Golden Eyes and Silver Feet

 

Balaram was born in a farmer’s family in a small village Gunnathota Valasa near Bobbili town in Andhra Pradesh.

 The first son, in fact the first child in the family, he was named Balarama for the plough-bearing older brother of Lord Krishna. The second child, also a son was named Krishna and the third, a daughter, was inevitably Subhadra. The day when his mother went into labor and Subhadra was born, his father collapsed in the fields and was brought home dead. Later, the village elders pronounced that it was the impudence of naming the children after the divine siblings which brought about the father’s end.

As it was a custom in the south, the first  delivery child, Balarama was born in the maternal grand parents’ home in Jakkuva, another village. As a baby, he was fair and attractive and the entire village wanted to carry him and play with him.  It was summer, the month when the village worshiped their village goddess Daadi Thalli. In this nine-week festival, the goddess, in the form of a garlanded brass pot, is carried round the village in a procession every night and every household makes offerings of rice, sweets and fruit. Women compete for the honour of carrying the goddess on head; babies are laid on the procession’s path to receive the goddess’s blessing as the women walk over them. Balarama, beautiful child that he was, enjoyed being carried round the festivities and fed sweets and fruit. 

One evening during the procession and celebrations, moving from one villager’s shoulders to the other, the baby suddenly balled his fists, drew rigid and had a seizure. The villager’s rushed him home and everything was tried to revive the baby in vain. The body grew cold. Someone suggested that branding the baby would revive him. So this was done and a hot iron was placed on his wrists and knees and forehead. Still, no life. The women began wailing. It was past mid-night, the goddess had been returned to her shrine outside the village. 

The village Brahmin, and the village considered itself lucky to have at least one, was slightly knowledgeable in herbs. Hearing of the wailing and the death of the child, he arrived. After an examination of the body, he pronounced that there was still some flicker of life which perhaps could be rekindled with a kashayam of three wild root herbs; Verri, Veysari and Kaaru samba. Immediately, the villagers dispersed into the surrounding area with hurricane lanterns. An hour later they were back without being able to find the herbs. It was pitch dark and these were wild shrubs. By now, everyone had given up and the body was moved outside the home, to be buried in the morning. 

Balarama’s grandmother could not give up. How could she? This was her daughter’s firstborn and a male child in the family after years. She called a farmhand and rushed herself to the Daadithalli shrine outside the village, braving the snakes and wolves. 

Prostrating herself before the goddess, the old woman wept, swearing that if this baby was saved, she would lay him at the feet of the Goddess during the procession and offer her golden eyes and silver feet. She wiped her tears and turned back. The farmhand shone the lantern so the despondent old woman could walk the uneven path home. Then, in the light, in the enclosure within which the shrine lay, the astonished farmhand sighted the first of the three herbs. Then, a few steps away the second. And nearby, just ahead, the third. These three herbs, never sighted together, were found right there near the goddess. They both rushed home, the kashayam was made, the baby’s rigid jaws forced upon and the mixture poured down the throat. And Balarama (now Balaram) lived to tell this story. 

In the next day’s procession he was laid in the goddess’s path to receive her blessings. Balaram even today has the brand marks, a deep scar in the middle of his forehead and stains on his wrists and knees. And in his maternal grandmother’s village, Daadi Thalli has shining golden eyes and silver feet.

(I am grateful to Suchitra Balasubramaniyam who wrote this piece impromptu when I casually mentioned this fact of my life.)

Genesis of Design Education in India and 5 Institutions of My involvement

 

1) How NID Ahmedabad started:

1950s were post independence days and hectic rebuilding of India under Prime Minister Nehru's leadership was taking place.

At the 'Textiles of India' Exhibition in New York, Pupul Jayakar met Charles Eames, a world known designer. Pupul Jayakar was a doyen of Indian culture and close associate of Indira Gandhi, the would-be prime minister. She envisioned Design as an essential component for India’s Development. She had influenced the Indian government to invite Eames to India to advise us how design can help India's development goals and how to go about it.

