The buses left the hotel by 7:30 am to BMSIT – the new campus, as most of the day’s events were to be held there.
The first of the sessions in the beautiful campus was the JF/SF/TT Sessions. The SF session began with introductions from the different Regional Coordinators on the happenings of their respective regions. Here are some of the updates in the order they were shared:
South America Region – RC: Andrea Ocares
*About 44 SF’s present in the Region.
*JF- SF breakfast held in January which enabled bonding and information sharing.
*Melton Share held with Sidharth, an Indian SF living in Chile on his experiences in Chile as an Indian, etc. This was very well received by the fellows.
*Another meeting was held in June with JF’s and about 6 SF’s.
*SF’s around Temuco are planning a Monthly Meeting which will enable them to keep in touch and work together on a regular basis.
Europe Region – RC: Matthias Reichardt
*JF-SF meet in November which enabled the Senior Fellows to meet up with the newer ones.
*SF meet in June with the focus being on the preparation of the Symposium with JF’s attending for a day.
*Training of International Trainers- Young Sieter (3 SF’s and 2 JF’s) with partner organizations.
Asia West – RC: Navneeth Kumar
*The activities revolved around Symposium preparation
*About 28 SF’s present in the region.
*Separate SF oriented session included in the annual Director’s Visit to BMS.
*SF meets planned on September, December which due to being vacation times will enable more *SF’s to participate in them.
*Professional workshops will be planned as suggested by a number of SF’s.
North America – RC : Carrie Radloff.
As Carrey could not be present at the Symposium Tanja briefed us on some of the updates from the region:
*The 3 former regions unified into 1 as it makes strategic sense.
*Plans for a local gathering in process.
*Highest Number of SF’s (about 110!) reside in the region.
Some of the other important issues the SF’s felt strongly about and discussed were:
*The EIG Grant and the possibilities for including more active SF’s
*Separate SF oriented sessions during the Symposium which could focus on important issues like professional development, interest based discussion, etc.
*The effects the regional separation of SF's had.
* Travelling SF's who live temporarily in differrent regions.
*Integrating new SF’s by providing them an opportunity to interact with the entire SF community.
*Partnerships with external organizations.
*Locating SF’s based on profession which interestingly enough has been planned for the portal expansion.
*The need for a common Goal to work towards to.
*Internal Fund raising before external fund raising which will make us aware on how strongly we feel about the cause and the need to contribute as one of the important questions when dealing with external fund raising would be on what the existing members are doing to contribute.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Day 3 - Science of Mudras by Sri K Rangaraja Iyengar
There has been a sudden increase in the popularity of Yoga all over the world. A number of fellows were looking forward to attending this session on “Mudras” – which is an important component of Yoga.
The charismatic speaker who has practiced Yoga for over 50 years is well versed in the BKS Iyengar’s yoga system and has been teaching yoga to people of all age groups. He is involved with a number of social service organizations .
He started of by giving a short introduction on the history of Yoga- discovered by Pathanjalar about 3,500 years ago. He taught us that Yoga is a holistic science from India which enhances the state of mind, body and the consciousness of a person on physical, psychological and philosophical levels. He further went on to explain that , according to this, the activities of the body are governed by forces of five basic elements – Fire, Air, Ether(space) , Earth and water. The energies of these elements are composed in various parts of our body and rather strongly on our fingers. The science of recharging these energies and bringing equilibrium by various formations of our fingers is known as “Mudra Vignaana”.
He mentioned that this practice is widely used across all religions and rituals.
He went went on to shows us some Mudras to combat conditions such as stress, fatigue , head ache, controlling blood pressure,etc. After the session many fellows went up to him to ask him mudras for various other conditions and he patiently answered and demonstrated how it’s done. Overall it was an interesting and informative session.
The charismatic speaker who has practiced Yoga for over 50 years is well versed in the BKS Iyengar’s yoga system and has been teaching yoga to people of all age groups. He is involved with a number of social service organizations .
