Report of 3rd Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture
The programme commenced with the soul stirring rendering of sanghathan mantra from the rig veda by Ms Mridula Kulkarni.
Shri Sanjay Kelapure, President of VAK, welcomed the gathering and gave a brief profile of VAK. He made a special mention of Dr Satish Modh and Shri Ratan Sharda for painstakingly nurturing VAK for over a decade to its present position.
Dr. Shankarrao Tatwawadi, Vishwa Vibhag Samyojak (International Coordinator of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh) who had a long personal association with Late Lakshmanrao Bhide, introduced Bhide ji. He mentioned that Lakshmanrao Bhide was a calm, silent, self-effacing RSS pracharak who went around the world many times to meet the people of Indian origin and make them organized.
The Keynote address was given by Shri Ram Madhav, member of the National Executive of RSS on the topic 'From Chanakya to Chandrayaan - Our Global Vision'. Shri Ram Madhav traced the ancient civilization of Bharat during the time of Chanakya when he had put his thoughts on state craft in his book the Arthashashtra. Shri Madhav ji mentioned that Bharat has come a long way from Chanakya to Chandrayaan and Indian civilization he said is identified with great thinkers - Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. Having just returned from China Sri Ram Madhav stressed the emergence of China as a Super Power. Communism, he said is breaking down in China and slowly China is rising like capitalist America. There was a question answer session after Shri Ram Madhav's address. Questions pertaining to terrorism and the economic capability of China were asked and Shri Ram Madhav answered them all patiently.
Shri Mahendra Kumar Kabra, Chairman of the Vidyalaya Management Committee of Ram Ratna Vidya Mandir (RRVM), Keshav Srushti, presided over the function. In his address Shri Kabra said that schools should adopt the traditional Indian way of teaching and functioning. He proudly announced that RRVM had secured 100% results in 12th and 10th and there is a family like relationship between the students and teachers. During the recent Makar Sankranti the students of the RRVM had gone out and distributed til ladoos to the poor setting the mark for community service.
A goodwill message sent to the Vishwa Adhyayan Kendra by the former Chief Justice of India Shri P.N Bhagwati was read out by Prof. Indira Satyanarayan.
Dr. Shantilal K. Somaiya the Chief Guest of the function mentioned in his address that he also had visited China, and according to him the Chinese were not so much Communists as much as they were baniyaas. "The Chinese are very clever, very smart and above all they have great economic sense" he said. China as a country has only one system and no Democracy he said. According to Dr. Somaiya Democracy is the second best form of Government the first is yet to come. The world needs persuasion and logic not war he added. Shri Somaiya ji was optimistic when he mentioned that ultimately Bharat would succeed over China because we have 'Sanskriti'.
Gen. Secretary of VAK Shri Ramesh Subramaniam gave the vote of thanks. Two resourceful members of the VAK viz. Shri Sandeep Singh and Dr. Satish Modh were felicitated for their special contribution.
The function came to a close with the melodious rendering of Ekta Mantra by Ms Mridula Kulkarni.
Ms Mamta Vora efficiently conducted the proceedings by being the MC.
The programme was attended by over 350 participants from a cross section of the society that included 22 students from IIT, 30 from Kalina Campus, 30 students from RRVM, about 35 students from other institutions and also representative participants from UK, Mauritius, Muscat and USA.
An exhibition titled 'From Chanakya to Chandrayaan - Our Global Vision' that was on display was a special attraction for the students.
