Visionary of India..!
Robert Clements
Monday, November 14, 2011 - Visited the IIT Chennai yesterday. My friend and classmate a renowned doctor of literature had a meeting to attend on the campus and I went along with him. We drove through miles of luscious green, trees in all their glory, woods thick and virgin, went past spotted deer, even a white one, all happy and left alone.
What a glorious place for our children to study. It’s these institutes of learning that are producing, young men and women who are the best brains in the world. Youngsters who are changing the face of this country, making the world take notice and recognize the fact that we have engineers and scientists who excel and are on par and better than the best.
After the meeting ended a Professor invited us over for tea. And as I spoke with her in her unpretentious house, we talked about the man who had, had a vision of educated men and women for India, Jawaharlal Nehru. How easy it would have been for the first prime minister to have led India without investing in such long term plans.
He needn’t have sanctioned such enormous funds for such places of learning! He could have pleased his electorate with populist measures like giving each home a TV set or pressure cooker. But no, he envisioned a India, where our scientists and engineers would have had the best of education, right here at home.
What a visionary. Today as I see our political leaders who come to power thinking only of their next five years and nothing more, I realize that we lack visionaries. In Bengal we have a fiery woman, who’s every move is short sighted. The same with most states. But it is not just the leaders, we the people are also such. Give us free TVs, we shout, and don’t bother anymore about education or long term projects. I can imagine what Nehru must have gone through when he first envisioned and sanctioned the IITs. “Mr Prime Minister, you want to invest billions of rupees on land, buildings and teachers?” “Yes!” “But look at the millions starving?” “Yes I am looking at them, and know that instead of just giving them food I will train men and women who will eliminate starvation!”
The white deer, on the campus of the IIT Chennai looked at me with graceful eyes, there was a sense of calm, a sense of peace, which our beloved Chacha also must be having, as he looks down at how his far sightedness has worked for a changing India! In a week we celebrate his birthday, a truly great visionary..!
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
What a glorious place for our children to study. It’s these institutes of learning that are producing, young men and women who are the best brains in the world. Youngsters who are changing the face of this country, making the world take notice and recognize the fact that we have engineers and scientists who excel and are on par and better than the best.
After the meeting ended a Professor invited us over for tea. And as I spoke with her in her unpretentious house, we talked about the man who had, had a vision of educated men and women for India, Jawaharlal Nehru. How easy it would have been for the first prime minister to have led India without investing in such long term plans.
He needn’t have sanctioned such enormous funds for such places of learning! He could have pleased his electorate with populist measures like giving each home a TV set or pressure cooker. But no, he envisioned a India, where our scientists and engineers would have had the best of education, right here at home.
What a visionary. Today as I see our political leaders who come to power thinking only of their next five years and nothing more, I realize that we lack visionaries. In Bengal we have a fiery woman, who’s every move is short sighted. The same with most states. But it is not just the leaders, we the people are also such. Give us free TVs, we shout, and don’t bother anymore about education or long term projects. I can imagine what Nehru must have gone through when he first envisioned and sanctioned the IITs. “Mr Prime Minister, you want to invest billions of rupees on land, buildings and teachers?” “Yes!” “But look at the millions starving?” “Yes I am looking at them, and know that instead of just giving them food I will train men and women who will eliminate starvation!”
The white deer, on the campus of the IIT Chennai looked at me with graceful eyes, there was a sense of calm, a sense of peace, which our beloved Chacha also must be having, as he looks down at how his far sightedness has worked for a changing India! In a week we celebrate his birthday, a truly great visionary..!
—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com
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