first place with its average MP worth Rs 18 crore. Andhra is not far behind at 16.

But no, this is not enough for our MPs. It's not enough that they are rich, infinitely richer than those who they represent, and every term makes them even richer. It's not enough that they openly perpetuate their families in power. It's not enough that all their vulgar indulgences and more are paid for by you and me through back breaking taxes. It's not enough that the number of days they actually work in Parliament are barely 60 in a year. The rest of the time goes in squabbling and ranting. Now they want a 500% pay hike and perquisites quadrupled. The Government, to buy peace, has already agreed to a 300% raise but that's not good enough for our MPs. They want more, much more.

And no, I'm not even mentioning that 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 serious, very serious cases ranging from rape to murder. Do you really think these people deserve to earn 104 times what the average Indian earns?

On World Music Day, Anil Srinivasan argues music is more than an extra-curricular activity. It is the route to holistic child development.

Why children must learn music

When someone mentioned the “World Music Day” celebration on June 21, I was surprised. Surely, everyday is a celebration of the world of music. On further reflection, I realised we need to delve a little deeper into what music does for us; perhaps an occasion such as this could serve to direct our attention to the topic. Einstein famously said that while calculus would have survived without either Newton or Leibniz, the world would not have been the same had Beethoven never lived. He remarked that Beethoven's contribution to human intelligence is irreplaceable. He used the term “intelligence”. This by itself is significant.

Various studies have been conducted on children and adults to understand the development of the musical instinct, and the development of the brain in relation to structural (or pattern) recognition using music. Musical learning (or even heightened musical exposure) certainly impacts rational (or logic-driven), visual-spatial and emotional intelligence. Attention to harmony or harmonic concepts improves memory and conceptual reasoning while rhythm improves motor skills and limbic coordination. I have personally seen the effect listening to mere scales (a combination of notes played in sequence) has on children's reasoning and categorisation skills in unrelated tasks. And yet, music education remains a privilege enjoyed by a discerning few, and music for children remains an overshadowed, underutilised educational tool in our schools and colleges. Where it does exist, the preferences of school administrators for particular musical styles or musicians override the desire or need to evolve structured musical curricula that can contribute towards better education. The implications of this are many. Structured music education at an early age will drastically improve a child's performance across multiple disciplines. Early music education will definitely bring out a better engineer in your child, or a better doctor. Viewed this way, music becomes a vital component of a child's development. No wonder social psychologist Howard Gardner classified musical intelligence as one of the core intelligences.

Maria Montessori, the famed educator and child expert, describes specific exercises, instruments and musical aids to be used in kindergarten. These tools, if used in the classroom, will open up a child's neural pathways to a lifelong interest in learning (our current approach to music education equates “music class” with “skating class” and “craft class”, a phenomenon that is lamentable. Few educators and even fewer parents understand the need for music to bring about a child's holistic development, choosing instead to treat it as yet another extra-curricular activity). In situations where school administrators have instituted mandatory musical education, there seems to be a general and fervent belief that a few songs or devotional melodies probably suffice. This can only be rectified with sustained education. School administrators should undergo training modules on the efficacy of musical excellence and education in early childhood, and school music teachers need to be trained constantly.

At a time when the educational policies and curricular structure for schools is under examination, this is probably a topic that will be under-represented. I believe we are committing a grave mistake in doing so. No successful person in today's India decries early musical training and yet there are issues about its prevalence and quality in various centres for learning. Unless we understand this, celebrating “World Music Day” will remain a tokenism.

The writer is a Chennai-based classical pianist and head of MusicUniv India, a music education venture.

Gemini Ganesan remembered

Narayani Ganesh releases her book on her father

Songs like Lahiri Lahiri and Brindavanamuplaying softly, created the mood for an evening when Gemini Ganesan was remembered at Taj Deccan on Saturday.

Special memories

Narayani Ganesh, a journalist by profession reminisced of her father and how she came to write the book, Eternal Romantic My Father Gemini Ganesan in conversation with Jyotirmaya Sharma. The book was a result of a conversation with Kushwant Singh who pushed and prodded her into filling pages with memories of her father. The process of writing the book was not effortless, but it was spontaneous and helped her understand her father better, she said. She made it clear that her book was not a typical biography but a tribute to her father. She recalled the times when she felt it was impossible to stay angry with her father because he was simple man.

She spoke of how her father would make dosas and toss them into her plate with a smirk. Narayani Ganesh also mentioned that her mother was always there in her ‘mindscape' when she was writing the book which helped her achieve the balance of affection in it.

Narayani went on to read passages from her book, about his childhood and his college days at Madras Christian College. Narayani released the book amidst her close friends and her sisters. Shankar S. Melkote was asked to unveil the book. Akkineni Nageswara Rao, however could not make it to the event due to ill health. Veteran actress, Jamuna made an appearance later in the evening and spoke at length about Gemini Ganesan, co-star in two of his films.

The evening ended on a nostalgic note with a brief screening of Gemini Ganesan's films .

Jai ho, Baba Ramdev-ji!

2G Nexus

For your eyes only!

I'm an average guy!