FAILURE CV: Balaram .S

 

“People will not see your struggles, they only see your successes” – internet

Definition: Failure is the inability to achieve your goal, set by you or society.

1947	Loss of father, left mother as voiceless widow in a poor farmers joint family, in the tiny village. Aged 4. (Though this was not my failure, it had caused many)
1959	Failed miserably in Maths, with 10% marks. Humiliated punishment: stand up whole day in front of whole class. Higher secondary and multipurpose school (Bobbili Samasthanam high school. I was ridiculed by nickname “Pidathala Balaram” “Pidathala” in Telugu means broken clay vessals, absolutely useless.
1960	Unable to join B.E in Kakinada engineering college as I could not get scholarship and uncle said “No Money”
1964	Failed L.M.E(Diploma/Licenciate in Mechanical Engineering) in “Theory of Machines”. I have to reappear for exam in October. Mummy secretly paid fees.
1965	Most of my stories rejected by Telugu magazines. No story ever won any competetion
1965	Unemployed for a long time inspite of daily struggle & shame in village as I was very poor in farming
1970	Severely sick at Royal college of Art, London due to vegetarianism, high cost and no one to care for me. Not informed mother as she worries.
1973	Broke up relationship with German girlfriend, Sibyl Gerold.
1973-83	My dream design project “Bicycle for India”, won 4 patents and made as prototypes; but not manufactured till date.
1979+	In spite of being chief co-ordinator of world’s first ever conference on “Design for Development” supported by UNIDO and ICSID; it did not achieve the goal of establishing Design as key elements in industry or as key element in education. “Ahmedbad declaration” signed by 37 country delegates had no effect on government of India.
1975-85	As chairman of extension programs of NID, established Design cells in Delhi, Hyderbad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Chennai. Inspite of this, there is no impact of design on small & medium sector industries in India.
1980	As I was born in farmer community in village, I wanted to design for agriculture sector. I guided a new bullock-cart design project. Student designer: Mohan chandra But it was rejected by farmers as it didn’t convince them.
1980	With graphic designers Yashwant chaudry, co-founded S.I.D.I(Society of industrial designers of India). I was vice president of SIDI for many years. After yashwant’s untimely death and logistics problems SIDI died away.
1981	Guided “Harvesting implements” design project. Students: Abir Mullik and Aravind Merchant. Prototypes were made and tested at Mohanbhai parekh’s krishi yantralaya in Bardoli The new designs were badly criticized by Nobel LAUREATE V.S.Naipal in his book “India: A wounded civilization”. It was big blow to students wanting to work for the Agriculture sector.
1983	Established “Craft design center” as NID-campus 2 in Ahmedabad for young men from craft families all over India. After one year the project discontinued due to lack of funds.
1984	With co-designer Nilam Iyer, did field work and documented “Palm product design possibilities” for all India Handicrafts Board. The documentation was accepted but not acted upon.
1986	Applied for “Fullbright Fellowship” but not got selected.
1988	Second time applied for Fullbright fellowship but not got selected
1990	With wife Padmini textile designer, founded a charitable trust by the name “Varnam” for doing research on natural dyes and Indian culture. Trust got registered. It could not take off due to lack of finances.
1993	Applied for grant to research & documentation on “Burra Katha” a dying Telugu traditional ballod singing once most popular, to “Foundation for traditional arts”,Bangalore. I failed to get the grant.
1999	Design teacher training is a crying need in India. For this cause, I conducted programmes called “Faculty Development Programmes” (FDP). The programmes remained majorly experimental and not evaluated nor standaerdised for posterity.
1995	As my sabbatic year in Japan, I translated “Farewall to the Gods” by Marathi author D.B.Mokashi, an outstanding novel, into Telugu as “దేవుళ్లకు వీడ్కోలు” (Devullaku veedkollu). An NID film professor N.R.Murthy took the original manuscript and vanished. I kept no copy. Later I got into trouble with the D B Mokashi family as they came to know that the Telugu novel was made as Telugu film & no credits given to Mokashi family nor royalty. I had to profusely apologise to Mokashi family. I have re-translated the book again but failed to publish it!
2011	As part of 9 experts, authored the UDIP(Universal Design India principles) which will apply specifically to Indias socio-cultural background. These principles remained only on paper and not implemented.
2011	Conducted a unique “Bad Design” course as an elective for SRISHTI Design school in Bangalore with exciting results. But the course was neither publicised nor continued.
2004-18	Established UNIVERSAL DESIGN as a regular mandatory course in the design curriculum at DJAcademy of Design. After I left DJAD in 2018 the UD course was removed.
2015	Organized international conference on UD which resulted in UD declaration for India. At international association of UD, I won grand jury award for best UD education in world yet UD declaration had no effect on the government.
2016	Made a proposal for “Indian Design museum” like the calico museum of textiles, to be established at DJ Academy of design. A very useful and unique educating tool. The DJAD management was not interested!
2018	Anant National university, Ahmedabad offered to publish my 2 seminal writings; 1.      History of Indian Design and 2. Universal Design in India – collection of papers presented by me at international conferences. ANU formed teams working on these publications. For reasons unknown, these were never published.
2005-18	Founder dean of DJ Academy of deign where I established an academic culture like that of Indian traditional “Guru Kulam” which is learning family; small, cohesive and informal. Student strength was kept less than 30 and best professional designers were brought to teach as visiting faculty. Quality was paramount. When I left in 2018 the academy changed the whole culture and became commercial.
2018	Prompted and nominated by longtime colleagues such as Dalwadi, applied for “YIDAN PRIZE” for social design & for establishing humanitarian project. I submitted a proposal based on my “Barefoot” Designer Concept to teach & spread design teaching in Indian villages, my life long wish. I however did not get the prize!
2019-20	As founder dean established a unique design school called “Aram Center for Arts, Design and Environmental Studies (ACADES) which offered holistic learning, where yoga, meditation; life style changes, food based on “Siddha” principles; etc. were part of learning. Parents became frequent consultants. Due to fights among trustees and huge legal battles, the whole venture; collapsed. My salary was not paid. This is not only damaged my reputation but left a deep scar of trauma in me.