He started of by giving a short introduction on the history of Yoga- discovered by Pathanjalar about 3,500 years ago. He taught us that Yoga is a holistic science from India which enhances the state of mind, body and the consciousness of a person on physical, psychological and philosophical levels. He further went on to explain that , according to this, the activities of the body are governed by forces of five basic elements – Fire, Air, Ether(space) , Earth and water. The energies of these elements are composed in various parts of our body and rather strongly on our fingers. The science of recharging these energies and bringing equilibrium by various formations of our fingers is known as “Mudra Vignaana”.
He mentioned that this practice is widely used across all religions and rituals.
He went went on to shows us some Mudras to combat conditions such as stress, fatigue , head ache, controlling blood pressure,etc. After the session many fellows went up to him to ask him mudras for various other conditions and he patiently answered and demonstrated how it’s done. Overall it was an interesting and informative session.
Day 2: Workshops on Innovations
Vaibhav's workshop. Particpants use bamboo as a base material for concepts and prototypes...
Day 2: Workshops on Innovations
Following the inaugural were the workshops by two eminent personalities, known for their innovative solutions in the field of household appliances(gas/butane candles) and housing respectively.
Vaibhav began his session with a different sort of ice-breaker asking participants to speak of their one single dream which they are passionate about and would go any distance to realise it.
With everybody having shared their dream, the participants were then categoried into four broad groups - ones whose dreams were aligned to education, those whose dreams aligned to sustainability, ones who were passionate about leveraging technology to achiveing their dreams and those who want to be free and independent without a care:)
Having given each of the groups a free hand in doing anything they wanted to present, (a prototype of their dream) either as a model or a paper, Vaibhav set everyone's creative juices flowing...
The images can do more justice than words, but being there and experiencing it would have been even better.
Capping off with each group's presentation Vaibhav alos spoke of how his entreprenuerial venture into cost-effective and eco housing has come a long way since its early days.
More info about the same can be found at www.wondergrass.in and http://wondergrass.blogspot.com
Vaibhav began his session with a different sort of ice-breaker asking participants to speak of their one single dream which they are passionate about and would go any distance to realise it.
With everybody having shared their dream, the participants were then categoried into four broad groups - ones whose dreams were aligned to education, those whose dreams aligned to sustainability, ones who were passionate about leveraging technology to achiveing their dreams and those who want to be free and independent without a care:)
Having given each of the groups a free hand in doing anything they wanted to present, (a prototype of their dream) either as a model or a paper, Vaibhav set everyone's creative juices flowing...
The images can do more justice than words, but being there and experiencing it would have been even better.
Capping off with each group's presentation Vaibhav alos spoke of how his entreprenuerial venture into cost-effective and eco housing has come a long way since its early days.
More info about the same can be found at www.wondergrass.in and http://wondergrass.blogspot.com
Day 2: The Symp officially kicks off..
Day 2 of the Symposium was gonna be a BIG day and so it was. Packed with loads of events/sessions and cultural treats, it sure had the Metlon fellows pleasantly tired- the sweet kind of tiredness- especially with the tight timelines.
The day began with the inaugural function which started off in right earnest with Ms.Tanja Schulze, the Program Director, providing the welcome address and briefing everyone at the function about Innovation – the theme of Symp09, the kind of work Junior Fellows have put in over the past months and looking forward to sharing all the knowledge in this cultural milieu of knowledge experts providing key note sessions, Junior Fellows presenting their findings and insights gathered in their workgroups about various case studies.
The onus was then on the chief guest for the function, Ms.Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who shared with the fellows a few enriching thought bytes which left many appreciating as well as pondering the reach/gamut of innovation and its impact on society and man.
Beginning with the types of innovation (one kind that brings about a paradigm shift in the way we do things, to the kind where innovation is brought about by building upon known knowledge as well as the innovations which create knowledge capital), Ms.Shaw spoke of how innovation in today’s world transcends all boundaries as well as how evolution of man has been an innovation too that has occurred across centuries. What was an innovation yesterday is only gonna give way to something more innovative in the coming days, she said which had everyone thinking of the innovations that we and our parents have been witness to, over the past few decades.
Giving us more insights about the biotechnology industry, Ms. Shaw described how any innovation entails risk and uncertainty, about how India is a place where failure is affordable and how Indian firms are well placed to leverage this and bring cost-affordable drugs to the developing world as well as bridge the divide between expensive drugs and affordable drugs to the masses.
