An evening with Prof BJ Rao
Introduction
On Friday, Feb 24, we had an insightful session by Prof BJ Rao, Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad. The session was moderated by Prof R Prasad and Prof Sudhakar Rao.
About Prof BJ Rao
Prof. Basuthkar Jagadeeshwar Rao earlier served as Senior Professor, Chair of Biology, Dean-Faculty, at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, Prof Rao was associated with the Biology Department at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for about 24 years and served as Senior Professor and Chair of the Biology programme.
Prof Rao was a National Science Talent Awardee (1st in AP, 16th rank in India), received his PhD from Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru) and worked as a Research Scientist at Yale University Medical School (USA) before joining TIFR.
Prof. Rao is a Fellow of all three National Academies of India: the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is a Sir JC Bose awardee from the Department of Science and Technology. Prof Rao has made fundamental contributions in the areas of Genome Biology and Cellular regulations and adaptations where he has published about 160 peer reviewed international publications with high citations and impact. His publications range from experimental to theoretical Biology to Chemistry and Physics.
Prof Rao has chaired and been a member of several National and International committees on various policy matters related to Science, Technology and Education. He has widely travelled and lectured across the globe. Prof Rao is a strong votary of knowledge-centric, concepts-oriented interactive modes of learning methods combined with critical thinking.
Prof. Rao has contributed significantly as the Chief-Editor of Journal of Biosciences, a flagship journal of Indian Academy of Sciences and Springer Nature, combined and has been instrumental in enabling its high impact. Prof Rao has delivered numerous technical and public lectures for varied audiences. Reaching young minds has been his passion. He has been a DST- Inspire teacher, motivating undergraduate students across India by explaining recent developments in Biology.
Interesting times
Fascinating things are happening today. The world is full of exciting ideas. We can try them and test them.
From a country of deficits, we are today rearing to go. There are so many opportunities to come up with innovative models and ensure that today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow is better than today.
We are at the crossroads today with multiple opposing things coming together. Nothing goes as expected. It is a non-linear life today.
But we do not have the required number of interesting people to take advantage of these opportunities. Why are we so linear in our thinking? We must think out of the box and position ourselves for greater accomplishments.
With our young, aspiring, and talented workforce we enjoy a strategic advantage. If we train them, they can become assets not only for the country but also for the entire world. We can rapidly become a developed nation. We must make our innovation ecosystem more vibrant.
The need for interesting people
We need more interesting citizens. We need more people who can think ab initio, solve problems independently, frame fundamental problem statements on their own. We have a rich heritage.
During pre-independent India, we had more original thinkers. Think of JC Bose, S N Bose, CV Raman, and Ramanujam. Today, we have lost the ability to do things on our own and be the first in the global race. We are in a race to imitate the west blindly. We have lost the ability to ask tough questions.
Our priorities today are wrong. Our focus seems to be on money, cushy jobs, houses, expensive objects and travelling around the world. Our politics is operating at a low level.
We should draw inspiration from our rich heritage. We are the only culture in the world founded on some extraordinary tenets:
- Vasudeva Kutumbakam (The world is one family.)
- The creator is the same as the creation.
- Practising bhakti in our daily life
- Experience of the real God.
The road ahead
We accounted for more than a quarter of the world’s GDP at one point of time. Why could we not sustain this? Colonialism is not really the answer. We must blame ourselves. We have become deprived materially and mentally. We have become servile and lost the sheen.
We should come out of this rut. We should embrace an exploratory mindset. If we think me/mine/my resources/my wealth, we will not get much satisfaction. We must think about things that are less physical, non-linear, innovative. We must solve problems differently and stay away from the routine mode.
Students today do not have real hunger for knowledge. Without that hunger, it is difficult to understand things deeply and in totality.
This imitative/routine mindset needs to change. We should live in the ideas world. We must immerse ourselves in ideas and think of how to implement them. Our discussions at home should be more interesting.
One positive point is that we have still not lost our core. Whenever we have faced a setback, someone has come along to be our saviour. Think of Shankaracharya, Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo. They provided a spiritual shield for our culture and heritage.
Today we are inundated by the AI/ML narratives. We must retain our original thinking. What can save us are original ideas and a fundamental simplicity. We must shape the innovation ecosystem so that the stars can be nurtured.
We are drawn to the success stories of the west. Instead, we should come up with our own fundamental ideas. We have a long tradition of innovation.
We must encourage our youngsters to become deep thinkers. We must inject original problems in their mind and ask them to solve them. We must give them enough freedom. We must not over mentor them.
We must explore the free space on our own. Our mind is designed to think innovatively. We must read good books, especially important classics. We should also interact with interesting people or at least read about them. We could pursue adventure sports like bungey jumping. We should sit under the trees and watch the stars. Such pursuits are more interesting and invigorating than social media or movies or a cricket match.
To discover ourselves, we must spend time with ourselves. We must shut down our gadgets. We should read poetry and listen to ghazals.
We have embraced technology without understanding ourselves. We are not utilizing our hidden potential. We are wasting time without trying to achieve anything significant.
