We have now set up a routine for the Conference: get up at 5 AM, have coffee, review the previous day's seminars, share views and issues, shower, go the breakfast by 7 AM, take the shuttle to the Conf site by 8 AM, attend conference sessions and do meetings till 6 PM, have an evening cultural activity till 9 PM and return to hotel. it has been productive.
The food fare at the breakfast and lunch is becoming increasingly elaborate and interesting. Prem Nagar selected a breakfast seat and we occupied it as though we had reservation. We had the privilege of having acquainted ourselves with the waiting staff, they have come to know our tastes of water and drinks. Breakfast food is presented in several areas: a continental type, an American type, an oriental type and an Indian type. Chefs wait to cook eggs to order. Hot food are stored in covered containers with outside labels. We sample various types depending on our mood, but do have some bias to the Indian dishes. upama, idli, khichdi etc are served at various times. The coffee at the breakfast is the best. A sweet person would brew the cup and serve fresh and black. It makes the day. The lunch hall had similar fare but more chaotic because of the rush of people. All six hundred storm together to a three thousand square foot dining hall. Possibly they could serve better if we were in two groups. The food was plenty and was of various kinds. The rush and the melee were not the proper conduct to savor the color and aroma of good food. We would pick up various items wherever we found an opening. There was little time to make a selection or to look what else existed around the corner. In the west, this is called "business buffet", a massive display with little time for personal choice. The food was tasty, the cooks were experienced. I got interested in the fruit area and sampled various tropical fruits through multiple trips. Tropics are indeed a food paradise, Thailand was showing the face of the Mother Earth! I had planned to attend various sessions on performing arts and Ayurveda as my schedule for Thursday. There were various tutorials on the dance styles and their relationship with Natyashastra of Bharata. I learned about the dance style of Koodiyattam where the Sanskrit play is enacted as a dance and is a traditional art form in Kerala. I have not understood the association of dance steps to the conduct of life. In my opinion, the dance form is a signature of of the people's conduct in life. The orchestration of the visual stimulus to touch the viewer's attention has a science behind it. We wish to discover it. While the arts and performance sessions were interesting, the Ayurvada sessions were disappointing. There were some "claims" presentations on the benefits of Ayurvada followed by a paper interpreting "mantra." The presentation exposed the deep ignorance in the western researchers on the control of the mind. The physicality of mind as a "limb" in the body and the understanding of its attributes are not developed in the west. Indian thinking and analysis are ahead on these topics by several thousand years.
There were a few interesting sessions in the afternoon about methods of teaching Sanskrit. A Chinese scholar presented her efforts of using phonetic symbolism, Dr Sampad presented his innovations on using simple Sanskrit words to teach alphabet as the practice in English. This session was chaired by the Prof Ram Karan Sharma, the grand old man of modern Sanskrit scholarship in India. At 86, he was active. He lectured in Sanskrit and had a graceful presence.
There was a cocktail reception in the evening hosted by the Indian Embassy supported by the local Indian community. Cocktail receptions are held to break "ice" among new acquaintances. To create lightheartedness through Sanskrit scholars is a difficult problem. Most of the Indian scholars seemed to stay away from the reception and the western scholars used the event as a social evening, which it was. Various amateur dancers performed to music on an impromptu stage. I noticed some Indian and Thai officials sitting near the stage, possibly to promote bilateral cultural exchange.
I talked to various people on my project of presenting Sanskrit as a topic of scientific research. While people seemed to relate to the idea, they didn't seem to fully grasp the "science" concept. My view is that most of the Indian findings have been intuitive or empirical. But the findings have merit since they have sustained the test of time. It is the duty of the future generations to unravel the science by conducting careful unbiased experiments. It could be a long road, but I have to create awareness and sympathy.
