My Experiments with Village Education in 2024

I had purchased a small piece of land in a village near Bhopal in 2022 with the hope of starting a centre for high school level education there. I didn't do anything there for ~2 years since I was quite unclear about my own career path and was waiting for the fog to clear up. Then in November 2023 I finally decided to start with conducting monthly competitions on high school math for the village kids. 

The first two months saw good participation by around 25 kids but then it dwindled very fast. One Sunday morning when I reached the village, not a single kid turned up because they were all busy harvesting the ripened grains on their fields. It was quite heartbreaking but that's life in a village!

It was clear to me that this monthly competition thing won't work for two reasons. Firstly, the village kids have too many other things going on. And secondly, these kids have no way to actually prepare for such competitions. There are surely a few government and private schools in and around the village but their condition is beyond pathetic. 

Next I started actually teaching them on a weekly basis (Saturday afternoons). I started with a little English and a little Math for students of class 7th and above. I just can't deal with younger kids! To my pleasant surprise, I found a few students to be very smart and able to learn quite fast. But the problem was that they had little motivation to work hard and do homeworks on their own during the week. And I couldn't find anyone there who could be my facilitator during the week. 

I tried to tell the kids that studying English and Math well will get them well paying jobs, but strangely that didn't excite them at all. They had seen many people from their village who studied very hard but ended up at salary levels similar to what uneducated people in the village were earning through farming or other manual work. So the idea of studying hard to earn 6 figure salaries in big companies didn't really resonate with them. It's like the moon that's beautiful but too far out of their mind's reach.

I thought that learning basic Math and Science could perhaps help farmers in earning better but I was wrong there too. Important and relevant scientific advances in the form of agricultural tools and practices are passed on to the farmers by the local government representatives. And they don't really need to know Math beyond counting money. I am happy to be proven wrong here but that's my experience so far. Despite talking to farmers over many months, I haven't been able to find a single reason that can motivate them to learn these concepts beyond what they already know.

The other problem is that in any particular village, there are only a very few students who have this kind of potential to earn well through education. And so the overall atmosphere is not conducive to education. A few lucky ones end up in JNVs or other such govt schools but the rest are left to be regular village folks.

Getting back to my weekly classes, I could see that while only a few students had an interest and talent for Math, a lot of kids were quite interested in learning English. Not because it will get them a job but because it's a cool thing and a kind of a status symbol in India. So I then pivoted to this idea. I started doing various kinds of fun activities and games related to basic English. And that seems to have gotten the kids quite excited! 

I am a huge believer of education in local language but learning English can open many doors for these kids both in terms of further learning and opportunities. I am hoping that more kids will start joining my Saturday English classes in the next few weeks. If you have any ideas on interesting activities and games for these kids, please do share. And if you are in Bhopal and would like to visit my school on a Saturday, please do drop me an email. 

And by the way, my school is called "Under The Mango Tree". :)

The Limbo Lesson

 Darkness enveloped Rahul as he sat on his hostel bed, the weight of failure crushing his spirit. The report card in his trembling hands bore a single, damning word: "Failed." As if the universe hadn't finished tormenting him, his phone buzzed with a message from his girlfriend. Her words, cold and final, severed their relationship.

Tears blurred his vision as a tidal wave of despair washed over him. With shaking hands, he reached into his bag, retrieving a bottle of sleeping pills and whiskey – harbingers of an escape he desperately craved.

The pills slid down his throat, chased by burning gulps of alcohol. As consciousness began to slip away, a detached part of Rahul's mind registered the foam forming around his mouth. Then, merciful oblivion claimed him.

The Reluctant Engineer

Sunlight streamed through the window of Arjun's hostel room, accompanied by the cheerful chirping of birds outside. But inside, the atmosphere was far from cheerful. Arjun sat hunched over his desk, surrounded by a sea of textbooks and scattered notes. His eyes scanned the pages before him, but his mind refused to absorb the information.

Frustration bubbled up inside him. "This is so weird!" he muttered, throwing his pen down. "Why the hell do I have to study this shit?"

Concepts of the Gita : A Starter Kit for College Students

Bhagavad Gita is a book that has been deeply transformative for hundreds and thousands of people around the world. However, almost all of the amazing commentaries on the Gita are quite cumbersome to read and understand for most students. Even the sheer size of these commentaries can be quite intimidating for most students!

I have always wondered if it’s possible to write a short introduction to the Gita especially for college students that’s intuitively clear and can connect with them at a practical level. This short introduction to the Gita is my attempt in this direction.

