An old Sanskrit saying from ancient India states: “I can see myself in all things and all people around me”. The above saying expresses succinctly and profoundly my own perspective on diversity and equality, the two sides of the same coin of nature. My life and work has found resonance in some measure with the above view-point.
I was born into a Hindu family of spiritual scholarship in Harihara, on the banks of the river Thungabhadra, in South India. My first 6 years were spent in this large house-hold, which my grandfather presided over both as the chief priest of the 12th century Harihareshwara temple of the Hoysala dynasty, and also as a farmer of repute. I grew up fascinated by the cattle at home, the various produce that farm workers periodically brought home, as well as the daily visits to the temples where my grandfather organized and led morning chants of the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita (the ancient Indian religio-spiritual recitations in Sanskrit) that I was made to learn. In retrospect, while these formative years gave me a good understanding of how religion played a central part in the Indian life, later exposure to literature and scholarly works from western and eastern philosophy, and related discussions with my father and friends, and my recent neuroimaging research on meditation, have amalgamated in me a deeper understanding of man´s belief in religion on the one hand, and his quest for rational enquiry on the other.
From the age of 6 to 12 years, I lived in many little towns where my father was posted as a school teacher and later as a college lecturer, and thus understood early on that people lived and worked in different ways in different regions. My father taught Geography, Accountancy and Commerce, both in English and Kannada (a South Indian language), languages that he was very fluent in. I learned from him the love for these languages, for books and learning, a respect for all people around us irrespective of economic and social class, and an upright and steadfast approach to following one´s principles even in the face of adversity. I lived in little towns, walked barefoot to school, and routinely picked fruits from wayside trees on the way, and stopped by to watch farmers harvesting sugarcane and making Jaggery (a sort of brown, lumpy sugar) in big cauldrons. At school, we sat on wooden planks on bare floors (ref: my Blog entry1). Most school subjects were taught in Kannada, while Sanskrit and English were taught as second and third languages.
By the age of 12 years, I was already quite sure that I wanted to study in a city, for better education and opportunities. Despite early reservations from my parents about this idea, I was finally allowed to start my high school in Bangalore (the capital city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka), while they continued to live in other smaller towns. The hardship of not living with my parents so early in my formative years, and the intimidating big city environment brought me out of my shell and helped me to fend for myself. I came to understand and appreciate the variety of people and practices that India contained, from my schoolmates and neighbors who came from different regions of India, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. I learned to recognize the different languages, and understand some of them in bits and pieces, noticed and liked the variety of food that my school mates brought for lunch, and felt curious and interested in the diverse cultural milieu that I was immersed in. Looking back, my fascination for food, language and culture has been one of the main reasons for studying and working in different places in India, and other parts of the world, including Singapore, Germany, USA and South America, in addition to traveling to many more.
After my high school and pre-university education in Bangalore, I went on to do my Bachelor and Master degrees in mechanical engineering in two well-known universities in two cities, namely, Mysore and Coimbatore with fairly different cultural scenes. After a two-year stint as a senior research fellow in the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, I moved to Singapore (in 1992) to work in a number of federal research centers on a variety of topics ranging from artificial intelligence and robotics to Neuroinformatics, and a number of industrial applications including intelligent transport, ship yard and airport automation, embedded communication and control systems, and healthcare. I founded a technology spinoff called SmartEdge Technology, based on our innovations in sentient computing. I worked in multicultural and multiethnic laboratories in Singapore (where people from all over the world worked together in a very cosmopolitan and modern setting) as engineer, scientist and department head for more than 12 years. I travelled all over the world for conferences, meetings and conventions, and led multinational projects. The diversity of my research and commercial activities were coupled by my social and artistic interests, in photography2, painting3, travel writing4, poetry5, yoga6 and meditation7 (see my Blog entries referenced below). Singapore was a ¨melting pot¨ of food, language and cultural practices from China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other countries. It carried with aplomb the idiosyncrasies of the traditional and the ethic with the image of a modern and advanced city state. It was a fabulous period to live and work there (a sort of Hemigwayian ¨Moveable Feast¨) to imbue the multiplicity of the larger world in a microcosm of Singapore. My life there firmly established my belief in the values and benefits of cultivating diversity.
In the meanwhile, my research in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics had developed a newfound enthusiasm for psychology and neuroscience. My interest in doing research in the brain sciences was so overwhelming that I wanted to go back to the university again, to be a PhD student if possible. However, very few universities were interested in me as my background in engineering and years of working in a professional capacity did not convince them that I could be a student again. On the positive side, I had convinced the higher management of the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), the digital research center in Singapore where I was working, to fund a small group of researchers to look into the emerging field of Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neuromodulation. I organized an international symposium and invited pioneers in the field to deliver talks. At that time, I met the highly inspiring and motivating Prof. Dr. Niels Birbaumer, considered a pioneer in the field, whom I had invited to deliver a keynote speech. He invited me to work with him in Germany and obtain a PhD in Neuroscience in his famous Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, in the University of Tuebingen, Germany. This was a great opportunity to do what I wanted – to conduct basic research in the brain sciences! However, the opportunity also came at a great risk, as I had to go back to leading a student life, at a time when I had a permanent position as a senior scientist with a good pay, a large lab that I directed, lived in comfort in a house that we owned. Furthermore, I had a family with two small children by now. The craving for neuroscience finally won me over, and we moved to Germany to start my PhD within 3 months of meeting Prof. Birbaumer.
