 My apologies for stopping late and to those of you who have been waiting for quite patiently for some time, my apologies. So now we are ready to begin. I request the following people to come and occupy the chairs on the other stage. Prof. Anitha Rampal. I think she will start. Prof. Jayashree Ramdas. Dr. Rajapapal, we need to begin. I request Prof. Jayashree Ramdas to come in the room. Welcome to all of you to the Home Cooper Center for Science Education. Start of this program for launching a book related to Prof. Chitranath Rajan. This morning we had an almost full day of talks seminar on her intellectual contributions, you know, stemming from Chitra's intellectual contributions to science, maths and technology education. And we saw, you know, several aspects of her ideas, how they have grown. Chitra infused her energy into her environment and we really missed her. Today I am glad that we have Dr. Rajapapal. Rajapapal is Chitra's husband and after almost 30 years of marriage they met in 1986. They were, you know, friends, partners, collaborators, colleagues, you know, like-minded people who shared many passions together. And I think many of these come out in the book that Raj has edited and several people here have contributed to. I'd like to introduce you also to Mrs. Parvati Natrajan, Chitra's mother, who is sitting in the front room. I'm glad that she has been able to join us here. And also Chitra's sisters, Asha and Jyothi, are here with us. I'm glad that they were able to join us. Chitra, you know, in whatever she did, you know, her interests were always, you know, very professional. So even with her doctors, her interaction with the doctors was something very special. And she took an interest in everything, you know, the mechanism of the human body and she was completely well informed with what was going on with her. And her doctors, Dr. Krishnamurti, General Practitioner, Dr. Roy of BRC and Dr. Roy Patankar of Joy Hospital, were here a while ago and they were, but they had to go for a while. I mean, they have some surgery, etc. commitments. Perhaps they might join us again. I'd also like to welcome Ramdas Phatkan, the publisher of this book, who's sitting here in the front room. And I'm very happy that Mrs. Kulkarni has joined us, although I'm not sure if she's here or actually she's sitting here. You know, our first director is mentioned in those of you who are here in the morning. Mrs. Kulkarni and Anitha Kulkarni have remained very close to the centre site, especially I'm happy that they could come and I'd like to welcome them here. I'll now call upon Mrs. Madhuri Vaithurne, our administrative officer, to present my speech of truth to Chitra's mother, which is Parvati Netrajant, Ramdas Bhakta. The speaker in the morning seminar is also our chief guest for this function. And this is Madhuri Vaithurne. We'd like to invite you to present Anitha Ramta from her office as a Subramanian. Our first speaker is Sunil Shri Vande. She is a student in the awareness of the Tatsang program, which was one of the initial, almost the first initiatives by Chitra, I think started in the year 1993. And I think Sunil is perhaps from the first batch of Tatsang, which was conducted in Mumbai, and in Sholapur. She's now with the Pricewater House, Pricewater Cooper's house, Pricewater House Cooper's. But she has a very deep interest in education, I think, which is continued from the time of her association with Chitra. And she's involved in several education projects. Recently with Chitra, she was active in a place-based education project in a nearby school for underprivileged students, students from poor sections. And I think she has some other projects which are, in some way, legacy system. I'll ask Sunil to comment on this. Good evening, everyone. I consider it a privilege to be here today to represent all the Tatsangites of the first batch. And I thank HBCLC to give me this opportunity to share the experience as well. In fact, I stayed with Tatsang started in 1993-94. And I was a part of Sholapur batch. And I still remember the days when we saw our list of names after the entrance was connected for Tatsang. We were around 32 of us who were eagerly looking at the boards in the Anand College where the test was conducted, whether we have figured it or not. And it was a jubilant moment for us when we found that, yes, we have qualified. And I still remember that moment. And what happened after that was a very memorable journey of two years and still continues to be a part of our life. So I would like to share this experience in three different forms I would rather say. One was Tatsang as a learning experience which was a very different kind compared to the process which we followed in our college. Second was about the mentors we had throughout the program. And third was the like-minded friends we had who continue to associate and wish to take certain things forward which we had learned through Tatsang. As a program, Tatsang provided us a very rich experience in learning by doing a opportunity to interact with lots of experts from different fields, opportunity to interact with people from different disciplines and also doing the kind of activities which we would have never done had we not been introduced to Tatsang. We were involved in doing small research assignments, learning things from interdisciplinary background kind of activities like we had research on energy projects, we had done secondary research through libraries and there were a lot of other things which came up. There were people coming from, within the group itself we had students coming from commerce and arts and science and all sorts of backgrounds but everybody worked together in groups to learn assignments which were not from our own disciplines and that was real good fun. It was such a rich learning experience. There were a lot of other documentaries which we had seen and probably those were the kind of things which we would have never experienced before especially in Sholabor where we had very little exposure to these kind of things. But then after 1996, once the program was over everybody disintegrated and we were not in touch at all until two years ago when some of us took an initiative and WhatsApp brought us together and that was when we started reflecting on what is it that we had really learned through Tatsang and what is it that we have with us. What everybody remembers till the date is not the content part of it only but the process itself. Everybody remembers interaction with the mentors, interaction with Chitra Ma'am, her energy, her philosophy, ideas, vision and the kind of content itself which were infused during those sessions. Unfortunately today, the Aiguddha Sir is also not around. He is no more amongst us. He was also one of our greatest mentors till now and most important thing which we learned