Why We Need Ekalavya Spirit
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    • Why We Need Ekalavya Spirit
    I denounce India living in mythology. It is deplorable that our great leaders and thinkers doing that. I wouldn’t have dwelt on Ekalavya had there been no stupendous sound bites about Dronachaya and Arjuna in the atmosphere at all.

    At the outset I make a humble submission that I’m not posted with latest facts. Though my frame of reference may be outdated, the relevance of my argument – I suppose – is not lost even today.

    We had had a lot of clamour regarding transfer of technology that the advanced donors do not dole out the latest version and that some secrets were always held back. But there were exceptions as far as Soviet Union was concerned – they gave the latest with no secrets held back. My frame of reference is MIG 20. As per documents I had access to till 1986, The Soviets transferred everything – lock stock and barrel. After a few years the next generation of MIG 25 came into being, because of improvement made on the previous model in Russia. And we had to rush for that. The same practice went on till MIG 29. Now MIG 35 is coming. Currently, a decision hangs on other competing alternative choices. The same may be applicable to Bhilai Steel Plant.

    Similar practice was in force in other branches of technology. There would be periodic clamour for ‘modernisation’ or ‘up gradation’ of technology – meaning we are in for import of latest version. That remained the established practice in the past – probably it persists even today. We hardly bothered  about indigenous innovation. Why, probably we failed to look inward. Up-gradation should occur from within, not from without. Media hype that we will be at par with advanced countries by 2030 etc. won’t do. We have to take pretty more long strides to be at par or surpass them.

    I like to elaborate by a simple analogy. We bought a ‘baby walker’ for a six-month old toddler. It pushes this way and that and roams about the whole room. And we feel happy. At the age of one year the old walker is no more found  suitable. So, go in for the next model, as the baby becomes dependent on the walker without learning itself to walk on its own. Is it not the similar thing we did in the past and doing probably even now? We need to assimilate the  advanced imported technolgy thoroughly and incorporate further improvement in it by our own ingenuity. The improved version may be even better than the next generation of technology of the mother country.

    Now, I shift my focus to J.C.Bose Museum, Kolkata. I visited the museum in early fifties. And, as a young boy, I was awestruck. I could appreciate it better now. What a genius he was. He felt the need to measure various sensitivities of different plants. He didn’t have any such instruments. In those days there were no electronic devices available, though he was indeed the de facto inventor of ‘Radio Communication’ preceding Popov and Marconi. He fired a gun, kept in a room, by radio signal from a different room. Per force, he had to depend on mechanical devices. How he could imagine the various components of intricate instruments and got them fabricated through black smith or sheet metal worker, and put them in use with success, is amazing. It betrays the finish of sophisticated craftsmanship. That is called creativity.

    It illustrates that our goal should not be easy but may be attainable. Marshall all the resources available and find a way out to reach the goal. We are to work out  a solution with whatever wherewithal we have now. In the case of  Ekalavya he had bows and arrows; what he needed:  faith in himself, and devotion to practice to actualize his potentialities. He didn’t brook on what he lacked most: absence of a Guru. Still, he persued his passion with determination and attained excellence. And that is what we will call Ekalavya spirit and that is what we need.

    So, concentrate on what we can do with what we have and not lament on what we lack and fret.

     

     
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