In 1958, Charles and Ray Eames visited major Craft centres in India and presented their 'India Report'. The report was very evocative and general and the interpretation in terms of specific physical plan / finance was left out..

Based on that report, NID was established in 1961. The government considered 3 Indian craft centres for locating the institute – Hyderabad, Muradabad and Ahmedabad.

 

 The illustrious Sarabhai family which owned the country’s prominent textile industry, Calico mills, had exceptional foresight, took keen interest in establishing NID in Ahmedabad and offered free land. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian space science, belonged to the family.

 

It was the time of Cold war in world politics and the Nehru cabinet adopted nonalignment policy for India. Thus, Ford Foundation became major fund provider in India. Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) New York had sent their “well designed objects” travelling exhibition to India. The exhibition was sent to Hyderabad, Muradabad and Ahmedabad and finally the entire collection was donated to NID.

 

Gautam Sarabhai, the owner of Calico mills, was its first chairman and Gira Sarabhai, the Founder of Calico Museum of Textiles, was the first Executive Director.

 

Finding of design faculty and design students for this unknown domain of education was the biggest challenge.

 

Three innovative strategies were adopted by the management.

1. To invite top designers from abroad to visit NID to work on National level Projects. The Indian students would learn from them as trainee apprentices.

2. To invite best teachers from abroad as visiting faculty to teach at NID for short periods. Some of the best design schools such as Ulm, Royal college of Art were contacted.

3. To start stipendiary post-graduate programs in different disciplines for creating teachers.

 

For this, graduates from related fields such as architecture, Fine arts and engineering were invited. .After completion of the PG program, the best among them were sent to great world design schools for advanced studies.

 

The Industrial Design Program at NID started in 1965- 66 with 12 students, (engineering /architecture backgrounds) and Kumar Vyas was their only full time teacher.  Sudha Nadkarni after his studies at HFG Ulm, joined as second teacher in 1967.

The other disciplines were: Communication Design program and Ceramic Design program led by Dasarath Patel, Textile Design program led by Helena Perheentupa (Finland) who decided to stay permanently in India. The Dean was Prabhakar Bhagwat, landscape architect.

 

Gautam Sarabhai envisioned the NID building to speak for itself and reflect the innovative nature of Design. He appointed N.S.Ramaswamy, Director of I.I.T Rourkee as structural consultant. It was an experimental building with non-reinforced brick domes, column structure and rose-wood panels. While the building was under construction, the education and consultancy work commenced under the hired first floor of ‘Sanskar Kendra’ museum designed by the world famous French architect, Le Corbusier.

On the advice of eminent educationists such as Yash Pal, NID chose to award only UG/PG level diplomas in order not to compromise its quality standards.

 

 

2) How IDC Mumbai started:

 IIT Bombay was also established in the sixties but never considered Design had a place in an institute of technology. Design was considered belonging to the Arts field rather than technology field. V.N.Adarkar was then advisor to IIT by the virtue of his brother R.N.Adarkar being the Reserve Bank of India governor, a very high position in the government.

 Adarkar's background was Art and it was his idea to establish Design as a department in IIT. 

He was shrewd enough to foresee the uniqueness of design and felt that Bombay, India's commercial hub should get such a unique privilege than Ahmedabad.  He prevailed upon Brigadier Bose, who was then Director of IIT to start Industrial design Centre as part of IIT. 

 

In 1968, a team of experts led by Adarkar, visited NID to check the Industrial design program there. I personally answered the queries of the group about the program which we were undergoing then. (A G Rao clearly remembers this.) Subsequently, in 1969 Adarkar invited S.Nadkarni, with A.G.Rao, and Maniram Cattopadhyay from NID to start ‘Industrial Design Center (IDC)’ at IIT-B. By that time we all have completed our PG level studies at NID. Uday Athvankar, a graduate of architecture, after his advanced studies abroad, was also taken as faculty of IDC.