through Tatsang was Tatsang is not about just sessions which would happen on Sundays and learn through activities but it's about sensitization of the youth so that they would apply science and technology for benefit of the society especially the underprivileged ones so that we could help in bridging the gaps with halves and hammers and it would be in our own small way not necessarily big projects or initiatives but it would start with ourselves and that's how we would want to take it away. So when we met two years ago we decided that we would take things ahead in our own ways Chitra Ma'am was always there with us to give us inputs when he was required and that's how certain initiatives started. One of us who is a dermatologist started cancer in slums in addition to his practice another one started his own startup which is called Vinovent Education Solutions he has started certain projects with schools in rural areas there's another project going on in tribal areas which focuses on STEM education four schools are being covered through it over 300 students are being covered and then there is a project on mentoring which a group is wanting to take up so these kind of initiatives are happening in all these initiatives Chitra Ma'am had provided a lot of guidance and in fact we are much more determined to take it ahead given the fact that she wanted us to do something concrete in our own ways so I take this moment to share a few of her words she had given us an autograph last year and she had written in my diary I'm so sorry she wrote the revolution can happen in two ways it can happen in a leap or it can happen in small steps and we can make it happen we can be the change we want to see and because we are young beings I think that says it all thank you so the TATSAN or Tata Talent Search and NACHA program was a program in which students of the high secondary school level participated and they not only looked at issues of science but also issues about society it was one of the pioneering programs in HBCC which brought together science, technology, society issues and it continues to be an important dimension for me about the science work thank you once again I will call upon a large group of the TATSAN to explain the great science work we are handing over to you greetings everyone back in 2006 the government of India started a program of rural and tribal and the government has been integrated with a forest station in rural areas and in peripheral areas of forest resources in the country it doesn't have the calculation and since then people like Krishna and Badrish they also supported this movement and India's map in India and these hot spots where there are very high levels of degradation of forests tropical forests across the country this is in every way there is a whole lot of destruction done by man-made as well as natural disasters causing a lot of damage to livelihoods from the fauna and this program was basically India was mapped and it is also mapped and it is a very collective community based model of integrating employment in tribal and rural areas with forest station programs just to preserve what we have since then I have been a great supporter of the movement and Krishna also taken it to a very high level I am so glad to hear and so every year in different areas people are brought in community based models to resonate with others so this time I discovered the one of our spots in our country is in the eastern part of the country in the outer periphery of Sundar Mani's forest reserve and the idea of this thing is that all the speakers HBCSA, Factority Anita and all the other speakers here are here it is a very small way in terms of honoring them last week India names the very certified best practices model where the state government and the federal government are involved in this whole process is initiated by independent organization and India names a group of trees that are planted last week in the outer periphery of Sundar Mani's national reserve in the southern part of Afghanistan and I would like to I would like to first hand over Anita's certificate and then you can also track online what is happening it is one of the most sensitive spots out there I will just read out what it says so that Anita Rampal honoured with the growth of 10 trees at the periphery of Sundar Mani's national park south 24 Pagana, West Bengal, India on October 4, 2017 Thank you for your contribution to the seminar on road island science technology Thank you so much Thank you very much I now request for Anita Rampal for the first speakers and members who will be on it the first one is to Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar Mr. Ravind Kumar people who were investigating science education in India. And she worked initially with the Hushengabad Science Teaching Program, where she, some of the work that she did there she spoke about. But essentially she brought in the learnings from the Hushengabad Science Teaching Program to policy making curriculum writing to the central to the cave the central advisory body on education. And you know policy making in India in science education had been earlier guided by the principles of the field and not so much by the practice. And I think Karita has brought in that element of practice into the thinking about education in the country. Currently she is professor and former dean of the faculty of education in the University of Delhi. She has been a Nehru fellow UGC research scientist, chairperson of the NCRT textbook development team at the primary stage. She was co-chair of the ITMI, the International Commission on the Council of Mathematics Education topic study group. And like I said she has been associated with the Hushengabad Science Teaching Program, people's science movements, the Bharat Gyan Vidyan Samiti and the National Literacy Campaign. Her special interests include curriculum studies, policy analysis for equity in education, teacher education and science and maths education. She has published in English and Hindi and has also produced documentary films on women's education and political participation. Very happy to invite Anita. Thank you for inviting me here. It is a difficult moment to be here. But it's nice to know that everyone here has been very close to Chitra and will continue her work. Raju had asked me to write for this collection. I didn't manage to do so for various reasons. But I admire his have been able to put this together and to get it out in such a short time because I can understand what he has been through. And I think maybe that kind of a mission is something which keeps us going and we must honour Chitra with that energy and that commitment which he brought to her work and to this institution. I can't think of this institution without her because as I said in the morning, I mean, whenever one came and spoke, she