Consider Richard Roberts, the Nobel laureate. He liked mathematics and fancied himself as a crime detective but chose to become a biologist as he was fascinated by some important problems. Like Dr Roberts, we should be driven by our interest not because people tell us to do something. We should decide our life trajectory based on passion. We should follow a nonlinear path. We should embrace a 3600 vision in our approach. We should encourage students to embrace this lifestyle. We must teach them not to be afraid of failure.
Life is too much fun. We should be innovative. Life will be a tragedy if we do mundane things.
Indian culture is inherently creative. We may be a poor country. But original thinking does not need resources. We can be the global leader in innovation.
Q&A
The problem with our education system is that it does not contextualize knowledge. Whether it is universities or coaching centres or tuition classes, it is dry learning. We do not connect science with daily life. Learning and living are isolated compartments. What is taught remains as information. It does not become knowledge. In the west, education is contextualized. Students do not learn much. But what they learn is contextualized. More freedom is given to students to think independently. We should also learn less, think about what we have learnt and how to apply what we have learnt.
Acquiring content should not be equated with education. Real education is about thinking on our own. Otherwise, education will come in the way of education. It will trap us in certain fixed ways of thinking. Real education is about liberating ourselves to do something new. It is not about degrees or jobs. It is about reflecting on profound questions: What is the universe made of? How did certain things happen? How did they happen this way? The real purpose of education is to create fearless minds who can do things on their own and contribute fundamental things to society. A spirit of inquiry is the essence of education. Education should develop our mind so that we can appreciate established as well as unsung beauty.
Each of us is different. The urges of our inner core are different. We must get a glimpse of who we are. Otherwise, we will waste our lives. We must discover ourselves. We must go beyond our body and mind. We are endowed with a powerful force that transcends body and mind. We must connect with that. When our consciousness is awakened, we will feel a different reality.
We must begin by asking: Who am I? What is in me? We must establish a deeper connect with ourselves. We must realize that we are part of something big. We are not localized individuals.
We must enjoy this process of connecting with ourselves and exploring ourselves. We should not be worried about the outcome of the endeavours. We should enjoy the process. Being part of the process is the purpose of living.
Language is an integral part of culture. Our thinking happens through language. Language and culture are deeply interwoven. There is evidence to indicate that in lower classes, if we learn concepts using our natural language/mother tongue, we will understand the concepts more deeply and clearly.
Prof Rao studied in Telugu medium at school. This enabled him to understand science concepts well. Later, he learnt English which became an additional tool. If children start learning in English right from the early days, there will be gaps in their learning. This point is not adequately emphasised.
It is a misconception that introverted persons cannot become interesting. Albert Einstein was deeply introverted. But his work was most interesting! Introverts are not bothered about whether people are noticing them. In contrast, extroverted people may appear interesting but behind the talk is insecurity. They are guided by attention seeking behaviour.
We should look at the output while judging people not their appearance. We must give freedom to people to work at their own pace. We must not straitjacket them.
How do we avoid distractions in his world of social media? Distractions will always be there. They will not stop. The mind should remain focused even while facing these distractions. The mind should get triggered by a few things. We should train ourselves to go deeper into a few issues rather than go all over the place.
Everything need not be scalable. Indeed, everything cannot be scaled up. Some processes can and should be scaled. But all processes need not scale up.
The ideas are very much practical. Great discoveries have been made even while working on mundane matters. Consider Einstein, CV Raman, and Ramanujan. We may have to indulge in mundane activities to make a living. But behind them, we should be chasing something big. We should make money for our livelihood. There is nothing wrong with that. However, we would still have enough energy left to do bigger things. We have not tapped deep enough into our potential. We must not underestimate the power of the subconscious mind and intuitive processes.
Today, packaging is often given more importance than content. This is unfortunate. Our thinking styles and paradigms have resulted in this trend. We should think deeply, meditate, and connect with ourselves. Only then we will get insights. Only with insights we can make a leap. Otherwise, the progress will be incremental.
Mahatma Gandhi, Michael Faraday, Vivekananda, and Bill Gates are good examples. Mahatma Gandhi came up with the concept of satyagraha and non-violence. It was a beautiful model in that context. He was able to waken society and inspire people to fight for independence.
We must learn to channelise our thoughts, focus our minds, and immerse ourselves in a problem for a long time. Complex problems need deep thinking and immersion. Only then we will get the necessary insights. Superficial thinking and moving from one activity to another will not create much impact. Today, we have short attention spans. We want to work for a few minutes and then take a break. This trend needs to be corrected.
We need to spend time with ourselves. We must connect with our inner self. We must throw away our gadgets and think deeply. Even at home we should foster this kind of a culture where there is deeper thinking and connection with ourselves rather than moving from one activity to another in a state of distraction. We should become solitary reapers of a different kind.
A lot of data is generated in any process be it the atmosphere, genome, financial markets, computation, etc. We have traditionally emphasised the data side of the equation. But to contextualize the data and communicate the implications impactfully, we need stories. We may use tools to manage other tools. But tools have temporary utility. What will create an impact is a powerful story. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once mentioned that if there is a thorn on one foot, we may need another thorn to remove this thorn. But after the thorn is removed, we may have to throw both the thorns away.
A great session by Prof BJ Rao. Excellent facilitation by Prof R Prasad and Prof Sudhakar Rao.