Puja invocation:
TATAs have a reputation of being good corporate citizen having created Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. I don't know any of you are aware that it was the result of confluence of two great minds - during a ship journey from Calcutta to Tokyo in 1892. Yes, one was obviously Jamsedji Tata.
But do you know who the other is?
Yes, it is the then young monk, Swami Vivekananda, on his way to Chicago's World Council of Church's interfaith meet, where he was to make history.
He asked Jamsedji, who was going to import matches from Japan to make them in India. Jamsedji's answer was we don't have chemists and engineers. The young monk suggested he can start an institute to train /teach them. Thus was the seed sown.
Many years later - when Jamsedji got stuck down due obstruction of the then bureaucracy- who resisted it asking for full money to be deposited so it can run from the corpus fund - essentially undermining it. On Jamsedji's SOS Swami Vivekananda deputed Sister Nivedita to lobby British Parliament to pass the bill that constituted Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Thus came in to being the IISc - a product of meeting of two great sons of India - A progressive Hindu monk and a great captain of Indian Industry.
A century later, today India is on way back to the top of world due such great foresight of some of the sons of the soil - who were of different religion - different language but one in allegiance and inspiration, the land of India. Let us pledge on this happy occasion that henceforth all our actins will be in the interest of our brethren.
It reminds me of Swamiji"s immortal saying was: "Arise, Awake, stop not till the goal is reached."