was there. She was there not just by her presence but by her reassuring commitment and one could immediately vibe with the kinds of supports that she brought with her. Because mostly people, many people like us, who come from science disciplines, who come from very hardcore kind of long halls in science or related fields or engineering are often not trained. Our education just doesn't look at things beyond that. And to be able to do that needs a special kind of insight, a special kind of sensibility because despite our education, if we can look at societies, if we can look at issues of justice, if we can look at what a tribal universe is or what knowledges are beyond the limited scope of knowledge that our education has presented us, it tells us about the persons resources which has helped the person move out of the limitations of the kinds of educations that we have even though some of us have really had the best kind of science education that this country can give us. But to then work on those lines, to try and change and transform those lines is a big challenge because we can't do it alone. And that's where a solidarity, that's where a collective spirit, that's where trying to engage and trying to convince and trying to encourage many others with us, whether it's in an institution, whether it's as students, whether it's in committees, whether it's in institutions where textbooks are being written whenever we get space. I think the mission of our lives then is to go on disseminating rather than disseminating really working beyond what the mission has to offer. And I think seeing Chitra, all of you may know, but whatever I have known of Chitra, I have seen that spirit. And the kinds of sort of illness that she has coped with is really one of the most dehumanizing ways for a person to go. Where a person to go with dignity, with confidence, without a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. But to leave hope, even when you're going through that, needs amazing, it's amazing energy. And that is what we really must take forward. The challenges are not over. I mean, the challenges that Chitra or we must have seen decades back are many, many fold now. I mean, the way education is being looked at, the way science education is being looked at, the way children's learning is being looked at, and the way children are going to be marginalized even in education, even in government education systems is much more today than it was 20, 30, 40 years back, when many of us were entering into this area and working on policies or working on shielding. And that's where I see the ability to actually excite and motivate a younger generation because their challenges would be more than ours, they already are. But if this kind of work that many of you do, and these kind of institutions are here to take far beyond the mandate that we have even today, I think then we can say that some of the energies of people like Chitra would have been fruitfully, very fruitfully honored. I think I do have that hope when I see some young people, when I saw her own students and I'm sure that will not be in vain. Thank you. First, a chief guest. I'm sorry, I'm going to release the book and I'm going to request Mr. Radha Sivartan to join us on the stage. Hello, I'm Sivartan. I'm from a family. It's exactly this date, 14 April 2015, six months back, I repented one of the vast oceans connected to the Arabian Sea. Exactly six months later, 14 October 2015, I'm trying to place before you a life for spirits, a passion, the form of a few rings of paper, more than a volume. I don't know whether it's the right thing or the wrong thing. I just take what my conscience told me. And it's very difficult to bring a free spirit like Chitra one of my dearest friends and great partner, since 86, when you were to be captured in a few pages through a journey of the last 26 years and right till last year. It's been a journey where so many assaults across the world, in India, friends, family, colleagues, collaborators, so many of them lent us their heart and their hands, they reached out to us and gave us immense confidence, immense courage and immense inspiration to more in life. And I'm indeed very fortunate that we also had amazingly human healthcare specialist, a large group of doctors who took care of her till the end. Dr. Roy Patankar, a room she asked long time back in 2008, Dr. Roy, you're an agent to me and if I were to go one day, I would rather go from your house than my house. And when he was here, he just left some time back because he had to go to the hospital, I didn't hear his audio actually, so he's back to the hospital, but he's honest with us and she helped him so dear. And Dr. Nebojit Roy, head of Surgery B.R.C. hospital, Dr. Krishnamurthy, who I've lived together for so many years, I'm indeed very grateful. I mean, amazing level of help through the years. Dr. Uleha Manin, Dr. Ajit Thair, Ajit Kumar, in the other stages, amazing level of human kindness is not here to be, because it's preoccupied, but all the men are. And putting this work about to transcribe, it can be really put, I mean, impossible for me if I not had the support of Veena, thanks so much for holding me together. What is this? My friend Meenu Mathis, for being so compassionate and being always with me, and Boka Tatarao, who has been a type of strength to Chitra for the last 25 years. And Meenu Boka Nagra, who actually, a lot of narrations and the things he converted into a visual format thanks him. And it's been wonderful and so close to Chitra. Chitra saw in a tremendous hope for a long time, and she has been a part of this work, helping me in this work. Thanks to Suguna for really helping in, with a lot of doubts, we see a ketom having about subjects and so many things, and a team of D&G group who really helped in this whole venture. And to my nearest friend, Faisan Shik, who saw to it that my endurance levels are at its highest levels. Unfortunately, Faisan is not here, and I owe him a lot. Thanks so much. And this beautiful, this one, it captures Chitra's life, compassion and raising life in all its forms, and positioning in the center of a blooming sunflower, the total sunflower, I owe a lot to putting him on board. Unfortunately, he cannot be here. And of course, to Manoj and I, Chitra's most favorite and colleague, and she's got so much of high in him. I wish him so much of good life ahead. Thanks so much for representing her and capturing visually. In the next slide, she loved Lebanon so much, and it was his visual representation of a blooming Lebanon flower. I mean, through her life, it had a dear, it was a core, and it was a wonderful representation, and she lived her life by being formed by science and she was inspired by nature, with a lot of compassion. The friends and seniors, this is not a kind of book or a semi-sarging, you