Penultimate day at Washington DC

Today is the last day of our official engagement at Washington DC. We began the day by going to Feeding America. Interaction with Sophie Milam brought out many perspectives. Some of the important initiatives by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and School Meals among others. The poor are more likely to be those who eat unhealthy food, and hence, likely to be obese. These will have adverse implications on health as also life expectancy. Some of the biggest chalenges that they face are budget cuts. She also emphasised the need for a nutritional guidelines.

The next stop was at the United States Agency for International Development. There were discussions on feed the future. In fact, the research strategy is version is uploaded on their website and they want comments from public. They engage with different stakeholders (particularly other governments) in developing strategies to provide technology-enabled assistance. A caution that one would like to give is that in their engagements with many countries, vested interest come into play and that is why it is necessary to invest in people. There are positive experiments world wide in this people-centric initiatives, but these need to be scaled up.

Had lunch at a Thai outlet and then went to Best Buy from where I purchased a phone - for those coming from outside and staying here for a couple of weeks, the go phone by at&t is good. You pay about 10 dollars for the phone (it will not be operational once you leave the country) and another 15 dollars or 25 dollars for refilling. Thee are two interesting schemes - ten cents per minute and 2 dollars per day. I have taken the latter.

After having got the phone I called up Baba (for CDS people he is Prof KKS's son) who came to Pentagon city and picked me and another co-participant from Bangladesh. Touched base with Padma aunty who had just arrived. Came to know that Baba is a farmer (urban bee-keeper). He has sent some honey for people at home in Mumbai/Hyderabad. Later he took us to an Indian store owned by a Telugu speaking person who employed a Tamilian, a Nepali and a Hispanic. All Indian vegetables and food items were available. I picked up chicken biryani from there for my dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Sacramento, California.

Sakti Padhi Sir...

The mail from Professor KJ Joseph - I still do not know how to react.
Professor Sakti Padhi was one of my M.Phil. supervisors at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, a senior colleague at the Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS), Bhubaneswar, where he went on to be the director. He has been a friend, philosopher and guide to me and this is indeed a great personal loss.

I landed in Trivandrum for Mphil just a few days after Professor Padhi and family had left and so lost the opportunity of attending his lectures; but heard a lot about his scholarship, humility and hospitality. When I decided to take up a field-based study on tribal Orissa, my supervisor (Professor GN Rao) suggested that I meet him. A number of meetings at NCDS and at their residence near Ravenshaw College followed. In contrast to people who are keen to have more students working under them, he advised me to take someone based in CDS as my second supervisor. However, finally I was lucky that he agreed. Those were the days of the snail mail and he sent his comments by post. I had the fortune of having more interactions with him during my field survey (for my PhD) spread across eight months. His questions, remarks and comments were incisive and very helpful.

Later when I joined NCDS, as colleagues, we got the opportunity to interact closely on the Orissa part of the Macroeconomic Adjustment Policies (MAP)-Health Project. He enthusiastically joined me on all the field visits even during the super cyclone. I remember, on one such visit, a discussion on trust came up. He had said - "we should always begin with trust, as there is no obvious reason to begin otherwise." This is a big lesson in a people-centric approach, which is not at all present in many discourses today. Professor Padhi's capacity to explain tables was remarkable and the way he would weave a story linking different facts was brilliant.

On near completion of the project, both of us went to Trivandrum for a workshop/seminar organised at Kovalam to cater to the international participants. I had vested interest in staying on campus with Professor GN Rao, now my in-laws. He also chose to stay back on campus and I had the good fortune to join him to Chettikunnu to visit Professor Raj. On our return, Professor Raj wrote a personal letter in a post card where he indicated that he should be calling him Sakti (not Padhi unlike the way everyone does in CDS). This was a very touching letter reflecting the personal bond between the teacher-student duo.

For Nandini, my wife, who grew up on CDS campus, Professor Padhi and Sadhana had been more than family. When she was new to Odisha, they made her feel at home in the completely new place, new culture and new people. They were her maternal family. The last time we met him at his office, he was very thrilled to meet Nerika. Excitedly he kept saying, she brought back his memories of CDS days, because, Nerika reminded him of little Nandini. Our heartfelt condolences to Sadhana (who is nani, elder sister, to me and aunty to Nandini) and Rohit.

Kakkadan Nandanath Raj

Kakkadan Nandanath Raj (K. N. Raj, 13 May 1924-10 February 2010) is a planner, visionary, economist and institution builder. Straight out from the London School of Economics in 1950 he helped in the drafting of the first five year plan, 1951-56, building the new India. His vision was not only as a planner with a socialist zeal, but also as a researcher and teacher inspiring generation of students.

I happen to be one among the last batch of M.Phil. students at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum - now Thiruvananthapuram to whom Professor Raj gave some formal lectures. I still remember he introducing us to Hicks' A Theory of Economic History, a classic book, which as Professor Raj said gave you something new every time you read it. His paper The Politics and Economics of Intermediate Regimes, through which he discussed a concept taken from Michal Kalecki. While discussing economic history, he exposed us to the point that econometric tools and techniques can be used and a gelling of the two is known as cliometrics.

The informal atmosphere of CDS in known to residents, but I quote a remark from my supervisor and fatheer-in-law Professor G. Niranjan Rao, "I joined the faculty of CDS in the year 1980. On my first day at the CDS, when Prof P.G.K.Panickar, the then Director intruduced me to him as a new colleague, I addressed him as "Sir". He told me firmly but politely " Don't ever address anybody as "Sir" in CDS!" That was the culture of informality he nurtured at CDS." The informal atmosphere on campus led to discussions beyond the classroom and seminars and these were very learning experiences.

One folklore in the building of CDS is this. Professor Raj was given a budget by Shri Achuta Menon, then chief minister of Kerala to start the campus. Professor Raj thought the budget, though generous, would just be enough to put up an infrastructure, but building an academic institution requires a library. This is when he roped in Laurie Baker who put up the structure with substantial cost reduction. Thus, the rest of the money could go for the library. Generations of students and academia who passed through CDS have benefited from the library, the culture of informality and the persona K.N. Raj.