Bird's-Eye View on the Gita as per Sadhak Sanjeevani [Gita Press]

Text Source : Sadhak Sanjeevani, Gita Press

The eighteenth chapter of the Gita, is the gist of the whole Gita, and all the topics discussed in the previous seventeen chapters have been summed up here. In this chapter, there are three important points which need attention - (I) A topic, which has been touched upon in brief in other chapters; has been discussed in detail, in this chapter, (2) a topic, which has been examined in detail in other chapters, has been concluded here, briefly and (3) topics dealt with in other chapters, have been elucidated in a different manner in this chapter.

Q&A on पुरुष, प्रकृति and ईश्वर with Swami Chidananda

Swami Chidananda has been a speaker, writer, and teacher of spiritual topics for nearly four decades. He is the founder, trustee and chief resource person of FOWAI FORUM, a non-government organisation (NGO) engaged in dialogues on human values, promotion of spiritual studies, and serving all life forms. Born in 1957 in Kundapura (Udupi District, Karnataka), he received B.E. from Mysore University in 1980) and M.Tech. from IIT Madras in 1982. He served at Hindustan Computers (HCL) in hardware R&D for two years and also taught at Bangalore Institute of Technology for three years. He knows English, Kannada, Hindi, and Sanskrit. At the young age of 23, he was inspired by the uplifting discourses of his mentor Swami Chinmayananda. He served at Chinmaya Mission for 18 years (1984-2002) and later was at Krishnamurti Foundation India, Varanasi for 10 years (2003 – 2013). His thought evolved through coming in contact with the works of several great thinkers, notable among them being Ramana Maharshi and Jiddu Krishnamurti.

I got in touch with Swami Chidananda many years ago at IIT Delhi when I was the coordinator of the Vivekananda Study Circle there, and have had many very interesting and inspiring discussions with him on many topics related to Indian philosophy. This blog is an edited transcript of one such online discussion held with him on July 07, 2023.

Undecidable Questions in Indian Philosophy

In the 19th century, when mathematicians tried to consolidate and deeply analyse the scattered mathematical concepts haphazardly developed over the last few centuries, they ran into various paradoxes and inconsistencies. German mathematician David Hilbert developed Hilbert's program in the early 20th century as an approach to resolve this foundational crisis in mathematics. Hilbert proposed a solution by establishing a finite and comprehensive set of axioms to serve as the basis for all existing theories. He aimed to demonstrate the consistency of these axioms through a proof. However, in 1931, mathematician Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorems, which revealed that Hilbert's program was unachievable for crucial areas of mathematics. As a result, it became shockingly evident to mathematicians that certain statements can never be proven or disproven, rendering them undecidable! This concept of undecidability is not restricted to mathematics and applies to any logical framework, but of course, in different ways depending on how the particular logical framework has been constructed. And if we look at Indian philosophy from a logical perspective, it is applicable there too! What this means is that there are certain concepts in Indian philosophy that are also undecidable from a logical perspective and trying to answer these undecidable questions leads to a lot of unnecessary confusion. Lets try to analyse and understand some of these undecidable questions in Indian philosophy.

Is killing animals for food a good idea?

I have eaten non-vegetarian food in the past and still eat egg regularly. And I don't regret having eaten animals in the past. So I am definitely not a fanatic vegetarian! Then why did I stop eating non-vegetarian food? Because somewhere deep within I feel killing animals for food is not right. But then a lot of religious Hindus also eat non-vegetarian food. Even some of the most respected Hindu saints like Vivekananda and Ramakrishna also used to eat non-vegetarian food (mainly fish). So then what's wrong with eating non-vegetarian food?

Is India's secularism under threat?

I generally avoid writing blogs on political topics but its getting more and more difficult to ignore the fast changing socio-political situation in India. A major red alert for me recently was when a very good school friend of mine asked me if I automatically form a negative opinion of a person if s/he has a Muslim name! In the 20+ years I have known him, we have never mentioned anything remotely close to religion in our discussions, but now something had surely changed quite dramatically. He too stays away from such controversial topics, but was now quite frustrated due to being turned away by many apartment owners in Bangalore. I can understand vegetarian flat owners turning away non-vegetarian tenants, but my friend's experience had nothing to do with food preferences. It was primarily driven by religious biases.

The Law of Karma

"As you sow, so shall you reap", is a popular English proverb, and is also commonly believed to be the essence of the law of Karma. If you do good Karma, good will happen to you. If you do bad Karma, bad will happen to you. But given how paradoxical life is, there is another Hindi proverb that says, "Neki kar, dariya mein daal", which means that you should not expect anything in return for the good you do to others. Its again a common belief that even if the person you helped does not give you anything in return, your good actions are being documented by some universal record keeper, and you will be adequately compensated for it in the long run. However, the paradox does not end here. There is also a concept of detachment in the Gita, which says that you have right to perform Karma, but have no right over the results generated by your Karma. So then, will I really reap as I sow?