know, it is kind of, you know, but I'm just trying to give you a glimpse of her life in the form of the journey she traveled, from a childhood to the final stage in her life, and it's indeed very difficult to actually see her life from a single person of mine alone. A lot of people across the world, people from the childhood, thanks a lot for being here. And people who knew her far, far longer than I ever knew her and their expressions and the sharing of their memories and different stages in her life really enriched and embellished this memoir, and it will be complete, and complete with all the thought processes and all those kind of dimensions that collaborate with the police and so on and so forth. That's one thing, and basically, in a sense, I just, this is not a book with chapters or anything, it's just a story which flows through like a narrative from acting, you know, so she thought her life was full of fun, and she had a fun in her life, and she thought life was a fun class, so she was trying to tell a story, and it has three facets for life. The first facet is from 54 to 76, when she was going to the stages of IIT, and then this stage where she meant to understanding the science and the philosophy of what we deal with materials, surfaces, and, of course, energy. She spent an enormous amount of time, and it's indeed so overwhelming to see many of her colleagues from those times out here, and we have Dr. Rehma Rajan and Dr. Vasu from IPR who spent an enormous amount of time with her, and I'm sort of, I'm driving what went into my mind at the stages in life. And the really embellished it, and the first stage of life was exploration and science integration. It was a little deliberate for a year, and being here also, it happened after a lot of reflections and traveling across the country, and kinds of experiments going across the country. I'm talking about 1987, 1988, 1999, but she felt that the scientific pursuits traveled with thus far, and beyond that comes life, and several other facets of life and she wanted to deal with those kind of areas. And I just, down the memory lane, several people contributed, really entered this whole process by the thought process and sharing the memories. And because she wrote extensively on several topics, a lot more topics than ever documented, and I'm just sharing pretty glimpses of those things in the book with the reference to origin, which also talks about, in a sense, our own practices of reading and argumentation sessions, which held us together for so many years, took us through the journey of setbacks, life, per se, and sharing things related to education and not other aspects that we are more passionate about. And also, thanks to Anand, and a wonderful dedication to this memoir, really richly adding to it his experiences in taking science to the masses, science to the people, out into the streets, and amazing. Thanks, Anand. And she wanted so much to work with Anand in so many ways, and I hope to carry on with it more politely. It was just wonderful. And also Patrick Diaz from University of Frankfurt requested him just to self-share the evolution of what's happening in LPCC since Professor Kulkani sort of conceived a very long time back. He had dedicated a very wonderful, very moving piece of the transitions from those stages to here, rather a little bit detailed in terms of the journey and his close friendship with Professor Kulkani and Professor Kulkani's thoughts are captured in that dedicated piece by Professor Patrick Diaz, which is really, even I didn't know, I mean, the depth of the take-off, for the experts to understand. And a lot of things about our passions beyond the thing, that's what Shad, and finally concluding with a kind of things about our learnings from our sit-backs, how love can be managed productively, and if you still cannot find despite me the sit-backs, but the template, what we sort of developed, which we shared with several people, and I'm just noticing quite a few critical illness concerning why all of us, this is not only to live with dignity, but also to die with dignity and discounting that out there in the day. Thanks so much, in a sense. Now, in a sense, Tito's life here in the last so many years was, she was amazingly fast in everything. I mean, traversing the fields of biology, astronomy, and she loved constellations. She was so good in constellations in terms of understanding them, and Max was a passion, actually. She physically made it to the design, actually. So Max was great. She never had a life of chemistry, but she was so good in quantum chemistry, it was amazing. She never spoke a single word about it here, but I've been there, putting it through all those lectures. And it is just amazing how she sort of transcended this kind of discipline. She went very fast, like one of those blurs, like one of those comments, just coming the way she did, moving to those areas. So, the next one is a kind of a cloud of disciplines, through which she moved here, along with Jayashree, along with Ravi, and along with so many, so many of her colleagues, in terms of living her way through all these kind of different kind of issues. And how she sort of tried to understand, lean the pattern. She was a lean person, so she now got you to testify for it. And how she tried to understand, and relearn, and sort of try to view way through these things, and the same comments she left behind those legacy expressions in a sense. But the only thing that is one thing she was very fond of, that is graphic teaching. I mean, I never factual in a discussion where she does not have a pencil, an aeration, and graph papers. Graph papers was one thing she had to have, where everything was dots connecting, patterns connecting links. And I think all of that would have been problem. In terms of the power of graphic teaching, in terms of long time after he moved on, when Jayashree's back, there's somebody who loved graphic teaching, who loved graphic teaching. And she really tried to understand what was going through this area. She's still trying to understand. She's still a student in this area. Let's say a lot of ideas. Two days back, we gave a lot of notebooks to me. And she was a very prolific ideator. So every one of those books, she left so many ideas. And this is every one of them, because the notes I take down here, one of them is 23. And the black values left behind after a thought, I still use it for putting my thoughts in the tape. So not a single one of them is thrown away. I preserved everything, because they were so rich in thoughts. The hand it over, still more of those things. I still preserve them. I have people I could send it to. I still do that. And it was really, in the corners of India, there are several people who have far more, just tremendous interest in the field of things. They're keeping