Balaji Darshan

I was very excited looking forward to have the darshan of Balaji Sir, who made it to the event in White shirt and Vetti arousing pride in me. ( I said to myself “Thamizhan da”. It was after that he said the reason behind his costume for the day. :P)

To tell about the lecture, it was an eye-opening talk by Balaji Sir at IIT-M. It is not the first time that I negate the fairness of our educational system, which is supposed to develop wise humans out of children. In fact, most of us would heresy our educational system. But when someone pinpoints the flaws and with comes up brilliant solutions to cleanse the dirt, it inspires us. Needless to say, Balaji sir inspired us on 13th August 2016 at Central Lecture Theatre of IIT-M.

I would quote some of the bright ideas that were emitted out of his wisdom that day.

· “62,290”

This is the number of Student suicides that happen every year in India.

My thought: Education is one among the instruments that Homo sapiens use for evolution. But the way we conceive and boil tender minds is reflected in the obscenity of the fact. This fact simply tells that all the while we have taught children that to fail is to get humiliated losing our worth.

· More suicides happen in the age group “15-29” than any other age group.

· The nation’s youth population is 35 Crore. This is more the combined youth population of the nations USA+ Russia+ China+Japan.

· Failure of proper nurturing of this power would boomerang. The uncared youth might have to resort to wrong ways to subsist and he is a threat to the society.

My thought : The fact is already evident from what we see across nation where the youths of nation resort to harsh ways to get their demands fulfilled – Kashmir backlash, Bus day celebrations in our own Chennai etc… We should be reminded of the fact It is our non-inclusive system that stands as the epicenter for the problem. Until the cause is cured, the effects out of the cause will rise again and again.

· Quoting “Daniel Pink” from his book “ The whole new thing”, he said Indians are now at conceptual age, where creation, metacognition and innovation plays a sound role. We fail to teach children how to implement theory in practice.

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· He quoted Yogi berra’s statement :

“ In theory there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is. “

· Indians created more startups than anyone else in silicon valley.

· 1/3 rd of the silicon valley startups are of Indians.

During the interaction session with audience, he shared his thoughts on startups which are as follows :

· Donot quit too soon.

· Anything good would see excess demand. It is up to you to distinguish yourself.

· Don’t hesitate to start up when you are a student. As a student your mistakes will be tolerated.

· If you want to start, do it right now.

· Marks are absolutely trivial to judge someone’s caliber.

· It is completely unfair to let a 15 year old to put under pressure and make him choose a avenue that he should pursue after his 10th grade. At the best, he can have a hypothesis.

Even after the formal interaction session, he was so polite that he addressed informal questions asked to him with absolute humility. Something we all should observe, when knowledge combines with humility, nothing can be more beautiful than that state. After the session, I had the fortune to meet his father Viswanathan along with Balaji sir’s son. He is no different - Humility personified, so kind in words.

The following Kural, one of my most favourite flashed in my mind.

மகன்தந்தைக்குஆற்றும்உதவிஇவன்தந்தை என்நோற்றான்கொல்எனும்சொல்.