Those were the only design faculty.

The other technology/ science graduates were appointed to staff their workshops/ studios or to teach non-design subjects such as Ergonomics, Science and Liberal arts, production engineering, Ceramic technology etc.

IDC started only with Industrial design discipline at PG level initially. Other branches were added much later.

IIT being a premier institution, its graduates were automatically awarded degrees.

 

 

3) How CDI (Craft Development Institute), Srinagar started:

In 2000 June, the development commissioner, Handicrafts, Tinoo Joshi commissioned NID to look into the various problems faced by Kashmiri Craftspeople and how Design may help the people who are suffering due to economic depression caused mainly due to frequent terrorist activities in the J&K state.

 

NID formed a senior designer project team as below for the task. I volunteered to lead the team because i was moved by the plight of people of Kashmir. I always wanted to do something in this vital area.

S.Balaram...Principal Designer. (Project head)

Aditi Ranjan...Principal Designer, Textile design (member)

Saumyajit Ghoshal, Chairman, Outreach, Bangalore centre (member)

The team was assisted by two Student teams which visited Kashmir and conducted field research and documentation of major handicrafts of Kashmir covering:

-         Walnut wood carving

-         Embroidery

-         Papier- mache and

-         Copperware

The project team made several visits to Srinagar, held talks with Zahid Hussain, Deputy General Manager, J&K handicrafts corporation, important craftsmen and examined market outlets and existing infrastructure. During one of our visits, very close to a craft shop where we were researching, there were two bomb blasts.

 

In 2003 a feasibility report was written by myself and was discussed with various officials concerned in Kashmir. It was then submitted to the DC (Handicrafts) which was accepted after due consideration.  The report recommended establishing a ‘Craft Development Institute (CDI)’ in Srinagar with a focus on marketing and modernising of Kashmiri crafts through design inputs to improve the incomes of the people. It was ‘design for economic development’. NID was asked by DCH to implement it.

In 2004 I formed an expert team to help CDI in the initial years. After interviewing several candidates, Shaariq Farooqui was appointed as the first Executive Director of CDI.

 

 

4) How D.J. Academy of Design, Coimbatore started:

In 2003.NID- Bangalore undertook a professional job of 'Design of Comber Machine' for LMW, Coimbatore. A team led by Dr.Saumyajit Ghoshal, Head of NID-Bangalore centre visited LMW in Coimbatore and made a presentation. Dr. Jayavrthanavelu, being a wildlife Photographer, appreciated the importance of aesthetics in Machines and wanted to take the idea further.

So in 2004.Captain P.A.R Kumar, pilot and CEO of DJAME informed DJ about NID Ahmedabad and a visit by LMW team was arranged. The team included DJ, Sanjay, and Captain Kumar. An MOU with NID (Dr.Darlie Koshy was the Director) was signed.

 

Based on the MOU, on 5^th July 2004, a one year (3 trimesters) certificate program called DFPD (Design Fundamentals in Product Design) for graduates of engineering and for working engineers was launched by GKD charitable Trust.

 It was named D.J.Academy of Design. The idea was to create some aesthetically sensitive engineers which LMW and other industries can employ in the R&D. It was located in the Othakkal Mandapam campus, next to Premier Mills in a building designed by renowned Architect Rahul Mehrotra.  DJAME was already functioning there offering MBA program.

 

 I was deputed by NID to conduct the inaugural, 'Design Overview' course for the first batch of 12 engineering graduates. Thus I was the first design faculty (visiting) of DJAD.

Simultaneously, two young graduate engineer interns from LMW, Gautham and Ashwinth had been sent to NID for a special 2 semester Design program offered by NID as part of its FDP (faculty development program). Ms.Seema also had undergone the same program..

 

In 2005 I took charge as the first Dean of DJAD. It was my brain-child to turn the program into undergraduate level and post graduate level education programme.

I persuaded NID and D.Jayavarthanavelu about the need for such fully fledged Design program in the south.