Ishwara : The only antidote to all delusions

Every university has four kinds of teachers. The first set of teachers give marks in exams based on the name or face of the student, irrespective of what they write in exams. Even the best universities have such teachers to some extent at least. If you are in their good books, you will become the topper, otherwise good luck with your career! The second set of teachers give marks based on how precisely the students remember what was written in the notes given by the teacher. These teachers basically don't encourage thinking and mainly promote rote memorisation. The third set of teachers discourage memorisation and give marks for original thinking and creative problem solving. The concepts of God that different human beings have can also divided into similar categories. Some people think that God will be pleased with them just because of their name or family background or community to which they belong. Some others believe that God will be pleased with them just because they do as S/He says. Then there are also others who believe that God will be pleased with them because they apply their own rational thought and perform good actions for the welfare of all, and will grant them an eternal abode in the heavens above. Although these three categories are different, they are all about performing some actions to get some material benefits and pleasures in different ways. But who among them is actually right about the concept of God? 

Work-Life Balance : A Practical Perspective

This blog is a short summary of 8 YouTube videos made by me and my wife (Shweta) on Work-Life Balance. The goal of these videos is to provide a practical perspective into this very important topic, and also some effective techniques that can be used to maintain a balanced lifestyle.

The Myth of Moksha

All religions of the world, without exception, are based on the concept of deliverance from suffering. Human beings, no matter how rich or poor, go through varied experiences in their lives, some of which are good and some bad. The bad experiences lead to suffering, and create a stronger impression on the mind than the good experiences. And since there does not seem to be a way to get rid of suffering in this earthly life, the human mind starts looking for it in the heavens above. The first stage in this striving is to imagine an eternal heaven with unending pleasures that one can get access to after death of the body, if one belongs to a certain group or does certain good actions as per wishes of the heaven's gatekeeper called God. After some more evolution, the human mind realises the fallacy of this desire, and understands that no such pleasures, earthly or heavenly, can be eternal and so after a certain period, a return to earthly life of mixed pleasure and pain is inevitable. But this answer also does not satisfy the human mind, and so it goes on to construct or accept the concept of "Moksha" where one goes beyond both pleasure as well as pain permanently through dissolution of the "soul" or subtle body comprising of the prana and manas. There are elaborate texts of Vedanta and Yoga written to help human beings in progressing on this path and finally achieving the goal of Moksha or ultimate freedom/liberation, through a sustained effort over many lifetimes. But is Moksha an achievable goal, or is it just another myth constructed by the human mind? More importantly, do the Vedantic scriptures clearly support this idea of Moksha?

What I Learnt from my Failed Experiments with Entrepreneurship

 I am from a business family, most of my relatives are into business of some kind, and so a lot of our family conversations revolve around business. If you think the word "business" occurred too many times in the previous sentence, you can well imagine how much intertwined it has been with my life since my early childhood! Now you may think that someone from this kind of background would naturally be good at entrepreneurship, but thats not really the case. Talking about business and actually doing it are very different things. That was my first lesson back in 2005 when I started a coaching centre for IIT-JEE at my native place (Balasore, Odisha) after finishing my B.Tech. from IIT Madras. During my final year at IITM, I was considering two options : starting a JEE coaching centre at Balasore or going for a PhD. Although I was very passionate about science, I was not sure if I had the patience to pursue a PhD. When I began my undergrad, my sole aim was to learn software programming and earn money in the industry. But over the course of 4 years, I completely lost interest in this trajectory due to various reasons and was mesmerised by various concepts of physics. At IITM, I was also deeply involved with Vivekananda Study Circle as a volunteer, which had ingrained in me a deep desire to contribute to the society. The coaching centre idea was motivated by a mix of both these reasons, i.e. to stay in touch with physics and to help students from my native place in reaching the best institutions of higher education. So, as soon as my final semester exams got over, I packed my bags, came back home and rented a small room near our house to start my JEE classes!

How do I find my soul mate?

Finding a soul mate is a hard problem, and we all know that very well! But the good news is that if you are truly looking for a soul mate, it means that you are looking for a deeper experience of life and are not just satisfied with superficial things. That's a sign of evolution!

