(Professor Narendra Nayak has been traveling into the rural areas of India, promoting rationalism on the ground for over 30 years. His rationalism tours include demonstrations and training sessions for young rationalists in schools and colleges across the country. He is the successor of Basava Premanand, the world famous skeptic and rationalist, in his role as the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations)

This is a brief account of some of my visits to the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh. It is neither a chronicle of events, nor a comprehensive report of our work there. It is a write-up about some of the incidents that have taken place in the region, which I can recall. We have been working in this area for quite some time now.

Itarsi, a town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is an important railway junction that connects the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western parts of India. During my train journeys I would take what are known as a ‘break journeys’ in this town, while on my way to other places by rail. The prominent Indian rationalist, Premanand and I have been there together quite a few times. Read the full story

Reaching out to the younger generation is our priority number one. All our efforts are to reach out to this generation. The older generations with their fixed mindsets they are either with us or against us. Some fence sitters may need a push or pull from us to come our way. But, most of the times it is preaching to the converted or nonconvertible! Read the full story

We have reported on many of the past challenges issued by rationalists to purveyors of supernatural beliefs. The challenger in many of these cases (1,2,3,4,5), Mr Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Rationalist Associations of India, has a long-standing challenge issued specifically for astrologers. Here it is in his own words:

“We shall provide the date, time and place of birth of 10 individuals along with the appropriate solutions. The challenger can cast the horoscope and state the following within 90% limits of accuracy- is the individual male or female, dead or alive. ” Read the full story

This article originally appeared in Mangalore Today.

It would be difficult to call some one your ideological father- but not if that person were Premanand , you a budding young rationalist and that is what I was when I first met him. While the last meeting with him is already documented in the write-up Premanand in Abirami Hospital, I would like to recount the first one. Read the full story

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written for Mangalore Today.

The ten year old waited with bated breath, anxiously listening to sounds of the wind, he huddled close to his mother. The other siblings were busy playing and the youngest, a babe in arms, was asleep. He kept asking his mother when the winds would blow, the deluge start and the world come to an end. Mother told him to chant Ram’s name and that it would perhaps save all their lives. He did so with all the sincerity that a decade in this world could ensure. When the clock struck the appointed hour, his heart was racing, the prayers became more fervent. Father was not at home and hence it was his responsibility as the eldest son to save the family when the predicted deluge came. He wondered at the callousness of his father who was busy with his shop when the calamity hit.

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Update: This is the sixth part in the series. Here are links to all the parts of Narandra Nayak’s rationalism tour of India: Intro,  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,  Part 4 and Part 5.

After having two training programs,organized by NCSTC at Uttarakasi and Hardwar (please see- A Nastik in Devabhoomi) I went to Bangalore from Delhi. There we had a training program under the aegis of the Bangalore Vicharvadi Sangha at the Ashoka Shishu Vihar, Bangalore. The participants in this series conducted from the 16^th to 21^st of April, numbered around 25. Their ages were from 14 to 70! We had students and retired senior specialist doctors as well as housewives and some affected by black magic too! There were the members of the Bangalore orgnization - A.S.Nataraj, Manoj, Subba Rao and others who were ready to provide services to the participants as well as take the training themselves. At the end it was the younger generation which stole ththe show, two young girls and the youngest boy put up a wonderful performance of what they had learned!

Since after this the greatest of the Indian shows - the general elections - had begun, and we were busy with our challenges to the astrologers, I had a break from the constant traveling. During this time we had the interesting encounters with the chelas of Ashwini which have been already reported in detail.

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