Trailblazers : Dr Vijay Bhatkar

Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, The architect of India’s Information Technological revolution.

                   The press of a button opens before us a vast ocean of information on innumerable subjects and domains. This dream became a reality in India through the efforts of Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, a computer scientist. He is the creator of India’s indigenous super computer.

             Dr. K. R. Narayanan had suggested the name of Dr. Bhatkar for realizing the dream of the late Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, of indigenously building a supercomputer. Out of this inspiration was formed the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and the development of Param, India’s first supercomputer.

             Dr. Bhatkar was born on 11 October, 1946 in Muramba in Akola district to a highly educated couple. He completed his schooling in Murtijapur in a school established by Saint Gadgebaba. He was in the merit list of the board exams and acquired his degree in engineering at the age of 18. He acquired his M.Tech from the Sayajirao University in Baroda and then got his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi at the age of 26.

             He worked for many years in the electronics domain as the Director of Celtron. He worked on many major computerization projects which included the Kolkata metro project, traffic management in metros, defense projects for the Defense as well as several government departments, electricity control etc. He was also a member of the scientific advisory committee for the central government. Later, at CDAC, he helped develop GIST, the multilingual technology because of which software could be used in various Indian languages.

           As immersed as he is in science and technology, his interests also span diverse subjects like Indian culture, Vedas, Upanishads and saint literature and spirituality. Influenced by the ideologies of Saint Gadgebaba at a young age, he strives today to find a balance between science and spirituality.

            He was bestowed with many awards while handling posts on national and international level. The central government awarded him the Padmashri and the Maharashtra government awarded him the Maharashtra Bhushan award

             Dr. Bhatkar is still proficiently active today, at the same time studying European cultures and working towards his spiritual quests too. He is also a role model for the youth in India. 

Trailblazers: Sudha Murthy

                 Sudha Murthy is an Indian social worker and author. She was born in 1950 in Shiggaon in Northern Karnataka. She is the daughter of a famous surgeon Dr. R.H. Kulkarni. She began her professional career as a computer scientist and engineer. Sudha and her siblings were raised by her parents and maternal grandparents. These childhood experiences form the historical basis for her first notable work entitled ‘How I Taught My Grandmother to Read & Other Stories’.

                She is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and a member of public health care initiatives of the Gates Foundation. She has founded several orphanages, participated in rural development activities, supported the movement to provide computers and library facilities to all Karnataka government schools and established 'The Murthy Classical Library of India' at Harvard University. 

                    She completed B.E. in Electrical Engineering from the B.V.B. College of Engineering & Technology. As she stood first in her class, she received a gold medal from the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. She completed M.E. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Science and received a gold medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers.

             After graduation, Murthy had applied to the company and was told that only men were eligible to apply. Then , she  had written a postcard to the Chairman J R D Tata, complaining about the gender bias at TELCO. As a result, she was granted a special interview and hired immediately when found eligible. Murthy became the first female engineer hired at India's largest auto manufacturer, TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company or TELCO. She met  Narayana Murthy at TELCO, and the they got married. Murthy is recognized as the seed investor of the Infosys. She teaches computer science and composes fiction.

                    In 2004, Murthy was presented “The Raja Lakshmi Award" by Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation in Chennai, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to social work. In 2006, Murthy was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest-ranking civilian award from the Government of India, and received an honorary doctorate for her contribution in the spheres of social work, philanthropy and education. In 2011, Murthy was conferred honorary LL.D (Doctor of Laws) degree for her contribution in promoting formal legal education and scholarship in India.

                     She is a prolific fiction writer in Kannada and English. She has published several books that spell out her philosophical views on charity, hospitality and self-realization through fictional narratives. She was the recipient of the R.K. Narayana Award for Literature.

B Tech ISemester : Luck By Mark Twain

                                           Luck by Mark Twain

                Mark Twain was an American author and humorist. His wit and satire in prose and in speech earned praise as the greatest American humorist of his age.

            Once, the author attended a banquet. It was held in honour of Scoresby, an illustrious English military officer. A clergyman, who sat beside the author, whispered that Scoresby’s glory was an accident and was just a product of incredible luck. The author was surprised.

       After some time, the clergyman revealed that, forty years ago, when he was an instructor in a military school, Scoresby was a stupid and ignorant boy. Out of compassion, the instructor drilled the boy in some stock questions. Luckily, he was asked no other questions outside the drill. The boy came out in flying colours. Throughout the course the instructor stood by the boy and he always saved himself just by miracle.

       During the Crimean war, luck again favoured him and he was made a captain. As a captain, he did nothing but blunders. Every fresh blunder was misinterpreted and increased the lustre of his reputation. Thus Scoresby ascended grade after grade.

       The war reached a crucial stage. Scoresby detached his regiment from a vital place and ordered them to charge over a neighbouring hill where there was no trace of an enemy. But again luck favoured him and the unsuspected Russian army in reserve stationed there. They suspected that the entire English regiment had come down upon them. So they turned tail and went pell-mell. In no time, Scoresby got a splendid victory. He was honoured by the Marshall on the field itself.

       He achieved a sweeping and splendid victory, merely because he mistook his right hand for his left. The decorations on his breast were the proof that the best thing in this world that can befall a man is to be born lucky.

B Tech I SEMESTER : The Dying Sun by Sir James Jeans

                       *******     The Dying Sun   *********
       Sir James Jeans was an English physicist and mathematician. In the lesson, 'The Dying Sun', he analyses the geographical details of heavenly bodies of the universe and the possibility of life in them.
              With a comparison between the geographical area of the star and earth, he says that most of the stars are so larger than the earth .There are some immense stars, large enough to contain even millions of earths in each star and leave space in it. He adds that there are in numerous stars in the universe, like the total number of grains of sand on all the sea-shores of the world.
             Secondly, He highlights how big, immense our universe is. He says that there is immense distance between the stars and it is very rare event that one star come near to another. With an excellent comparison between a star and a ship on an empty ocean, he says that an average star is well over a million miles away from its nearest star.
              He systematically describes how the solar system came into existence, and about the results of it. In a detailed manner, he explains how the planets became cooler. He explains about the availability of life only on earth. He further explains about the gradual growth process of living organisms on earth, and about the establishment of human society on earth, their emotions, and religious beliefs.
            Sir James opines that we all find the universe frightening because of its immense distances between each heavenly body, because of the stretches of time which is so great that we cannot even imagine, because of our earth's extreme loneliness in the midst of this immense universe. Moreover to all these, we find the universe frightening as we are unable to find any other heavenly body like the earth, in which life exist in it. That is why, perhaps, he opines that "life does not seem to have any part in the plan of the universe except on earth".
             He opines that most of the heavenly bodies are extremely hot and most of them are extremely cold, which is impossible to live in them.