Prevalence of Manipulative Fake News in Indian News Media

Media is the fourth pillar of our democracy and a significant source of getting correct and precise information about various events around the world. In the present digital age, online news websites have become an important source of news and information for an ordinary person. However, nowadays, it becomes difficult for us to get precise information, due to the menace of fake news. There can be two types of fake news, one which is factually incorrect, and the other which is factual, but presented in a manipulative manner and thus, representing fictional style of writing. Both these problems are equally serious and can cause a lot of social damage if not tackled properly. A lot of work is already going on in the domain of detecting incorrect factual information published by online news agencies, but the latter problem of manipulative news content is hardly paid attention to. 

Online Education : Rationale and Effective Methods

The process of evolution does not follow an optimisation protocol to minimise or maximise a single cost function. And it is this which leads to the limitless variety in living systems that we see all around us. Plants, insects, bacteria, viruses, animals and humans, all belong to this one big family of living organisms, but are so different from each other. Each has its own trajectory of evolution and they all share a common goal, i.e. to live and grow! Interestingly, this immense variety that we see among living systems also exists within the human family too. Even humans living under very similar circumstances often turn out to be so different from each other. For example, although Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle are sisters and famous singers, their style of music is so different from each other! Just see your own siblings and cousins. Very rarely will you find someone who is just like you. As far as we know, this is a unique human trait and not shared by any other living organisms. Should not this very important feature of the human species be factored in while designing our education system? Obviously, yes! 

What does it mean to be a Sthitaprajna?

Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana and Liberation are some of the commonly used terms used to define the goal of the spiritual process. Although these terms are very popular and often serve as an inspiration for people to take up spiritual practices seriously, they have some very serious limitations. Most importantly, usage of these terms often creates a negative attitude towards the material/physical world. Serious seekers of Moksha often look down upon the physical world as impure and wish to spend long hours in seeking the pure consciousness. These terms also creates unnecessary friction between the so called spiritual seekers and the so called materialists. The former often consider the latter to be ignorant and selfish, while the latter consider the former to be lazy bums who do not wish to contribute to society. This artificial divide between spiritual seekers and materialists seems to be a latter development in Indian history since Ramayana and Mahabharata do not provide any evidence for it. In both Ramayana and Mahabharata, the main protagonists, Rama and Krishna, are both spiritually enlightened as well as ruling Kings. In fact, in verse 2.55 of the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna provides a precise term to describe people who have struck the perfect balance between the world of spirit and the world of matter, and strongly urges Arjuna to seek this state of being:

प्रजहाति यदा कामान्सर्वान्पार्थ मनोगतान् । 

आत्मन्येवात्मना तुष्टः स्थितप्रज्ञस्तदोच्यते ||

O Pārtha, when a man gives up all varieties of desire for sense gratification, which arise from mental modifications, and when his mind finds satisfaction in the self alone, then he is said to be of steady intellect (Sthitaprajna).

Is committing suicide a good idea?

"Life is so frustrating. I feel caged in a prison and not able to move. Why is the world around so suffocating? I don't want to live any more! I want to die." 

These are not the thoughts of a person suffering from depression, but of Joe, who is one of the most intelligent and innovative students at Imperial College of Engineering. Remember that guy from 3 Idiots who could not built the drone on time and Virus refused to give him even a small extension? Virus's attitude was surely despicable and he has himself paid a huge price for it (by loosing his own son), but thankfully he at least had a change of heart later on! Hopefully that saved a few young lives at least. But are all suicides caused due to such insensitive people around us? What about Raghav from Chhichhore? He seemed to have very cool parents and equally good friends. We also don't know of any such insensitive teachers, relatives or neighbours that he may have had. But still, he did jump off his friend's balcony after not being to clear the coveted JEE! As Raghav's father recollects later on, "I told him how we would celebrate once the results are out and he clears the exam. But I never said what we would do if he could not clear it". Raghav could not stand the fact that both his parents were JEE rankers and he could not clear the exam. That led to a complete loss of self-worth, which  then led to him taking such a drastic step! So seemingly cool parents and supportive environment could also not prevent it. Whether what Joe and Raghav did was right or wrong is hard for us to judge since no one else can truly understand what a person goes through in a given life situation, and why s/he is forced to take such a drastic step. But in general, is committing suicide a good idea?

Mind-Brain Interaction

Essence of Quantum Mechanics :

What cannot be calculated, cannot be measured. What can be calculated, can be measured. And most importantly, not everything can be calculated.

Calculation : 

Write a mathematical equation to predict the future state of a system using information about the present and past history. Systems for which this is possible are henceforth referred to as physical systems.

Measurement : 

Take a classical system with a calibrated scale. Make it interact with a quantum/classical system, and note the change in reading. 

Essence of Physical Science :

This change of reading of a classical calibrated apparatus in a measurement is expected to agree with the theoretical calculation.