South India – Day 15
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Nice road
This morning, we were up at 5:00 and out the door by 6:00. Not bad! Kindly, Roy David had arranged for Wajid to drive me all the way to Bengaluru where I would continue my Indian adventures by flight. Briefly, we stopped to say goodbye to Channappa and Chitra and then disappeared into the morning mist. So dense was the fog, that oncoming trucks could only be identified by ghostlike headlights flying toward, and then thankfully, past us. Eventually, the haze lifted, but then the road turned to dirt for a short time, and then…to a six-lane divided highway. I can never predict the next moment in this country. This is the nice road to Bengaluru. Not “a” nice road, but “the” nice road. “Nice Road” is its name, just like “Nice Restaurant.” Signs along the way declared it a “cattle free road.” I do hope the cows were reading those signs, because we were flying along at such speed, weaving in and out of trucks the size of warehouses, that even the best of brakes would not have been effective had we met a wayward cow.
Azim Premji University
The last item on the Roy David agenda was a visit to Azim Premji University. Ajim Premji was at one time the richest man in India, but is no longer so due to his decision about 25 years ago to give away his money through a foundation that bears his name, the Azim Premji Foundation. Mr. Manjunath kindly gave me a rundown of some of their work. By the way, we are at the university now, and after a lengthy signing in process at the front gate, have made our way to the offices of some folks that are known by Roy David. Mr. Manjunath is one of these. Over a cup of coffee, I learned that the Azim Premji Foundation founded this university in 2011 and has education programs in 60 districts. It also gives grants to well managed NGOs, 950 of them so far, and they operate field institutes for education, public health, and livelihood training. To improve the reputation and quality of public schools, they provide training for teachers and headmasters alike. The aim for the latter is to change their management style to “not be so feudal.” I got the impression that these schools still rely on rote learning and a heavy-handed approach. Yet, they are the only means by which low-income families can educate their kids. That is why the foundation is investing in them. Girls are eligible for scholarships, but soon these will be made available to all children who have a disadvantage regarding their education, that is, can’t afford it. Today in India there is a situation of both malnutrition and obesity among children. In rural areas, the problem leans much more toward the “not enough food” side, so the foundation started a school feeding program, which is where the Chinthana Foundation’s egg project fits in.
The aim of the university is to produce new generations of socially conscious young people; people who want to do something for Indian society. This is a huge contrast to the thousands of universities and institutes that focus on tech, medicine, and the hard sciences. In some sense they are swimming upstream by concentrating on the social sciences, including three required semesters on “understanding India.” I was glad to hear I’m not the only one who needs help in this respect. Jokes aside, these classes make a lot of sense. I can see how people might live in a bubble of their own class, region, or even language and never see the vastness and diversity of their country. The uni offers six types of diplomas in education and development and have so far produced 4,500 graduates.
Collaboration
Roy David and I shared some about ARI, pointing out our common philosophies and everyone thought it would be a good idea to establish some kind of relationship. So, we gave Nancy a call and with no hesitation, she invited us to her office. Nancy works with Ajim Premji U’s alumni. Many of them have started NGOs and she felt these would be the best point of connection with ARI. There are possibilities to collaborate with ARI graduates in India, or send people to ARI for training. But before that they would need to know something about ARI so we could set up a virtual information sharing session, which would be easy to do because the Ajim alums have a nice WhatsApp network. There are no boundaries in distance these days! Nancy was super enthusiastic about the whole idea and eager to see it move forward. Now I just need to take it back to ARI and talk with my people. (Oh, business talk. “My people.” How important it sounds.)
It was about 8:00 when we reached my hotel near the airport. Roy and Wajid helped me get checked in and to my surprise headed straight back home. After this long day, I was worried about another long drive for them and happy to see a text at around 2:30 AM that they had made it home safely.
