Saturday, July 10, 2010

Honorable Janardhana Swamy with Indian Institute of Science alumni in Silicon Valley.

It is heartwarming and uplifting to listen to the Honorable Janardhana Swamy, Member of Parliament of the Government of India, who spent a few hours this morning amongst his fellow Indian Institute of Science alumni.

The value of this meet was not only that he is one among us Silicon Valley engineers, but one who has taken an extraordinary sequence of decisions culminating in his being elected to the Lower House or Lok Sabha — लोक सभा — of the Government of India. In the nearly two hours in which he chronicled his journey from Silicon Valley through High-tech jobs in India to, finally, the Indian Parliament, he pointed how media can be exceptionally powerful in today's world in influencing voters' education.

He has, since taking office, been engaged in the creation of an ecosystem of institutions — Indian Institute of Science, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Defence Research & Development Organization,  Indian Space Research Organization, et al. — in his native Chitradurga district of the Karnataka state.

An important thought one comes away with after listening to him is that only high goals, coupled with the ability to assess and solve the intermediate problems that will inevitably be presented on the way to the goal, can achieve the seemingly impossible.