Nalanda and pursuit of science
Symbol for passion of propagating knowledge,
understanding:
The subject of this talk is Nalanda and the
pursuit of science, but before I go into that rather complex issue,
I must say something about Nalanda itself, since it is still an
obscure entity for most people in the world. Since the university is
being, right now, re-established under a joint Asian initiative, the
fact that Nalanda was a very ancient university is becoming better
known. But how does it compare with other old universities in the
world?
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On unhappy cowards and hero-wannabes
The world has always known heroes and not all of
them have shown any hero-potential until the defining act of
heroism. The term ‘hero’ is used loosely today in Sri Lanka. This is
understandable in a country that saw the end of a 30-year-old war
just the other day. All those who were in some way engaged in that
exercise, regardless of the magnitude of contribution, have earned
‘hero’ tag. Let me not grudge any of them whatever glory that
accrues on account of label. Let me instead talk about the making of
heroes.
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Time to abandon fantasy and rhetoric
Towards the end of the 20th Century the term
‘New Millennium’ became the hot topic of conversation. Everyone
focused their fears on the Y2K, ‘the millennium computer bug’. It
was assumed that a complete ‘over-run’ of the century old working
systems would be affected as computers would go berserk, aeroplanes
might fall out of the skies on December 31, 2000 and the whole world
would plunge into darkness!
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