Express News Service, 09 Feb 2010 03:19:55 AM IST, BANGALORE: Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) recently got an inernational award. Could you tell us more about the award? APF got the prestigious Tech Museum award for using science to develop highperformance kitchens and food delivery systems to serve hundreds of thousands of children a nutritious daily meal in different parts of the country. The award is also called Microsoft Education Award as it is sponsored by Microsoft. The award carries a cash prize of US $ 50,000.
APF was selected from over 650 nominations from 66countries.
Q. Can you say more about the technology that you have used in your kitchens?
A.We have mechanised everything to ensure that there is very less human handling in our kitchen, to make it hygienic.
We have used the principle of gravity to make things easy. The rice and food grains tha tare stored in big silos in the top floor automatically go to the de-stoner that is installed in the floor that is below it when the machines are activated. The grains are cleaned and washed in the next level and from there they go directly to the big cooking vessels. The food gets cooked in steam in the vessels and goes to the packing section through a duct as soon as the vessels are tilted or the valves are opened. The food is loaded into the specially designed stainless steel vessels and kept on a conveyer belt, which in turn takes them to the specially designed vehicles.
We did a bit of research and found out that the military has machines that can make 1,000 chapathis in one hour. Even those machines were not capable of meeting our needs. So with the help of some of our engineers and some people from Punjab we designed machines that could make 10,000 chapathis in an hour. As we expanded our services even that machine was not sufficient so we designed a machine that could make 40,000 chapathis every hour.
Q. Most spiritually inclined people adopt and advocate conventional methods whereas you have embraced advanced technology in everything. Any specific reason?
A. In my opinion science should be used for all good purposes. I developed a liking for science since childhood.
Many professors and scientists used to come to meet my father who was also ascientist. I was selected as one of the 150 National Science Talents of the country by NCERT even when I was a pre-degree student. I completed my B.Tech from Mumbai and was pursuing my M.Tech from the same college when I joined ISKCON.
You are receiving international recognition for your work but people within the state and Mumbai ISKCON are criticising you.
Our founder wanted to decentralise all the ISKCON temples in their functioning and unite them in their purpose.
Many things he wanted was not being followed in ISKCON for some reasons.
Therefore we rebelled against those who were heading the movement and we are very successful in our mission.
They tried everything possible to supress us and were not successful. Now they are criticising us.
Q Are you planning to serve the society in any other fields?
A. We are promoting organic farming by educating the farmers about itsimportance and giving them aid. We are also getting them the necessary certifications to export their produce.
Q. You are planning to construct a theme park near Kanakapura Road at the costof Rs 350 crore. Don’t you think Lord Krishna would be more pleased with you if you spend the same money to rehabilitate the flood victims?
A. At present we do not have the money. We are planning to generate it through various means. We have done everything possible to feed the flood-affected people and used to supply food to lakhs of people every day. Our kitchens were used as the state calamity management kitchens. We should also present and promote our culture.
(as told to N R.Madhusudhan)
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