...Few of his contemporaries think of George Walker Bush as a visionary American president, unless they are using the term to imply a touch of madness. Yet early in his second term Bush launched a bold initiative to try to establish closer American ties with India, the world’s biggest democracy, in what may eventually be judged by historians as a move of great strategic importance and imagination...

Bush... has managed to cast aside 40 years of hostility and suspicion between America and India – and even agreed to start collaborating over nuclear energy – in the hope of strengthening India and its economy. And all for a special reason: the rise of China. ...   more »

The former President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, cited an example from the life of Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman to stress the dedication needed by teachers, especially in research institutions. The name of Raman was included in the first batch of Bharat Ratna winners, the highest civilian award given by the President of India. The then President, Rajendra Prasad, wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go. He had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a PhD student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January…   more »

The twin village Hanehalli-Bankikodla in North Kanara, Karnatak, South India, together form a community of people coming from different castes and religions. Literature, folk art, spiritual lore, music and sports keep thriving here. Just to the north of this village, the Gangavali River joins the Arabian Sea. The town of Gokarna, just to the south, is known as Kashi of the South and is a place of pilgrimage for Hindus. The surrounding Sahyadri Mountains hug the Arabian sea; the open fields provide lot of recreational opportunities to the locals. It has creeks, and shallow ponds, and bridges vulnerable to rainy season. For religious or spiritual people, there are lots of temples, Churches and Masjids to worship in.

It is a place rich in culture and education. During the British rule in India, the Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins built the Anandrashram High School (1943) for their children, but a majority of them eventually moved out to Mumbai. The younger population is now moving out of village, they preparing for the careers of their choices. As the younger generations are moving out, the older generations, especially the retired communities, have started coming back to the village.

Anandashram High School is one of the oldest schools in Karwar, The Jai Hind High School Ankola and the Gibbs High School, Kumta, are other two schools. It has continued to do great work among weaker sections of the society. To keep the lamp of knowledge burning, the then leaders of Chitrapur Saraswats established the Rural Education Society (RES) and took the task of spreading education to the deserved here and in the surrounding villages. From then on, the School has been making steady progress in its curricular and co-curricular activities; in fact, it has given to society innumerable scholars. …   more »

Eminent Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola on the status of research on the undeciphered script, the new Dholavira finds, whether the Indus script was a system of writing, the Dravidian-Aryan question, the present state of Sanskrit and Vedic studies in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and the Tirukkural.

Asko Parpola’s field of specialisation is Sanskrit, especially Vedic Sanskrit, and the Indus Valley Civilisation, particularly its script, on which he is one of the world’s leading authorities. This renowned Indologist from Finland has done significant research on the Sama Veda, having studied it under the guidance of a Namboothiri scholar of eminence from Panjal, Kerala. Dr. Parpola is Professor Emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki. About 4,000 seals have survived from the Indus Valley Civilisation, which flourished around 2600-1900 BC. The two volumes he co-edited, Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions (Helsinki, 1987 & 1991), are considered the standard work in the field. His study concludes that the Indus script encodes a Dravidian language. The Indus script is perhaps the most important among ancient systems of writing that are undeciphered. Excerpts from an interview with Dr. Parpola, who was in Chennai recently to deliver a lecture at the Indus Research Centre at the Roja Muthiah Research Library. …

Indus Script

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