These were tumultuous years, but also days of great excitement for I had finally become a student again to start my research in a new field that I had so wanted to be in. Fortunately, due to the kindness of Prof. Birbaumer, I obtained a full position as a scientist and in a matter of 2 years made to lead the neuroimaging lab in the institute. My earlier research and leadership experience, and knowledge and background in computing and software engineering, enabled me to make rapid progress in this new field. I learned fast and had the privilege of being involved in a number of research projects. The institute had PhD students, post-docs, senior researchers and professors from a number of European countries and the US. It was common to interact and work with students who spoke German, Spanish, English, Hungarian, Arabic and Hindi and other Indian languages. The medieval city of Tuebingen8 and its old university (founded in 1417) combined old world charm with a modern scientific environment, down to a Nobel Leaureate for medicine living in the town. Being the Excellence Center for Neuroscience in Germany at that time, it was also a hotbed of neuroscience research in the Max Planck Center, the Hertie Institute and the University Hospital. I learned to speak, read and write in German, and taught medical psychology to the students of medicine in German. I came to read a number of philosophers, including Kant, Schopenhauer, Wittgenstein, and others. I travelled widely in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, and other countries of Europe, and came to understand its historical, social and political background, its food, beer, wine and other pleasures, its art, music and literature. It was, perhaps the most intellectually enriching period of my life. This was also the period when I expanded my scope as a principal investigator in the academic world, and developed skills to lead a multicultural lab in the western world, with its own intricacies of work practices, grants, and publications.
In 2015, I moved to the University of Florida in Gainesville (USA), to be an faculty member of the Biomedical Engineering department. I worked there for 3 years, designed and delivered a new graduate-level course in Brain-Machine Interfaces and Neuromodulation, and also updated and delivered two existing courses, namely, Neural Engineering and Neural Systems Modeling, as graduate and undergraduate courses, respectively. This and the building of a new laboratory for Brain-Machine Interfaces, and my involvement in the Graduate Affairs Committee allowed me to understand and participate in the diversity of the American university life. When a new opportunity to found a center for research in Brain-Machine Interfaces in Santiago, Chile, and the associated opportunity for living and working in South America was available, I took it up with great interest. Since then, my family has learned to embrace the Latin American way of life. In the last 2 years, we have undergone regular classes in the Spanish language to be able to communicate well in the language, and have travelled in the region to understand the culture of the region. I have founded a center of research where PhD scholars and post-docs from Chile, Argentina, Columbia, France, Germany and India work together.
I feel fortunate and privileged to have had the opportunity to work and live in many different continents and cities in the world, to learn the life, food, language, culture and philosophy of these different people of the world. I have learned to speak, read, write and teach in Kannada, English, German and Spanish. I have translated poetry among these languages, from famous poets such as Kuvempu, Bhendre, Wordsworth, Forester, Maya Angelou, Neruda, Mistral, Goethe and Hesse 5. While diversity is commonly understood to mean the differences or varieties of people and nature, after having lived through diverse cultures, I have come to understand that diversity also means that despite all the apparent differences, there are great similarities and even commonalities among the peoples of the world.
I would like to apply in every walk of my life and academic work my insight and understanding of how diversity and equality can be initiated, developed and promoted. I would like to apply these ideas in every step of my academic work in recruiting students and researchers, conducting social and cultural activities, designing curricula, research programs, and engagement opportunities that advance understanding of diversity and emphasize the value of global citizenship.
I strongly believe that when diversity in work and life is embraced, one realizes a certain integration despite all the apparent differentiation among the people and practices. This notion was captured brilliantly by the Indian National Poet, K.V. Puttappa (or Kuvempu, as his pen name), wrote about his philosophy of the Universal Man (¨Vishwa Maanava¨, in Kannada) as the human ideal of transcending all borders, both physical and psychological. This idea was well epitomized in his Kannada poem (see my English translation below):
O my spirit
Poet: Kuvempu
English translation: Ranga Sitaram
O my spirit,
Surpass thy limits!
–
Surpass all forms,
Rise above million identities,
As the sentimental spear cleaves your heart,
O my spirit, Surpass thy limits!
–
Throw to wind the chaffs of hundred creeds,
Go beyond the confines of all tenets,
Rise like the boundless horizon,
O my spirit, Surpass thy limits!
–
Stop not anywhere,
Build not bounding walls,
Reach not any finite end,
O be eternal,
O my spirit, Surpass thy limits!
–
The infinite remains eternal,
And is a perpetual mystic,
Infinite, thou shall be eternal,
Be, become, everlastingly,
O my spirit,
Surpass thy limits!
—
References
- School life:
https://tharale.blog/2017/04/17/my-school-days-in-konanur/
- Photography:
https://tharale.blog/category/b-photography/
- Paintings:
https://tharale.blog/category/a-poetry/a-5-poemtura/
- Travel writing:
https://tharale.blog/category/c-travelogues/
- Poetry: (Includes translations of English, Kannada, Spanish and German poetry)
https://tharale.blog/category/a-poetry/
- Yoga and Meditation:
https://tharale.blog/category/d-meditation-yoga/
- Tuebingen (Germany):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tübingen
Eclectic Musings by Ranga Sitaram 