silent, they're keeping quiet. I wish they come out. I wish they come out in several disciplines here. I wish they come out. Many of them might know very well. And they're happy doing what they're doing. They haven't entered the field, they've put it in the field of education. And since there are a few things I just want to add, I'm really expecting education or not in education research. But as strategy people working on a global landscape, in the process of change, the transformation, the social, technological, economic transformation which happens and the educational transformation that happens, makes this very impenetrable for a lot of us in this business to understand educational models across the world, because we link the educational models to the process of changes which happens across all peripheral domains. We keep close track for the last so many years of decades in terms of what happens in every country, every policy statement, every paper we track and we understand what is happening. To that we relate to industry, we relate to agriculture, we relate to everything about it. And that influences a few things and a few concerns. I'm sure there have been others. None of them, I believe, are to be others. Number one I would like to point out is inclusivity, which is so dear to all of us in the political thing in the country. In this book I made more pleas and more requests to so many people to sort of extend their domain expertise to areas, to more human areas, which is really crying for the hell. It's just a plea to a lot of people in the field of education, educators, policy makers. And one of the things is the inclusion, inclusivity in education, decades of policy making, decades of sensitization, still I've not made the kind of changes that would have expected to happen, actually. That's one thing which is really very upsetting and I'm wishing to note that. To the public and educational institutes with disabled-friendly ramps, toilets, access to classrooms, access to simple things, the place of learning. We still see that many of them, instead of the norm actually, if you happen to see it somewhere, the exception. I mean that's one thing which is really stunning in the country. It's a part of the 16 years, most of a fantastic culture of humanness, but what's happening here is difficult to factor. And also, to a lot of people wanting access to auditoriums, aeroplanes and several other things, halls and banks and all, they are one bank which has people to get in. Not a single one in Chamberlain, except the Central Bank of India, will have access to people to go and open account and this is a very acute area where the whole area we need to have. And I can understand other spaces, but having educational institutions not conforming to this basic thing is really a sad reflection of progress disparities. I wish the proposed legislation to make access audit compulsory to every educational institution brought into force immediately. And many of our educational institutions will fail here. Access to this type of education is a must for fundamental right. Unfortunately, our constitution has ignored that. The major challenge to making education in basically the area of education inclusive lies in demystifying this whole concept that disability can be literally a growth in life. I fondly remember friend Raul Charyan in just two years back in 2013, just the three years of being a champion of people who are disabled, all kind of disabilities, holding the constitution totally responsible for the state of affairs because it has been framed in a particular mindset and they thought the entire India will be able-bodied people and there are people, well, what is it, constituted that people don't have right to have disabilities? I mean, it's shocking, but Raul put it there. He's not here, he left behind a great legacy out there in terms of how to make it work. So it's vital in quite a few areas, actually, which is so important in this area of inclusivity that the whole, the area of phenomenology of at least some existing in our deeply rooted educational, as well as any all walks of life that we still don't have a kind of research. I'm so glad here, because when I heard here Chitra's good friend, Santh, doing research here, looking into research into some, I mean, that's really remarkable, actually. It's been a long time, due, and I wish him all the success. And number two, I want to look at his conflicts. Notwithstanding the scientific, technological, and economic developments across the world, the deeply disconcerting fact is that conflicts continue to happen, most of the man made and deliberately done, which has left behind a trail of, actually, generations of people without any kind of access to education. It's deeply impacting its access, its delivery models, and its efficacy. And it strives within the country, the polarization happening across the country and across everywhere else, as a generation of people with no access to education. A large generation of people were seeking inclusivity, more than anything else, new access to education. I mean, there's a very stunning thing, I mean, again, a poor reflection of this kind of progressive stage we are trying to develop. And the learning from cognitive research and education and all, the whole domain of research into education, scientific, or any kind of education is critical that they develop new pedagogic models for post-conflict face education, which is well said. We are 15 years into post-conflict face education and this area of absolutely immense hope for people to look into, and it's so important. If you don't have this kind of pedagogic model, you lose generations of people who can't help in nation building. Generations of people who migrate across borders seeking inclusivity. So, it's extremely, it's just starting another phase, and you see it all over the papers, you see the mirror of what's happening. It's something we need to really look at. Number three, I just want to point out is social transitions. So, today we live in a world of plastic, rapid, catastrophic changes. And they're happening in shorter time cycles and they're happening with unpredictable cyclicality. And they're so stunning, they change the models of the game, models of how people are taught and how people deliver what they're taught. It's extremely important in this concept that is ever changing technological economy as well as sociological developments. What's important is the demand, the kind of functional and multidisciplinary skills that none of our institutions are capable of imparting. To the progress of nations, collectively nations, happens due to a lot of work happening in the interface of the discipline, more than the domains. And last 18 Nobel Prize Awarded to people, please go and have a look at it and see how it's awarded. It's multidisciplinary, people with no connect to everybody come together to be 100th Nobel Prize. And it's very important. I think the whole scarcity of Nobel Prize being awarded, if that is a benchmark, which I don't believe so, it's very politically important today. But if that is going to be a benchmark, then everybody should learn to look at it because how it connects discipline. 