CR Murali, a city based Chartered Accountant is quite enthusiastic about the new Food and Nutrition courses on the way to be launched by Ravindra Prasad, wellness Guru and former International Operations Head of the Art of Living (AoL) of Sri Ravishankar Guruji. In an exhaustive interview he spells out his thoughts on the subject.
 |
| CA CR Murali |
Here are the excerpts:
Q: How come food and nutrition has come to focus all of a sudden?
CR Murali: Health has become an issue today. The input and output of a system gets deteriorated because of the food while food acts as an agent. As you might be aware of the Hindu shastras don’t consider disease as negative aspect whereas the modern medicine tends to consider it so. It is only a symptom of something going wrong in the body functions while the cure is given by Lord Vishnu himself in his avatar as Dhanwantri. So, for us medicine is not science but a part of Veda and as good as Bhagavad-Gita itself. Every activity of human being, why just human even every being centers on the food.
Q: Do you feel, thanks to the western medicine, the traditional home drugs have taken a back seat?
CR Murali: For us both, Amrit and Visha are one and the same: The Western medicine considers disease as an independent issue which by the very thought is wrong. They think that the disease can be cured while the assumption and concept themselves are basically faulty in nature. The system of giving importance to food and nutrition in any event is a fundamental issue relating to body management. Of late, there has been a renaissance in terms of appreciation of Indian system of food and medicine. In fact, for us both mean the same; what is termed as Amrit is Visha (Poison) and likewise (Visha) poison is also perceived as Amrit. Maybe, Amrit is Amrit and poison is poison, but both have come from the same place or source. So, by consuming more of Amrit you will end up in converting it to poison and on the other hand Visha (Poison) in limited forms may transform itself into Amrit.
Q: How is the response about the government and scope for the proposed courses?
CR Murali: Huge scope for employment generation: Fortunately, we are blessed with a government which can understand the economics of this issue. In the current scenario, there is a huge scope for employment generation in food and medicine related along with nutritional aspects. You don’t have to be an MBBS doctor to have an understanding of all these subjects. For instance, if you go to a village and ask an uneducated village lady she will be able to tell you what are your problems, what to take and what not to? But she hasn’t done any medical degree or spent crores of rupees to do an MD. By studying the body symptoms the ailments can be cured by addition and deletion of some food items and exactly this was practiced for a very long time. However, unfortunately this practice got corrupted with the English therapy, medicine, MBBS and MD doctors.
Q: What is the methodology to be adopted for imparting training?
CR Murali: So we are going back to a situation where a simple analysis of the person’s body movements, food intake can cure any symptom of disease. If, this can be taught at the very immediate level, people of minimum education like 12 or degree course can easily pick up these courses. They are not expensive and short duration courses. Two-three months of intensive training should make one capable of understanding the basics of health.
Q: In general, what type of issues or diseases are taken care of with the proposed practice?
CR Murali: We are not getting into surgery or orthopedic issues, which needs altogether a different type of education. We are trying to attack any disease at the basic level at a stage wherein 95 per cent of the so called diseases can be cured. Five per cent like autism, surgery or brain hemorrhage and complicated situations like that; we are not going to tackle the issues. So, with a minimum cost to the person, he can be trained like a Para Medical person or an X-ray technician. It’s like a post of the compounder who used to disburse medicines even in the absence of doctors also. Not that, he was misusing his position but he by and large knew as to what was happening. In other words, it doesn’t require that much of study.
Q: What is the scope of employment potential to the pass outs’ from the proposed courses?
CR Murali: Just like that, on a Para medical basis it is possible to create a new profession which can generate employment to the extent of even surpassing the IT industry. For getting into the IT industry, you need a different educational background, investment whereas the income in this field may not be comparable to the IT field, but have the potential of providing employment at the lower level. Some communication skills can be inculcated and they can present themselves in a professional manner. Therefore I can foresee a very large potential of employment generation in what Ravindra Prasad of the WEEFA organization and his team are doing. I am also very happy to be involved in all these activities and I whole heartedly wish them all the best and whatever helps required will be extended to.
