On 9th of March, Gyansagar in collaboration with
TEQIP-II organized a workshop on Design and Innovation by Professor M.P Ranjan
and A. K Gogoi. . M P
Ranjan, Design Thinker & Author of blog www.designforindia.com ,is a faculty
in NID , Ahmedabad. He has
worked for years to study the design prospects with the use of Bamboo by
visiting many local development sites in North-East. They discussed various issues and perspectives
that can contribute to a better understanding of design opportunities. After
all, design is a powerful force that shapes culture and is beneficial for
communities and businesses alike.
After attending the workshop, having
keen interest towards design I wanted to seek an interview of Prof. M.P Ranjan. My Team sHades Entferner (Anupam deka, Mandovi Borthakur , Arunav Saikia and Dinesh Dibakar) helped me to
carry the way out. This important, thought provoking and highly inspiring
interview is being presented here its original form.
sE: Would you please tell us the field
that you are involved and let us know what it means to you?
MP Ranjan: My primary area of work is
design thinking. Design thinking is not only a mental activity, it is a process
through which you think, you act, you build , you taste and then you come back
to thinking; that it is a cyclic process. I have been teaching that and doing
it. The bamboo work that I presented in the workshop is a part of the same
journey. I started design thinking in mid-eighties in NID (a faculty of design
thinking left NID, which became a door kind of thing for my entry to NID).
Through this thinking apart from bamboo, I am connected to many other
activities in design. My personal nature is that I wonder a lot from one field
to another (I have worked in computer, IT, handicrafts, small scale industries,
high technical industries etc). Thus Design Education and thinking is my
primary kind of thing.
sE: When did you pick up design
thinking as a career?
MP: It’s a long story. I have a good
hold over the English language, my vocabulary is huge which points a finger to
my primary education. In madras I was put in a convent school (best in the
city) run by Irish nuns. My father who was a carpenter and busy in his
business, felt that his children should get the best of education. So I was
admitted to the best schools from the primary level. I studied there till the
fifth standard and then I joined Christian High School(6-12). In our school we
had a choice in 9th standard to take two or three options and
engineering was one of them. The engineering included engineering materials,
engineering science, engineering drawing etc along with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics
and a few literary subjects. I chose engineering because that was an area of
interest that I had. After 12th I thought of joining either an
engineering college or architecture, and in order to get an entry to it I had
to have a pre engineering course which I completed in Madras Christian College,
Tambaram.
At
that time my father’s business was going through a lot of turmoil. As a young
kid I could see his tremendous success in one stage and huge losses in the next(1964).
When I completed my college(1968) I was to get admission to Engineering College,
Guindy or a school of architecture. But I couldn’t pursue my studies as my
father was in an economic problem. So I started to work with him full time, to
help in his work. After one year my father brought a paper saying that NID is
organizing a new design programme seeking for either an architect or an
experienced cabinet maker. And he told me to join it as I was a good cabinet
maker(inspiration from my father). I entered PG programme when I was 18 and
half and the oldest among my colleagues was 28 years old. I was a very
brilliant boy, used to get highest marks. By the time I joined NID I already
made 100 models because of my passion of making things. This way I got into the
field of design.
sE: You came across many challenges.
How did you face them?
MP: there may be hundreds of challenges
that one may face in life but one should have a belief in oneself and just keep
on going. You should not compromise.
sE: Sir it is said that excellence is
not a skill, it is an attitude, and one must always have an attitude to excel
in social and personal development. What do you think…?
MP: I don’t agree with it at all. Excellence
is skill, that means when you do something well that is excellence. You can
develop this by a lot of hard work and patience.
sE: Did something hurt you inspite of
achieving all such recognitions?
MP: What recognitions? I don’t have a
single award in my life. I am satisfied of getting leadership, but dissatisfied
that our country doesn’t know that design can do so much for them. IIT’s are
getting funds of thousands cores. But what about NID? They only get hundred to
two hundred cores. Google has got autonomous vehicle. Why hasn’t any IIT
developed it? IIT engineers have gone there and did it but the IITs cannot take
credit for it. I am asking this question very loudly.
sE: How can we make four years of
graduation more productive in NIT?
MP: you can do many things. For
instance you can take the example of rickshaw. Can NIT make a single cycle
rickshaw with advanced technology for silchar, to reduce labor effort. Yes, you
can. You go around and sense what struggle the rickshaw puller is facing. If
you can then make an innovative idea the city will be benefitted as everybody
will go by these rickshaws and many will be employed. Thus you can think on
some small ideas and convert them into something really different.
"There are many things to learn from different people"-sHades Entferner
A true story how humanity defeat friendship.
