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Learn By Living
moral values than merely remembering a few pieces of learn agriculture to help farmers and I would learn medicine information - his fourth principle. Once he had said, to treat sick villagers. "Nayi Taleem will be my greatest gift to India."
The Mahatma was no longer there. But could I say that? My school was designed for the learning based on these Who inspired us to make that decision? I entered medical educational principles. Every day we physically worked for college, and from that day I started ignoring my own health. two to three hours - sometimes in the field, sometimes in the They don't teach you in medical college how to live kitchen or in the dairy. All work was packed with experiential a healthy life yourself. There was a severe pressure knowledge: chop wood, carry water and learn. When I was for performance. I became completely engrossed in posted in the community kitchen I was twelve years old. The intellectual learning. Gandhi gradually went into the Mahatma was an experimenter of diet and hence fond of background. I wanted to become a successful doctor! working in the kitchen. Moreover, it made men and women I passed my medical examination with the first position equal. So when eminent leaders came to discuss national in the university. I wanted to learn an even higher level of politics with him, he invited them to join in cutting vegetables medicine. Soon I was studying at the Postgraduate Institute in the kitchen.
of Medicine in India. The technological miracles of As a part of my education I was sent to work in the kitchen modern medical science were intoxicating. of the ashram. We were required to plan a nutritious diet, using But something was hurting within. Why wasn't I locally available foods, within a
happy? Why this restlessness? restricted budget - closer to what a
For whom was I learning this? poor villager could afford - and yet
To practise this high-tech the meals should appeal to the
medicine, the only option would diners. That was a difficult order.
be to go to the US. That was We cooked the food during the day
what most of the doctors trained and read books on nutrition in the
at the Postgraduate Institute did. night to plan for next day's meals.
90 per cent of them were in the Which legume contains how much
US. “Do you want to end up protein? Which vegetables contain
there?” I asked myself. “What which vitamins in what quantity? I
about the Indian villagers?" learnt more about nutrition in the
I couldn't sleep. The inner pain school kitchen than I later learned in
grew. "What should I do?” I medical college.
Right education needs right spirit
soon appeared for an all-India All of us were given a small piece of land - to plan, sow, examination for selection for the higher studies at the nurture, harvest and sell the crop. "What type is the soil? What Institute. Shortly, the results of the examination were manures are required? What chemicals do they contain?" I announced. I have stood first in the national competitive learned chemistry, botany, horticulture and economics - all examination. The Director of the Institute congratulated me while cultivating that small piece of land. I planted brinjal and asked, "Which speciality do you want to select?” By (aubergines or egg plants), and nurtured them with a lot of that time I had made up my mind. compost manure and cows' urine - rich in nitrogen.
"I am leaving the Institute," I said. "I am going to a The brinjal plants usually grow two feet; my plants grew tribal area to put myself in use!" The Mahatma had died six feet tall. I was four feet. So while walking in my brinjal twenty years ago. But could I say that? Wasn't he my inner field I felt I was walking in the forest. The size of brinjal fruits voice? He had said, "God is not a person, it is a principle. was large. One particular fruit weighed 1.75 kg. It was taken Truth is God." If the truth principle itself is God, then it is to market - but nobody would buy it. "We don't want to eat something which can be sought, experienced and realised. one brinjal for the whole week," the customers said. My The truth is everywhere; hence "God" is everywhere. This brinjal came back. We cooked it in our school kitchen - it was line of thought removed my intellectual reservation about enough for twenty people's meal. We learnt music by way of "God". It also provided a harmonious meeting of spiritual prayers. Literature and poetry classes were often held under a and scientific enquiries. Both are seeking the truth. On tree. Social sciences were learnt by visiting villages.
waking up every day, I stand in the garden early in the My brother and I both studied in that school. One day, morning and feel a deep sense of gratitude for the gift of one while cycling by the side of a hill, we decided that we were old more day. It is a grace. 2 enough - I was fourteen - to decide about our lives. What should we become? What did the villagers of India need - we pondered. Food and medicine. Decided! My brother would Abhay Bang is a writer and social scientist based in India.
Jayu Shah: Children at school in Calcutta, India
June - August 2001. Jain Spirit
27
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