Q: Do you anticipate the proposed option transform into the best economic proposition?
CR Murali: In terms of economics, in terms of affordability, in terms of certainty there cannot be a best economic proposition than this for employment generation. We will approach the government at the appropriate level to ensure that an impetus is given to this kind of project. The government is also concerned about employment generation.
Q: Why do you propose such courses when there is no dearth of them as of now?
CR Murali: Maybe we are able to provide employment to Engineers and Chartered Accountants but everyone cannot become an Engineer or a Chartered Accountant. There is a large section of people who can’t go beyond Intermediate or Degree. It is very useful for them and I can see a potential of one earning around Rs 30-40, 000/- per month within a year or so. Even the cost of training is not high and it may not exceed more than Rs, 20,000/- while by and large the same amount will be returned to the Trainee as a Stipend, which in other words means Training at zero cost.
Q: Do you mean to say that such training, over a period of time will also help in upgrading their skills?
CR Murali: For that matter, any skill has to be updated and it can be updated also. From a mere prescription we can go to an analysis, diagnostics’, anything is possible. In Nadi Shastra, it starts with self but can go to any extent and just like that, here also there are a lot of possibilities.
Q: So, you mean to say that these Nutrition courses have a bright future in the long run?
CR Murali: Yes, I foresee a very bright future. We also need to look from the economics point of view as well. Here, affordability is also a question as we are not a capital intensive economy and we have a large amount of labor force at our disposal but we don’t have money. Any employment generation, for instance if you have to open a steel factory or a cement factory, you need huge money. But, unfortunately you don’t have that kind of huge money. We can’t bring a Boeing factory in India as we don’t have that kind of money. Boeing factory can give employment to 10,000 people but these Nutrition courses can generate employment to 10, 000 people in every city. We don’t have to make everyone a millionaire, but Rs 30-40, 000/- per month should be enough to make a decent living and most of them would like to have.
Q: What about the role of the governments in these courses and their investment for the same?
CR Murali: I don’t think that there could be a better choice to these courses at no cost to the government. We keep talking about projects with specific budgets and the governments being in no position to fund. But, here we are talking about zero budgets to the governments and self financing the students. As a chartered accountant and student of economics, I see a huge scope for employment with no cost to the government and virtually at no cost to the person who wants to get employed and with benefits to society at large and forever. It’s not like election campaign, you work for two months and out of neither job nor the Agnipath, which the government wants to do.
Q: Do you wish to call those passing out from these courses emerging into entrepreneurs’ in their own way without the government support, subsidy and things like that?
CR Murali: In the early sixties, under a scheme they used to dump wheat to the underdeveloped countries like India and this went on going for 20-30 years to such an extent that people forgot the practice of cultivating wheat. So, one had to go to the western countries to borrow grain literally forgetting agriculture! If, you don’t know how to cultivate rice, then where is the question of cultivation? They give you rice, they give you wheat, somebody gives you money every year and it has happened like that in the past…
…Everything at no cost to the Government: Here is a place, where are you actually teaching a man on how to do a business, may be a small business. Today, the concentration is on SME sector but this is just like a tiny sector, not even tiny, tiny service sector. Here is a concept where everyone will be benefitted and in a way, it is nothing short of magic which cannot even be imagined. Also employment is generated at no cost, economy is boosted at no cost and so many ancillary units will come up with no cost. With low or no cost what else can be suitable for an economy like India where there is capital shortage.
Q: What is the response of the people at the top with whom you got in touch for this project?
CR Murali: The government is very very responsive. I had the occasion to meet various people at different levels and I also know the government welcomes the idea. It has actually helped a lot of people while those in the government are open to fresh ideas, especially the present set-up. I am sure that they will appreciate. We don’t need any financial assistance from the government and our only thrust is that we don’t need any statutory interference from the government. We also expect the least interference from the governments.
-Manohar Yadavatti
Comments
Post a Comment