Needless to say, she also spoke of how we can’t do any of these alone and we no longer are a vertical tiered structure but are networks of knowledge capital across various geographies.
Innovations which entail shrinking our carbon footprint, achieving favorable climates, innovations in the agricultural sector and more such areas are one which requires us to work together and the Melton Fellows are perfectly placed in this wonderful Foundation to leverage this to their advantage in their professional lives.
With this Ms. Shaw signed off wishing the Fellows the very best and hoping to see innovative products and solutions emerging at the end of the Symp.
Ms.Ragini Narayan and Prof.G.N.Shekar shared their thoughts on the symposium and wished the Fellows a very productive symposium.
Mr.Winthrop Carty, the Executive Director, then addressed the gathering. Thanking Ms.Shaw for her thought-provoking words, Mr.Carty goaded the fellows to reflect on the just concluded talk. He also mentioned of how the fellows and everyone are missing the ZU contingent hoping they would be here very soon. Hoping to be innovative and different, Mr.Carthy signed off saying he wouldn’t give a long sermon and hoped the gist had been captured by the audience.
Finally Jaikar Mohan, the tireless Symp Coordinator who was compeering throughout the proceedings, concluded the event and invited the fellows to participate in the two sessions (conducted in parallel) by Mr. Vijay Ladha and Mr. Vaibhav Kaley, both pioneers in their fields and known for their innovative solutions in the field of household appliances(gas/butane candles) and housing respectively.
The day began with the inaugural function which started off in right earnest with Ms.Tanja Schulze, the Program Director, providing the welcome address and briefing everyone at the function about Innovation – the theme of Symp09, the kind of work Junior Fellows have put in over the past months and looking forward to sharing all the knowledge in this cultural milieu of knowledge experts providing key note sessions, Junior Fellows presenting their findings and insights gathered in their workgroups about various case studies.
The onus was then on the chief guest for the function, Ms.Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who shared with the fellows a few enriching thought bytes which left many appreciating as well as pondering the reach/gamut of innovation and its impact on society and man.
Beginning with the types of innovation (one kind that brings about a paradigm shift in the way we do things, to the kind where innovation is brought about by building upon known knowledge as well as the innovations which create knowledge capital), Ms.Shaw spoke of how innovation in today’s world transcends all boundaries as well as how evolution of man has been an innovation too that has occurred across centuries. What was an innovation yesterday is only gonna give way to something more innovative in the coming days, she said which had everyone thinking of the innovations that we and our parents have been witness to, over the past few decades.
Giving us more insights about the biotechnology industry, Ms. Shaw described how any innovation entails risk and uncertainty, about how India is a place where failure is affordable and how Indian firms are well placed to leverage this and bring cost-affordable drugs to the developing world as well as bridge the divide between expensive drugs and affordable drugs to the masses.
Needless to say, she also spoke of how we can’t do any of these alone and we no longer are a vertical tiered structure but are networks of knowledge capital across various geographies.
Innovations which entail shrinking our carbon footprint, achieving favorable climates, innovations in the agricultural sector and more such areas are one which requires us to work together and the Melton Fellows are perfectly placed in this wonderful Foundation to leverage this to their advantage in their professional lives.
With this Ms. Shaw signed off wishing the Fellows the very best and hoping to see innovative products and solutions emerging at the end of the Symp.
Ms.Ragini Narayan and Prof.G.N.Shekar shared their thoughts on the symposium and wished the Fellows a very productive symposium.
Mr.Winthrop Carty, the Executive Director, then addressed the gathering. Thanking Ms.Shaw for her thought-provoking words, Mr.Carty goaded the fellows to reflect on the just concluded talk. He also mentioned of how the fellows and everyone are missing the ZU contingent hoping they would be here very soon. Hoping to be innovative and different, Mr.Carthy signed off saying he wouldn’t give a long sermon and hoped the gist had been captured by the audience.
Finally Jaikar Mohan, the tireless Symp Coordinator who was compeering throughout the proceedings, concluded the event and invited the fellows to participate in the two sessions (conducted in parallel) by Mr. Vijay Ladha and Mr. Vaibhav Kaley, both pioneers in their fields and known for their innovative solutions in the field of household appliances(gas/butane candles) and housing respectively.
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