Systems movement:Autobiographical Retrospectives

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Acknowledgements

I know that I owe my “intuitive consciousness” to Most Revered Dr Makund Behari Lal Sahab, the seventh revered leader of Radhasoami faith, Dayalbagh (February 17, 1975–December 5, 2002) as my continuing “Guru”—mentor, philosopher and guide.

Notes

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As an aside, I recall Subhash Kak as an erstwhile brilliant young colleague at I.I.T. Delhi in early 1970's who contributed a Chapter on Reliability to the Lecture Notes compiled by me as a collaborative effort of the Department of Electrical Engineering for the first course in Systems Engineering that I launched at I.I.T. Delhi and who edited the Proceedings of the Second National Systems Conference which we hosted at I.I.T. Delhi. He is currently with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

One person whom I got acquainted with as a frequent visitor in the systems group at MSU was Professor H.K. Kesavan who had taken his PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology under the research supervision of Professor Herman Koenig and was then engaged in the setting up of the Electrical Engineering Department as its Head in the fast growing University of Waterloo, Ont., Canada.

A Russian by origin, Professor Strelzoff unburdened his chest each morning by unleashing his tirade against the Anglo-Saxon race and extolling the virtues of the Aryan race, to which a few Indians and Germans in the class and he himself belonged, for their qualities of head and heart.

As later events would show, my wish came out to be true but at that point in time my action appeared to be foolhardy and headlong which amounted to passing up an opportunity of life-time of acquiring a PhD degree early in my career with its consequent advantages

Incidentally, the first administrative heads of academic departments and Deans of Faculties, were all British Professors with the top executive, i.e. Director, as an Indian, viz., Professor R.N. Dogra a reputed Engineering professional with Master of Engineering Degree from the Imperial College of Technology, London, who had risen as Chief Engineer in Public Works Department in the State of Punjab in India.

Established as a College of Engineering in 1961, the Institute was later declared an Institute of National Importance under the “Institute of Technology (Amendment) Act, 1963” and was renamed “Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi”. It was then accorded the status of a deemed University with powers to frame its own academic policy, to conduct its own examinations and to award its own degrees. Being formative years the Institute Buildings were still under construction around 1964 and the various academic departments were operating from their make-shift locations.

Realizing the huge effort involved in constructing input–output table 1 can well-understand his annoyance at my naïve query.

After a brief stint as Head, Electrical Engineering Department at I.I.T. Kanpur, Dr Kesavan had chosen to return to University of Waterloo at the instance of his friend, Dean Sherbourne to establish this new Department.

In the power system field I had a mutually rewarding collaboration with my colleague, Professor J. Nanda, an expert from the Power System stream in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Lately, the current Manmohan Singh Government of India has again reposed trust in Sam Pitroda and recalled him for successful implementation of the Knowledge Mission of the country.

It is Roorkee where the Engineering Education started in India first from 1st January 1848 in “Roorkee College” which was converted to the famous Thomason College of Civil Engineering and later elevated to become the University of Roorkee and finally accorded the status of I.I.T. Roorkee as an institution of national importance from September 2001.

Notice that reality is perceived truth. As a result, the knowledge of creation, arising from perceived reality that we possess, is a knowledge of sentient entities which receive or perceive subjective impressions, that is, effects of the cause in the supreme creational plane.

“Apara Vidya” is knowledge derived through “physical senses”.

“Para Vidya” is transcendental/ultratranscendental knowledge derived through hidden or latent senses in the human brain which are rendered kinetic through “esoteric” meditation or research practice.