In 2006 I scrapped the certificate programme and launched the full fledged 4 year UG level program and 3 year PG level program in design.

 

I worked out the whole syllabus for UG and PG programmes in Industrial Design and Communication Design based on my NID experience where I led the curriculum review and New curriculum development group in 1997- 99.

 

I also charted out  a 10 year Vision road map (2006 - 2016)  for DJAD which included  Membership of W.D.O (world design organisation),  networking with great educational institutes around the world , Organising International conference, Strong Alumni Association, a unique Convocation Programme, Industry linkages etc and got it approved by the Governing council.

The Chairman Jayavarthanavelu had also approved restricting entry seats to 30 approx. in order to maintain the faculty - student ratio very high, individual attention and excellent academic standards.

 

I established the Design Centre at DJAD for professional practice by faculty to keep their design skills continuously sharpened. Through the Design Centre, we served many Indian and overseas industries. Many design institutions do not have this practice.

 Kanaka Anant was my first recruit to join DJAD as design faculty just after her PG at NID.

First time in India, a mandatory 'Universal Design' course was introduced as part of the curriculum.

 

2008...... SRISHTI, Bangalore, on its own accord came to collaborate with us.

2010.......Northumbria University, UK, on its own accord, came forward to sign an MOU with DJAD. NU letter of recognition is attached.

2010.......IIT, (Industrial Design Centre) Bombay had been invited to campus to assess our design program standard. The IIT senate later on gave recognition to DJAD program. Dr.G.G.Ray was in charge of IDC then.

Capitalising on my decades of association with NID, I initiated the forming of a consortium called IDEA (Indian design education alliance) with all the reputed design institutions of the country as its members.

Getting admission for higher studies without a university degree was extremely tough, especially for a non-government institution, but we took the trouble to help every graduate and it worked even with the best design institutions in the world such as RCA, Domus Academy and MICA.

 

5) How ACADES (Aram Centre for Art, Design and Environmental Studies), Coimbatore started:

I was relieved from DJAD on 3^rd October 1918.

When I was Dean, DJAD was run like close knit family than a cold institution and thus all my colleagues and students felt a sense of loss. They kept asking me to start an institution of my own so that they could join me. But I had no financial resources.

Mohan Chinnasamy, Arulappa Charles and Kanaka Anant put huge effort and found a financier Navaneetha Sivan. A trust had been formed and I was assured that he was reliable person and Mohan, Charles and Kanaka were part of the trustee group.

I had agreed to take care of the education, working 3days a week and left the administration and finance in their hands as trustees. The new school was named by Mohan as “Aram Centre for Art, Design and Environmental Studies (ACADES)”.

 

Promotion for new school was done projecting me as the brand.

Initially Park Institution was considered as hired campus but ultimately settled on Hindusthan Colleges campus. The program commenced in July 2019.

12 fresh students and 24 DJAD senior students voluntarily joined as lateral entry.

 

It was an experiment in holistic design education, based on the principle of ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. The school attempted to offer a great design education to a limited number of students, integrated with a rigorous, exceptional life style. A regimen of diet based on strict naturopathy principles, pre-dawn waking up, group walks, meditation and daily discourses was part of the curriculum. Faculty and students together sat on floor to eat.

Parents were brought to campus frequently for regular feedback.  It was wonderful idea.

 

But within two months, it was revealed to my shock that Mohan, Charles, Kanaka were not trustees and huge administrative differences between trustee Navaneet Sivan and Mohan arose. I was horribly stuck in between. I could not leave due to my commitment to students.

I tried my best to resolve the crisis through my trusted NID colleagues MGD Nair and Professor AG Rao in vain. The breakup happened. Even the name ACADES could not be retained since it was registered with the Navaneet’s trust.

Though the salaries were not paid, I tried to at least conclude the semester properly so that the students can join another school. With back-breaking effort I managed to do it with juries.  Parents decided to quit ACADES forcing its closure in January 2020. I offered help to students with my personal contacts for lateral entry admissions in other design schools.

