The birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, on Friday, would be a holiday at Viveka Tirtha but the Ramakrishna Mission Centre for Human Excellence and Social Sciences, which is housed on its compound in New Town, has already opened doors.
The five acre plot had been granted by the state government. “The chief minister had visited Belur Math for the closing ceremony of Swamiji’s 150th birth anniversary. She promised us land from the stage,” Swami Vishokananda, secretary, Viveka Tirtha, recalled.
The centre, housed in one of the two newly built mansions next to the Eco Park gate 1 parking lot, follows Swami Vivekananda’s vision in aiming to build ideal human beings with “harmonious development of heart, head and hand”. “We have started with lessons in computer and languages,” he said.
Skills & values
The building at the back of the plot, called Human Excellence Building, is 12-storeyed, including a basement with space for parking 200 cars. Each floor has 25,000 sq ft.
“Our proposed activities include short-term personality development courses on communication skills, ways to overcome fear of failure, mind management techniques, art of public speaking, steps to build self-confidence etc. Given how values are eroding in society, value orientation programmes, according to Swamiji’s preachings to work for the nation’s benefit rather than one’s own, have been developed for teachers and corporate employees as well as police personnel, engineers and doctors. The rot has set in also in villages. So we have planned a special orientation programme for rural people. Spiritual retreats will be offered to people from all walks of life. Motivational courses will be offered to parents. Another course important in today’s world is stress management,” the secretary said.
A course will be devised to provide individuals with a basic grounding in law. A panel of lawyers will be formed for a legal aid clinic which will offer advice to those who cannot take recourse to legal redress on their own, like poor women being deprived of property.
Yoga and meditation training would also be imparted for those who want to become trainers. Children can enrol for summer camps and painting courses.
Foreigners can take orientation courses on Indian culture and heritage. There will also be a research wing and a digital library.
The computer centre, which opened on May 6, 2023, will offer courses in both basic skill enhancement and emerging technologies, with Nasscom as a training partner.
Of these, three are underway — customer care executive - domestic (non-voice), AI Machine Learning engineer and digital marketing. “A second batch in digital marketing will start in end-January or early February. The second batches of the other two started in December but a student wanting to join now can do so and catch up by taking extra classes. All three are six-month courses. The course fee is Rs 9,500 for customer care executive, Rs 15,500 for AI machine learning and Rs 35,000 for digial marketing. Payments can be made in instalments too,” said an official running the computer centre.
There is a School of Languages and Soft Skills, which opened on October 26, 2023, and has started teaching English, Sanskrit, Japanese, German, Spanish and French. “We will increase the options as we go along. Currently, it is English that is seeing the maximum takers,” said Swami Vishokananda. An affiliate institute, the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture at Gol Park in south Calcutta, has a robust school of languages from where many teachers are taking classes here as well.
The foreign language courses are taught either as a communicative medium or as a language. The first is a six-month course with classes thrice a week, with a uniform course fee of Rs 6,000. The second varies from language to language.
On the ground floor, a publication division outlet sells literature on the Ramakrishna order.
Tata meets Vivekananda
The building in front, visible from the Major Arterial Road, is four-storeyed, of which the first two floors are an auditorium, funded by Tata Consultancy Services. “We have modelled it on the design of the Art Institute of Chicago where Swamiji had delivered his famous address at the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. Of course, with a capacity of 1,100 seats it is much smaller than the one in Chicago (which, according to the institute’s website, had accommodated more than 6,000 when Swami Vivekananda had delivered his speech).”
Entry to the building gets one to face a marble plaque on which jet black granite has been inlaid in the shape of a ship which carried both Swami Vivekananda and Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata from Japan to the US in 1893. Next to it is an enlarged copy of a letter which Jamsetji wrote to Vivekananda in 1898, seeking his help to realise his dream of establishing an institute for the cultivation of sciences.
There is a meditation centre with pictures of Ramakrishna, Sarada Ma and Vivekananda which one can visit from 4pm to 7pm. There is space next to it for yoga classes which have not started yet. A permanent exhibition on Indian cultural heritage will also be planned in the building if funds become available.
The paucity of funds, the secretary said, has also held up the construction of three other buildings on the campus — faculty hostel, scholars’ hostel (for those from out of town who come for short-term courses) and staff quarters.
