"Raja Baldeodasji Birla started a school in Pilani to educate his son Ghanshyam Dasji Birla 107 years ago. We started Mahadevi Birla Shishu Vihar 57 years ago — to educate our son Aditya. Now Kumar Mangalam has started a school to educate children from all over India. So the tradition continues into our 5th generation. What greater joy can there be for a grandmother than to receive such a wonderful selfless tribute from a worthy grandson dedicated to the welfare of India. Despite his enormous responsibilities as a new generation entrepreneur, Kumar Mangalam's passion for education is unbounded. His personal attention to every detail of this school has been aimed at making this school a world-class centre of learning. I am an Indian grandmother, greatly proud of my grandson and am basking in his love.

"Education in our country is passing through a process of self-examination in order to improve the system. It is trying to blend the tested best of the past with the exciting new ideas of the present. Perhaps no other city in our country is more suited to this purpose than Bangalore where ideas crop up and are nurtured almost every day.

"Shri Krishna tells Arjuna — na ih gnyan sadrsam pavitramah vighte - there is no better purifier than knowledge.

"In India, education has been looked upon as a second birth, which is
the privilege of a man. 'Vidya' - the Sanskrit term for education, signifies that which makes man free — saa vidya yaa vimuktyao — it makes man free from all bondage — freedom from ignorance, freedom from fear, freedom from all limitations. To grow to the full stature of man is the goal of all 'vidya' or education. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high — to that heaven we are carried up
through education.

"Education begins with the learning of three R's - Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic and ends with the attainment of perfection in the three C's — Conduct, Character, and Consciousness."