2009, 2008 Nobel Prize for Green Flores and Scroding is a work by Japanese scientists who never cracked the port till he met a physician and an orthopedic surgeon in 2004 and 2006 and 2008 they got the GSP, got the thing. It would not have been possible for him to have got the Nobel Prize unless he had teamed up with these two people. They had a perception, in his own domain, hard beyond dis-understanding. That's what I'm trying to tell you here. You can look at all Nobel Prizes about it. You'll understand why people from different multiple disciplines work together. And islands of research are dead. Worldwide. The synergistic collaborating models are the norm, whether you like it or not. That's the way it's going to be in the future. And looking at the world of education, looking at the disruptive educational model, I'm not talking about the conceptual model, say, it's more important for the society at large to know how new models, the disruptive kind, the transformative kind can impact education. And it's only happening. Anyway, you go. Today, parents and children go by online. They think their whole life is online driven. I mean, that's happening before us. And you see the difficulties in terms of what's happening in terms of what they prefer and what we're trying to do. That's one kind of meaning to look at. The last simple point I'm trying to make is that the whole process of polarization across the world. Today we have the winds of polarization sweeping most Middle East countries and, of course, Central European countries in the past and everywhere. Most of in India, over 100. This is a steady process of erasure of history, geography, and the whole process of democratic argumentative process. And the same part of this process will lead to a stage where someone, a French group, or someone will tell you what you as a science educator will teach, what you will not teach. It's really stunning. I mean, what we are seeing, and we need to see that. And no time in the history of this country have we faced this kind of situation before that science education, which is obviously seen and threatened by a lot of French groups in terms of looking at the whole process of evolving a new society in a very emotional rhetoric and in one of the manner they sort of interpret. I mean, we are seeing happening before us. And if this were to go, it will seriously undermine the whole process of democratic dialogues that forms the basis of pursuit of scientific temper. It's so critical. And here, I'm talking, going back in time to the late part of the 80s, 90s and all, when we're doing a lot of work in Vijirag or exactly Tamil Nadu and various other places, and long time back, even when Chitra and myself migrated here, and we always considered the entire rational thought process behind democratization of education and science set forth by Dr. Vinod Rai Nasa. He was a template in those days to define what this country was moving. He left behind a rich legacy of thoughts which forms today, I know it, which forms today the basis of democratic dialogues, rational dialogues in transition and emerging economies. It also left behind for us to face the challenges today in terms of a kind of a dialogic negotiation model to deal with the forces of polarization today. And he set us a model in the 90s, 80s, and Chitra always believed that wherever she went and wherever she had, she was guided by the force of democratic rational, compassionate, inclusive dialogue. And, I mean, the kind of expression left behind in any kind of countries you will find, especially in sub-Saharan and minor regions you will find there. And yes, it was in Cambodia and various places. When you look at these things, you always refer to India in that model. This one, when they talk about inclusivity and right-to-education, this issue everywhere. It's not only here. And this is something this legacy has to be protected. And another issue, I just want to share a small thing with you. I just also would like to draw your attention to the point what I mean by end-of-life care, palliative. When you have people, your loved ones, our day, not able to die and not able to live. And what you do in this kind of case is, sadly, our judicial system, more so, number one, our medical system. And several systems in this country need a rating on several things that typically we are run away from. So I strongly believe that just as we believe that right-to-living dignity is not negotiable, so too is right to die with dignity. It is not negotiable. No court can tell us in terms of how to live or die with dignity. It is far beyond the brunt of any court in this country. And coming from a very small place in Kerala, knowing these issues of palliative care and the whole issue of auspices, how it operates and those kind of issues. And with this state, the only state can have a state policy based on a community-based model in terms of how you can actually take to it. And the state has formed a policy. It can be replicated in any other state if there is a will. This is a humane issue. And no new legislations, laws can enact this. It has to be done with the heart and not with the head. And it's so important. Today, if so many transition and emerging economies are taken that as a bench model, why is it that our country is hesitating? This is something a matter of concern actually. The economic intelligence report of the economists will point to the fact that out of 80 countries, why are we suddenly fourth? Racking in the quality of death index. Why are our people dying with no dignity after abject isolation? I mean, what's the problem with the country? What's the problem with the culture? I mean, we need to rethink in everyone on these issues. And I pray that a lot of people who face these situations find some kind of compassion from communities around them because the communities are the people who bind people, not the governments, not the laws, not the regulations, not the legislations. I hope they find their soliciting communities and sort of continue with this issue. Just talking about Chitra, coming back, it's been an exciting journey for me. It's been 26, 20, almost 29 years where we experienced and enjoyed several sunsets, several sunrises, several exciting moments, several suicide bats, lots of reading and argumentary sessions. We had fantastic arguments, and we loved every minute of it, yeah. It was so fabulous in terms of going through those phases, and in some of the purviews, when