 

BUILDING CONFIDENCE: My experience

 Lack of confidence is today's most common weakness in many young people even if they are very bright and exceptionally talented.

Let us look at it closely.

All human beings are born with total confidence. A very young child fearlessly puts his hand in fire or laughingly catches a snake with bare hands. Then, out of concern, adults introduce fear in him in advance. We over do it and soon the kid hesitates to do anything without someone’s approval. This is the beginning of confidence erosion. Animals don’t do this. They learn by trial and error. No great harm came to them.

Soon the concern of the adults for the child becomes an obsession called 'discipline' and a series of 'DO’s' and 'DONTs' are told to the kid to strictly follow. The kid who does not follow the discipline meets with punishments verbally or even physically. Many parents think that physical punishment may be bad but scolding is fine. I vehemently disagree.

A slap pains for the moment but does not last long while a nasty scolding stays in memory and keeps on paining for a long time, even for a lifetime depending on the sensitivity and tenderness of the kid. Adults do not realise this because the injury is invisible. The child cannot retaliate and often has nobody to share his hurt feelings. They stay inside and rot.

We often make things worse by not pointing to the fault but blaming the person and generalising it. Suppose the child drops the glass of milk. Of course it is never deliberate. Instead of saying 'you dropped the precious milk, you must be more careful, remember'; most of us say 'you are so clumsy, you have no brains, you never do anything right'.

Someone wisely said: "If you constantly debate your child, he will not hate you, he will hate himself."

A child after growing up with such negative reinforcements, even most talented, still thinks:

'I cannot do'

'I am a loser'

'I never do anything right'

'No one really likes me'

'I am sure I will not do this well enough'

'I am a sucker. I slog and do all the dirty work but that one takes all the credit'

 'My friend is a genius though younger to me but i am a total shit'

So, how do we address it?

1) First of all, avoid saying such negative comments to yourself. Stop contact with anybody who says as above since that may drag you more entrenched in to the 'lack of confidence pit'. Sympathising with such people will not help them. On the contrary, it makes their condition worse by being seen as an approval and attention getting.

If your overconfidence makes others feel rotten, let them; but your lack of confidence will make you feel rotten, with a "Oh, why didn’t' I try?" feeling. Do not let it happen. Not trying is worse than failure because fate can be blamed for failure but you cannot escape the blame for not trying. It keeps nagging you.

2) Make criticism positive

Many people are upset by negative comments but at the same time they also distrust the positive comments. Some negative comments could be constructive criticism. A criticism is called constructive if it motivates you to build on it and it is not condemning. If I say there is dirt on your face, you should not feel depressed sulking "I am shit". On the contrary, you should feel happy that I am concerned and that I want to see your face blemish less. If I pass a judgment, generalised and personalised, saying 'you are always   dirty' that is destructive.

  

3) Be aware of the relation between the work you do and your self confidence.

Self confidence comes from competence in your work.

Competence in work comes from doing the work repeatedly with passion.

Doing the work with passion comes from your love for what you are doing. Thus, doing the work you love is important for self confidence.

The problem is that many young people do not know what they love. They dabble in many things. They do not know the difference between infatuation and love. You need             honest self-reflection to identify your real love.

 

4) Your childhood experiences play a significant role in shaping you. Let them make you strong than scare you to flee.

As a kid of 4, have you ever felt like an orphan with a sudden loss of father and a voiceless illiterate widow mother?

Can you imagine a kid daily hungry for lunch but pressing the feet stumps of a leper teacher?

Have you ever been beaten and humiliated by two bully boys who threw you in mud, sat            on top and spat on your face; just because you did the homework as the teacher instructed and they didn't ?.

That was me, in my primary school.

I was also an introvert and introverts who are silent are not liked by noisy others. It threatens them.

How much broken should I be? Yet I never told my mother but cried alone in the fields. What then gave me the confidence to carry on?

