Page:SELECTED ESSAYS of Dr. S. S. KALBAG.pdf/17

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he used to spend weekends at Ranches in nearby rural areas to see and study the life of rural folks, especially of the farmers there. He had scientific bent of mind even in his school days. His interest in the practice of science led him to set up, jointly with his brother, a laboratory and later also a workshop at home for his own projects. Here he prepared, as development work, tartaric acid, hippuric acid, synthetic detergents and soaps. He made a petrol gas generator, set up a jet pump, revamped septic tanks and did many such jobs. His other interests led him to spend 12 vacations, trekking in the Himalayas, camping, yachting and making home movies. These traits of deep social commitment, scientific temper and spirit of adventure were to develop beautifully in the "vanaprasthashram" phase of his life. Dr. Kalbag documented his thoughts on "new education system, science and technology" in articles written for specific occasions, papers presented in seminars and speeches delivered at various functions. These write-ups (hereafter referred as articles) were available in typewritten forms as well as printouts from his personal computer. Dr. Kalbag left behind more than 70 such articles. Dates and references were not mentioned on many of these articles. Many of these were on identical subjects. In remaining articles certain key issues (such as "learning while doing") were repeated since the articles were written on similar subjects on different occasions. Liberty has been taken to delete such repetitions in few of the articles. Few repetitions are left untouched since these are integrally connected with the other issues elaborated in the article. At times, two or more articles are fused to form one complete article. Articles were selected to give a broad idea of the range of his thoughts and also to present the core areas of his thoughts. Rural Development Through Education System 12