we went to participate sometime in the past year. And it was a wonderful journey. And we faced a lot of challenges. Definitely, of course, yes. And we went through it with a kind of holding onto each other, doing fantastic inspirations from life around us, from our family. And so all the cousins are here, the sisters are here, aunties here, and so many of the judges here, one of the oldest associations we've had since 1971. And I'm so sort of touched with giving us that pair of small doses of inspiration and courage and support to carry on. She never lost access for life right through, in a sense, through the last decade. I mean, she had joy. It didn't matter when it was. I'll just try to take you through the quality of her expressions, all these expressions. You'll see, she never lost a smile right through the last 30 years. And here you see what she's smiling in 1982, landing in the U.S. And this, you see, having a big laugh when a physician's told her, you have few days to live. It didn't matter to her. It never mattered to her the life or death. But what didn't matter to her was having fun learning through those referral points and having fun at it. I think she did wonderfully well out there. It really didn't matter to her. And I would like to share that, just a few very small things out of a road to her life. Very simple. We didn't do big things. We did very small things. But we had fun doing the small things. And this small thing here, part of the longer one, the afternoon walks in the tropical shoalas, the birds and butterflies she loved to follow. Enjoying those very brief moments of wellness and times in the last 20 years. A lot of glorious evenings, set of melodies of Prophet Jajid, Asha, and Eli Raja, and Bhav Shatil Satin, the Denmark, Thailand, Maddie Page, Simon and Gal Funker. Fantastic. I mean, all of them, the small, kind of precious, they gave us great. And she used to do a lot of walks, actually, searching for the stars and commerce. And she taught me so much to think about consolations and beers, if one could tell you how many consolations. She taught me everything about the great bear, the R.A.M. and the boots and the drago, especially she was very good in drago, in terms of how it decides what happens around consolations to see if we were to fail about the big ones. We knew just sort of what seconds left, but we put our life into the seconds, and we didn't have a day in the sun. It's not every day, but the days we have, places in the sun, we really had it. Friends, grab those seconds from slipping out of your hand, like rinse of sand, they'll never come back, they won't return ever. So, spend all your fantastic moments with your families, your friends. They define you, families define you. And I would like to, she did leave me with this legacy of different thoughts in the same sand. And just as she lived, she saw a lot of this orbit with a great laughter. And she used to write this one on her journey, and she used to write, I will just sort of read it out for you. It's a thing which you had long gone back actually in that is, as a set of immediate destiny, I've over flowed with patterns of intimate dreams. Using threads of, threads found through a thunderstorm, I've looked at it in the woods, and I tried it, I tried it, what could be undone. But I knew that I will have another, I will have another from a journey that has just begun. This long time back, I think a journey began, would have began after she moved out of orbit. She's like being a lot of students, a lot of things. She had immense faith in the rules, and through all of India, and so many people she connected with, so many people she had in the field of education, and absolutely nothing to do with that life in HBCAC. And she had a life far away from HBCAC, and unfortunately I'm not sharing many of those things out here. It's a, it's a, it's a, so I can find a few areas out there. And when she started out, she did give a message here, a lot different, the parents, educators, and a lot of people who were concerned with the future of this country. This small one, she always believed, give rules, give rules in a tradition culture, and then give wins, and then they'll come back sometime more stronger, more understanding, and that will be the way to a very caring nation building exercise. And it was coming to the end of what I wanted to tell you, what I was sharing with you. We had immense, we had immense faith, we had immense faith in the youth of today, who have been continuously being crowded by, there are narrowness of their faith, narrowness of their early generations, and narrowness of practices of what they have been taught, and they are all struggling to come out. So in this kind of narrowness, how do people come out, how do youth come out, how do the nation building starts? And it sort of, it's really interesting for me, it's sort of warming for me when I hear lakhs of students, lakhs of youth, between 18 to 30 years of age, today listen, when Shabba Saman, one of the finest Malayalam Sufi singers, when he invokes the great Sufi artist, Darwin Tavish, Rabaya, and Kusro, in the words, in Malayalam, he said, Naragatilti is love. So where is what I'm reading? In English, he tells you, there is neither fire in hell, nor is there a garden waiting for you in heaven. It's all in you, both in your world, the world of inclusivity and peace. I'm so glad that all those youth are out there listening to Shabba Saman, today, in several parts of the country. I owe a lot to Shabba's. And Uchitra, I just was struck, I mean, all the people said those things about her, but what struck me was right in Shabba, the limitless compassion and the clarity and vibrancy of thought, what she did amazing, I mean, I didn't even knew her very much, and that was and the fearlessness and the powerful articulation of her expressions marked our poor survival. And that was really revealing in terms of how it set the pace for her to follow and several of her colleagues from the past worked towards for that. And Siddhi Tembri's lifelong running, which has geared her to collaborate compassionately always maintaining, always telling me that's the only way we can sustain our society, its cultures, its values, its language, its diversity. There's no other way you can do it, different with a lot of humility. I've placed this work before. Each one of you and the community at large with a faint hope that leaders will at least liberate their unique capabilities. I strongly believe all of us have unique capabilities unique to us and which can be collectively synergized to better caring and inclusive society in future. And when I say society it's also society progressive with the right ethos of education. In the morning, Anita mentioned about pedagogy of the emotions and related factor. It's so important that we need to have. Otherwise