The 1970s is a romantic bygone era for
those born and raised in this Internet age. It is perhaps unthinkable that
there was a time when email (or face book!) did not exist and India was still
an insulated economy and things foreign always meant better and invoked envy.
Anil Rajvanshi is a
scientist and researcher at the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute. A
mechanical engineer by profession, he graduated from IIT Kanpur and got his
Ph.D from the University of Florida in the United States.
The 1970s was a time when people fell over themselves to emigrate from the
country, looking to foreign shores for careers and a livelihood that was not
possible in a license-Raj bound India. It was in this period that Anil traveled
to the USA starting a very promising doctoral program in the University of
Florida. He not only enjoyed the academics, but also enjoyed the living there, traveled
widely, found his wife and soul mate in the campus and was all set to establish
a brilliant career in the United States that would be the dream of many.
So it is very strange that Anil abruptly called it all off, packed his bags and
returned home to India with his wife to set up a research center in a small
town in Maharashtra. That he decided to go against the tide of those times by
returning to India, speaks of his idealistic nature and courage to experiment
with the new and unknown, and of course, his faith in himself.
In his book, he discusses his decision and simply puts it that he felt he had
to give back to society. In India, he chose rural Maharashtra to settle down
and establish and take into prominence the Nimbkar Agricultural Research
Institute, focused on the rural economy and sustainable rural development.
In the book '1970s America', he writes with honesty: "My decision to come
back to rural Maharashtra was never dictated by the altruistic desire of
helping India but was due to the selfish reason of doing something meaningful
with my life." This is the theme that runs through his book on a student's
journey through America. He writes from his heart about the life of a student
in America in those times and how much he enjoyed the country and the studies
in that country. Anyone who has visited or lived in the US, especially
students, will enjoy and relate to his intensely personal account of life in
university and his travels around the country. In the end, despite the
enjoyment of living in America and the opulence and opportunities offered by
that country, there was this tugging of the heart strings to return to India.
He concludes his book on his student life in America with the following:
"I have always believed that the purpose of human beings is to first
become happy and self-contented and then to give back to society. Coming back
to India has helped me to do both these things. As I have internally become
more secure, my contentment has also increased.... To a lot of people I may
have been a failure when after so much promise in the US, I left everything to
come back to rural India, but I use a measure of my contentment and find that I
have not done that badly...."
The story of one
individual's life journey and choices, this book represents an opportunity to
go back to one's own past and contemplate the choices we each made as we lived
our lives.
Anil is a prolific writer as is demonstrated by the enormous number of
technical papers that he has written and which are showcased on the NARI
website. His writings go beyond
the realm of the technical. His earlier book is titled "Nature of Human
Thought" and is a treatise on the subject of thought, its origins and
structure and a scientific explanation of how thoughts occur and how they can
be focused. Combining ancient yogic wisdom with modern scientific theory, it is
a sophisticated attempt to explain an everyday miracle of human existence.
You can find and buy Anil
Rajvanshi's published books here, from our
Ekkitab Collection.True to his nature, and exemplifying his life's purpose, all profits
from his published books will be spent on the charitable cause of setting up a
Centre for Sustainable Development at his Research Centre.