My mother's blind, innocent (even ignorant) trust in me that her son would be a gem, no matter what the world says, he will take care of himself and others. How can I ever break her trust?

The most important thing to note is that I never doubted her trust. I never thought she was saying so to please me. If she thinks I am a gem, I am.

As simple as that. Just one persons trust in me is enough. I don’t have to care for others.

 

5) Jump into the lake even if you do not know swimming as long as there is at least one person watching you. Let me narrate another experience.

In 1970 when I completed my studies at NID, I was taken as faculty.

The executive director Mrs.Sarabai summoned me to her office and asked me point blank whether I would be able to handle if a major responsibility was offered to me as Chairman of NID Extension Programmes nationwide?

I was stunned. I was young, raw, just starting my career and it was very challenging responsibility. I didn’t even know what was meant by extension. No institution, including NID had done any extension programmes earlier. Nobody had any idea what shape it may take. If I fail, that would be the end of my career.

I was asked to answer instantly. Madam was very tough and apprehensive of me. You see, I made a bad impression because i never had studied in a convent and my English was atrocious. I did not ask myself whether I was capable; I asked myself why they            chose me.

I took a deep breath and looked around and found the trusting face of my teacher Kumar            Vyas. That’s all. The rest is history.

If Kumar Vyas trusts that I could do it, I could do it.

 

6) Focus is important in building confidence.

Lack of confidence is the result of your constant judgment on yourself whether you can             do it or cannot do it, whether you win or lose, whether you will be praised or laughed at. If you concentrate totally (remember the Arjuna shooting the bird's eye) on the target, immersed in it, your mind has no space to think about anything else and your confidence          automatically will increase. An immersive mind has no space to fear failure.

 

7) Judgment should not become a habit.

Unfortunately the media is brainwashing us all the time to do so. Resist it.  Judging yourself is the worst for confidence.

Self-judgment is different from self-analysis. Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses. That is analysis. You can take action accordingly.

You are good at jumping and not so good at football, is analysis. You will decide to improve on jumping. It builds confidence.

Your jumping is below the normal mark or far below some guy in school is judgment. It ruins confidence.

How do you know you are good at something if you don’t judge? This is what the             brainwash has done to us.

Suppose you love cooking and forget yourself in the joy of cooking, you know you are good at it. You taste the dish yourself to know for a feedback to improve. Feedback is not judgment. You don’t need others to praise or rate it. If salt is little less; just add it. That is all. No big deal.

Being crazy for approval of others or your own is a mark of big insecurity in us.

Awards are never a true indication of your worth anyway.

The world's biggest award is the Nobel Prize. The man who sacrificed his whole life to win freedom for millions of people, Mahatma Gandhi, never got it. Nehru got the Nobel peace prize. A girl from Pakistan, Malala, got it. So, never go by how others judge you nor judge yourself. A phrase says that 'those who judge will never understand and those who understand will never judge'. Be the understanding one. Keep on with what you      enjoy doing.

 

8) Know your real strengths and weaknesses by reflecting on your past.

 Wherever you did well, those are your strengths, build on them. Wherever you did not do well, those are your weaknesses, be aware of them. But never feel bad about them. Suppose you can’t write with left hand, do you feel bad? You simply use right hand. Mozart may not know how to paint but that does not dent his genius for music a bit.

 

9) Lastly, Keep the logic aside and let the subconscious mind operate. One can then achieve the impossible. Our conscious mind is imprisoned by logic.

Mohammad Ali kept logic aside and claimed "I am the greatest”. He became one. Of course you not only have to really believe but work for it.

In my childhood, in Andhra Pradesh, there was a great wrestler called Kodi Ramamurty Naidu. He was once tricked and fed poison by a rival king.

As soon as Naidu came to know about it, he swore to himself “God help me, I will digest this poison and it will cause no harm to me" and started   doing gymnastics. Miraculously, the poison did not affect him. This was recorded in history.

Psychologists and scientists of the world today say it as 'placebo effect'. I was too young             then to know what it was.