we don't end up anyway and that's what is seen. Finally to end I would like to just share with you a few words of someone we revered so much different myself for long time. Myself since 1970s, later 80s is Babadu. He's a Senegalist environmentalist and also the founder of International Union of Conservation of Nature. It is 1968 angered general body assembly in New Delhi, in New Delhi. He told the assembly that in the end we will cancel only what we love. And we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught. And he was so right. We will understand only what we are taught. And the body is back again to the world of educators, the world of parents, the world of parents is an educator and we need to set the pace. Science goes thus far. Life comes later. We need to understand how to understand the platform of science and seek life from a different path. It's extremely important. And just a few things. When Sonu was trying to like I said, we believe in the youth and Sonu wanted to share, watch the road to Earth is right here. He said they can be more equitable and more sustainable world. We can be the change we want to see changes happen once every time. Or in one big revolution we can make both happen because we are imprimers. This is 8 December 2013 to Sonu and all the Catholic students out there. She wrote a lot. She wrote a lot of poems. Well, many of them are safe and sometimes they get in some other form. And I'm actually grateful to reach from up here. We took time away from the families to join us today here. And thanks indeed so much. Thanks so much for taking these precious moments. For me it's extremely important that we spend this time for to listen to its first life. I wish each one of you a very safe journey as you go back to your homes to your lives and may you join peace and good health in your solstice. This is a great marker for this book. Please remember when you read the pages you have a marker there. This is a message I would like you to look at every day. Migrating across the border they see inclusivity in education. It says sit on it. I mean the state border source. Thanks so much. Thanks so much. Thanks so much Gisha for posting this. Thanks everybody. Thanks very special thanks I should mention to one we guide all day and Raul really helped me together through this wonderful wonderful actually it was more cathartic actually but they helped me here and it's always been celebrating each day so I try to do but I think I failed badly. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing all that with us just for the moment. I call my colleague Sarita Lagya to give the vote of thanks. After the vote of thanks I invite all of you to join us outside for tea and snacks and we are very happy for you. We are towards the end of the day and it's time to acknowledge all those people whose hard work has made this day a memorable one. As far as the entire conception of today's program goes is basically by Dr. Raj Gopal Chitra's husband Raju as we address him actually the conception has become reality through discussions with Professor Siddhartha Siddhartha who is the closest colleague who worked with Chitra for a very long time. Thank you for conceptualization and thank you for making it a reality. We really enjoyed the whole day those who were present from the morning for the the session we will agree on the discussion with Professor Anitha Rambal who is also chief guest for the function and she gave an excellent talk this morning that was followed by a talk by Professor Jayashree and Professor Dabi Superman and we are also thankful for the discussion and the discussion and we are also thankful to Professor Pradhan we had another speaker Professor Irwin Kumar who is the former director who spoke about history of science and philosophy of science we are thankful to Professor S.C. Pradhan who chaired the technical section and also gave comments and collected various viewpoints which were given to students and when Chitra and Sugra were trying to establish this domain of design and technology at HBCSC and it takes a lot of students to venture into an area which is not established you know so and the first student always shares a very different relation with the domain with the people who is working in another complex domain the domain kind of domain which was which was very close which Chitra has been very interested and it's highly complex domain and again I mean it takes a lot out of a person to work in a domain which is so complex and to deal with the problems so it was it was very nice to listen both to Swati and Ashwati when they presented Mrs. Parvati Chitra's mother auntie she's auntie and she's mother to all of us and I'm very happy that you could join us we have Asha and we also have Jyoti I've not personally met Jyoti but thanks and we also have other family members of Chitra who are very much here on this occasion thanks for joining us we're doing there and we're taking responsibility and that is where you often see at HVCC things work very smoothly so I would like to just tell the names of the people who have taken various responsibilities we are thankful to Manoj for taking the technical responsibility Manoj Manoj is here yeah so who basically took care I will mention Ravindra who is in Dean's office Bajanan who is in the director's office the entire technical section who is very much here and Ms. Madhavi who is the chair of the admin also Raul he must be yeah he must be there a security gardener you know all these people have taken efforts so that today's program runs very smoothly so we are thankful to them the whole meaning if you would have not had such wonderful audience who joined us for the technical section and also for the book release of this and I'm sure all of us are eagerly waiting to go through that book to understand more about Chitra we have seen some aspect of Chitra but we want I myself want to go through that book I'm just waiting when I grab that book and go through it so it tells Kulkarni who has come all the way and it's just her love for Chitra and Aneeta thanks for bringing Mrs. Kulkarni for the program and I see many people who has interacted with Chitra in some way or the other senior colleagues or friends or students or perhaps some new faces you know who were interested in the kind of issues which were having good deliberations even in the technical section and it was very peaceful for me to listen to Sonal so one of the youngest person who is taking Ahed Chitra's ideas you know who are really acting on that and Sonal will agree with me that Chitra is going to be even more peaceful and very happy to see that her passion and her ideas we are able to take it Ahed perhaps with the same enthusiasm so we have to keep doing this work with that note I invite everybody to join us for a cup of tea thank you thanks a lot