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AMRITABHASHINI and its Fading Footprints

August 24, 2014 / Prof. KCR Raja

In the Wikipedia pages on Kottakkal, there is a mention of Amrutabhashini . I quote ,” The development activities of women included modern publications such as Amritha Bhashini and Bala Chandrika, published by Kovilakam”. I do not know about Balachandrika but I have gained, while going through my mother’s papers, two volumes of Amritabhashini. (I am trying to digitize them)

These two volumes were produced by the Thampurattis of Kizhakke Covilagam more than 70 years ago. The fading pages of the handwritten journal are the fading footprints of a laudable literary effort!

Another Family Reunion

August 3, 2014 / Prof. KCR Raja

Family Reunion-May 11, 2014

The Kizhakke Covilagam family reunion I attended in 2010 was my first experience of attending the annual family meet, started ten years ago. I attended it a second time the following year and then again this year. For the first time a Zamorin was present. Continue reading

Medical Education: Is Ethics part of it ?

August 1, 2014 / Prof. KCR Raja

July 31, 2014 diagnostic tests
It is high time that a formal course in ethics is made an integral part of medical education.

An administrator of a leading hospital in Mumbai, herself a doctor, told me once that the general practitioner was on his way out. I asked her how much a practitioner would be earning in Mumbai. Rs 20,000 a month, Rs 25000? Her reply was stunning! An average general practitioner would, she said, be lucky if he earns Rs 10000 from consultations. Many , she added, are packing up and looking for alternative avenues of employment. My own doctor packed his bags two years ago and shifted to his home town.

Swami Vivekananda and John Rockefeller – The Sanyasin and the Billionaire

February 6, 2013 / Prof. KCR Raja

Swami Vivekananda’s meeting with John Rockefeller is one of the lesser known facts about his stay in Chicago . The meeting has been documented although neither Vivekananda nor Rockefeller has written or apparently spoken , at least in public, about it. The impact of that meeting can only be inferred from subsequent actions.

It is said that opposites attract each other and that pairs of opposites produce great results. One could not have imagined a pair more unlike each other than Swami Vivekananda and John and Rockefeller in temperament, life style and social and cultural backgrounds. Rockefeller had brought up Standard Oil and was considered the richest man in the world and had all the material comforts he could have wished for. Vivekananada, on the other hand, was a penniless sanyasin who had renounced all material comfort but was in a position to give great spiritual energy to anyone who met or heard him.

Address of Shri C. B. Garware, Garware Foundation, at the First Abasaheb Garware Memorial Lecture, on 8th December, 2004, in the Convocation Hall, University of Mumbai.

February 1, 2013 / Prof. KCR Raja

[This is a speech I have preserved because it reminds me of my good old days at the Garware Institute and of the educational adventure the institute is in. I reproduce it in full below.]

This year the UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI’S GARWARE INSTITUTE FOR CAREER EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT has attained the ripe age of twenty years, and we as a family and the GARWARE FOUNDATION take great pride in this achievement and the fact that our Late father Dr. Abasaheb Garware would have completed 100 years of his life. Unfortunately he is not here to share this proud day, but as his second son I would like to remember his dreams and his vision in establishing this Institute devoted strictly for vocational/skill-based education.

Introducing the Garware Institute of Career Education

January 30, 2013 / Prof. KCR Raja

Introducing the Garware Institute of Career Education at the First Abasaheb Garware Memorial Lecture in University Convocation Hall, Mumbai on 8 December 2004. The memorial lecture was delivered by Dr Arun Nigvekar, Chairman, University Grants Commission.

I am indeed honored to be asked to welcome you on behalf of the Advisory Committee, the students, faculty and staff of the institute today to the First Abasaheb Garware Memorial lecture. I remember at the first anniversary of the institute in 1985 we had the then Chairperson of the University Grants Commission, Dr Madhuriben Shah as the Chief Guest. Abasaheb was with us then and was on the dais to grace the occasion. It would gladden his heart immeasurably to know, from where he is that today we have Dr Nigavekar not only to be the Chief Guest but deliver the first annual lecture named after him. On your behalf I should like to welcome Dr Nigavekar in our midst.

As the first Director of this Institute, I had the rare privilege of participating in its growth in its formative years. I would like to refer briefly to the guiding principles that helped us through a difficult period of infancy.