Just now at 2am (I have to go to wok at 8am) I had a talk with a girl student
of mine in Bengal (IIT ) about tid-bits about what to do for internship in US.
Soon after I was wondering and a train of thought emerged.
My great Grandfather had gone to a place where she is - Kolkata - to escape a
life of hunger and thirst from desolate , drought ridden city of Churu (highest
temperature in summers in India and lowest [in plains ] in winters). He had no
education except knowing a few mantras which he used to get sustenance from the
richer banias (his clients in priesthood).
They supported him for a while but he could not survive there and with his only
child (the old man was himself an adopted child - in a family line many times
broken due to heavy mortality rate in India) and wife left for an upcoming town
in green and lush Bihar state (now India's wildest region) - the enter of
British rule in North Bihar - a city where the Banias were good in cloth trade
which they brought in from Kolkata. These Banias (Marwaris as they are called -
though anyone who is from the desert state is called so) all sold British made
cloth -later boycotted by Gandhi in India's Independence movement. The old man
(fond of smoking Indian bidis) set up a cloth shop (I have seen only one photo
of his b/w) with help of the coth expert banias for whom he served as the
priest in matters of marriage, birth and death .
His son was also married off early (at age 14 to another 14 yearold) and by the
time he was forty he had eleven children (two of them died early) but no
source of income. Hiding from his father he used to slink to study homeopathy.
But desite a license to practice he did not earn much. So again getting money
from his mother, he slunk off to study eastern medicine (AyurVeda - science of
life) under a nationally renowned Vaidya (Ayurvedic doctor). He emerged as the
prized pupil at age forty. The guru was so well known and western medicine
still not widely accepted that the chelas (students) used to have oil massages
with sandalwood oil (costlier than gold even then) . (--all this I have learned
from my father, grandmother (who died in 1996 at age 96 after staying for 16
years at my home in the desert) and my uncles (esp my medical doctor uncle from
Patna Medical College) who later came back to the desert state and brought his
younger brother (my father) along and sent him
off to www.rimc.org for a secure career.)
As luck would have it soon my grandfather Pandit Rameshwar Sharma ( Vaidya ) ,
the prized pupil was send to clients when the Guru had other appointments and
he became known to all top clients. Then the Guru died and my grandfather had
to shoulder the burden of all his august clients. He charged Rs 1,000 in 1940s
per day (about US$2,000 comparing gold prices over time) when he was called
out of town and first class train fare (there were no planes then). In one of
his train journeys he was travelling with future Indian Prime Minister Nehru
and treated him for some minor ailment. Once he was called by the Nepalese King
to treat his nephew - the carriage (Palki) was shouldered by 20 footmen - who
took him all the way to Nepal court (now 6 hours by bus from my grandfather's
home). When the nephew was treated and cured of an illnes which no western or
eastern doctors could treat - the grandpa became a celebrity of sorts (I am not
sure he was not that already then) and asked
the king for strange substances - tiger's meat, crocodile skin oil, gold,
diamonds etc -- for medicine. He said he was successful since he only relied on
medicines he made himself - no adulteration.
India's first president who hailed from the very town my grandfather grew up
(in Bihar) was a frequent visitor in his study - since my grandfather was also
well versed in all sorts of subjects -esp religious texts and Sanskrit (all
self learned) and changed clothes three times a day -in sweltering , tropical
weather and was expert on eastern perfume (Atr).
I mention all this since it all came through education which he hid from his
father to receive (despite having eleven children and at age forty).
My father , on the other hand, is a very different person -especially after
resigning from Indian army (without pension) to start a school. The military
college then did not grant college degrees then - so basically he is high
school graduate despite having studied at finest Indian schools ( www.rimc.org
) and colleges. Nowadays that college (National Defense Academy awards
bachelor's degrees). His elder brothers (he being the youngest among six) got
college degrees - all professional ones and half of them didn't do much -they
didn't try since they had a new rich and famous father- so perhaps his
disinterest in college degrees . Even with my Harvard degree I don't think he
would be in awe :-)
He has hired many IITians from time to time as school teachers now - faraway
in the desert- far from his hometown (in Bihar) where he never grew up.
In case of women I think the importance of education serves an even more
important purpose . It helps them survive iin hostile environments and opens
doors to be able to work in safer, more skilled environs - like in case of my
grandfather (son of an illiterate immigrant so to speak). I wish my mother and
her sister had received professional degrees (like their two brothers - western
medical doctors). Their father retired as a government school headmaster in the
desert (an immigrant from Haryana to desert state Rajasthan)
Any thoughts?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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