Little did I know about Swami Vivekananda till January 12, 2011 except that he meditated on the last bit of Indian rock at the southern tip of the Indian mainland sometime in the 19th century which later became the site for the famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari and also was the founder of the Ramakrishna mission. But all changed that day.
The occasion was the 148th birth anniversary of the sage whose birthday is now celebrated as the National youth day in India. It was commemorated by our college's university, the CSVTU - Chhatisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University (estb. 2005) during the course of an inter-college debate competition between 4 major colleges of this area.
From all that talking, the gist that came out was that the Swami, who was born on Jan 12, 1863 and died on July 4, 1902 - The US Independence day was a great ambassador of the youth was greatly involved in reformative programmes. He was also an excellent orator - as evident from the standing ovation he received while delivering a speech at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 9/11/1893.
The programme ended with two performances - A badly-scripted skit on the ill-effects and limitations of being a working woman in India and a half-naked dance by boys from a nearby college on the tunes on a remixed version of "Human Chalisa" from the 2005 hindi movie "Vaah! Life ho to Aisi!" which had absolutely nothing to do with the essence of the occasion.
But one thing is for sure. Everything has a positive effect. The 1st was that I came to know about the connection between Chhattisgarh and the Swami. Apparently he lived in Raipur for sometime when it didn't even have a proper medical facility in place. And 2nd, it reignited my occasionally dormant researcher capabilities and I vowed then and there to make myself more knowledgeable about the Swami who saw something different than his predecessors and was a true "Maverick"...
The occasion was the 148th birth anniversary of the sage whose birthday is now celebrated as the National youth day in India. It was commemorated by our college's university, the CSVTU - Chhatisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University (estb. 2005) during the course of an inter-college debate competition between 4 major colleges of this area.
From all that talking, the gist that came out was that the Swami, who was born on Jan 12, 1863 and died on July 4, 1902 - The US Independence day was a great ambassador of the youth was greatly involved in reformative programmes. He was also an excellent orator - as evident from the standing ovation he received while delivering a speech at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago on 9/11/1893.
The programme ended with two performances - A badly-scripted skit on the ill-effects and limitations of being a working woman in India and a half-naked dance by boys from a nearby college on the tunes on a remixed version of "Human Chalisa" from the 2005 hindi movie "Vaah! Life ho to Aisi!" which had absolutely nothing to do with the essence of the occasion.
But one thing is for sure. Everything has a positive effect. The 1st was that I came to know about the connection between Chhattisgarh and the Swami. Apparently he lived in Raipur for sometime when it didn't even have a proper medical facility in place. And 2nd, it reignited my occasionally dormant researcher capabilities and I vowed then and there to make myself more knowledgeable about the Swami who saw something different than his predecessors and was a true "Maverick"...
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