At the Lotus Feet: Family’s Loss and Ultimate Truth of Nature

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On a drizzling Thursday evening of 11th June 2026, a call from Ravi just hurried us to visit home from work. For some reason, we decided to borrow a two-wheeler instead of driving down in our car from the office and rushed through the crawling traffic. While Shobha, who is an amazing lady and a selfless seva warrior who took care of Amma like no one else can even imagine, kept calling out to Amma to keep her eyes open, we thought she was just drifting into deep sleep due to a lack of proper rest over the last two days. It turned out to be a deep sleep alright, but one from which there was no waking up. When Aparna called out, Amma briefly opened her eyes, looked at us, tried to say something, and drifted back to a permanent sleep. Me and Aparna, who were wearing the Maala for our 67th Sabarimala pilgrimage, were anyway supposed to visit her that evening to offer traditional Dakshina and seek her blessings for our upcoming Saturday trip. Amma herself was a devout Ayyappa Bhakt who had completed 31 pilgrimages before age restrictions paused her streak. Perhaps this was Ayyappa’s way of saying He was satisfied with her Tapas. Befitting her lifelong devotion, she began sinking with two Swamis, Ravi, and Shobha around her. When the doctor arrived a few minutes later, he could only detect a faint pulse and told us the time had come. We broke our Deeksha, removed our Maalas in the Puja room, and rushed back to her side before she peacefully soared to the Lotus Feet of Bhagwan Krishna to join our Father and elder brother. She was the inspirational anchor of our family and a pillar of support for everyone in the local Ayyappa temple and AOL community. The challenges that she faced and conquered them successfully that too in early 1960s is unthinkable in a traditional society like ours. That makes her even more special and BRAVE!

After the Antyesthi and post-rituals, following the departure of all relatives and friends, it was time for us as a family to sit together when we truly missed the towering presence of this bundle of infinite energy. A few days thereafter it was some me-time for me to reflect on her lasting influence on my life. Replaying all small incidents and anecdotes, not only with her but also with Dad and Brother, brought a smile albeit with a tinge of pain. It was during these moments that I got pondering on the essence of death. It is something that is such a certain phenomenon, yet it remains so unacceptable for the near and dear ones of the departed. Thought of capturing those thoughts here specifically about what is it that affects us when we lose our Amma.

Losing our mother is the kind of pain that completely breaks something inside us. She is the person who brings us into this world, and when she is suddenly gone, our whole life feels empty and confusing. It is natural to feel shattered because the bond we share with a mother is the deepest one we ever have. But if we look at it deeply, death is not an enemy that comes to ruin life. It is actually the boundary that gives life its real value. Think of life like a canvas. A painting only exists because it has edges. Without that frame, the colors would just bleed out infinitely into nothingness, losing all their shape and meaning. In the same way, our time with our mothers is precious simply because it does not last forever. If we all lived forever, we would take every single moment for granted.

The heavy grief we carry after her loss is actually just love that has nowhere to go. It is the price we pay for being blessed with someone so special. In this universe, we do not truly own anyone; we only get to borrow them for a little while. For several decades, the universe brought a beautiful, devout soul into our lives in the form of our mother. When she leaves, she just returns to the source. Even though her physical body is not here anymore, her love, her words, and her values are completely mixed into our own character. We are carrying her forward in the way we live, the way we speak, and the way we care for others.

Trying to fight the reality of death only increases our suffering. Accepting it does not mean we stop missing her or that we pretend everything is fine. It just means understanding that death is the oldest and most honest rule of nature. Everyone who comes here has to leave one day. Instead of focusing only on the painful end, philosophy teaches us to look at the beautiful journey. The fact that she was here, that she loved us so deeply, and that we got to be her children is a permanent truth. Death can take away her presence, but it can never erase the love we shared.

To dearest Amma, the brave trailblazer, our inspirational anchor, and our constant guide, We wish you a beautiful, blissful journey into the heavens. As you find your eternal rest at the Lotus Feet of Bhagwan Krishna and Swami Ayyappa, we know you are finally reunited with Dad and Brother. As rituals draw to a close and an uncomfortable quiet settles in, home feels different without your towering presence and infinite energy. Yet, there is a profound peace in knowing that you completed your earthly Tapas so beautifully, surrounded by love and devotion until your very last breath.

You may have stepped out of your physical form, but your journey with us isn’t over. Keep shining your light upon us, dear Amma. Look down on your children and grandchildren, and continue to guide and bless us from up above, just as you always did. You will live forever in every prayer we whisper, every value we uphold, and every step we take. Which brings me to the profound Truth that Bhagwan Krishna explains to Arjuna about the immortality and indestructible nature of the soul (Atman).

नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः।
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः॥
nainaṃ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṃ dahati pāvakaḥ
na cainaṃ kledayantyāpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ
– Bhagavad Gita 2:23

“Weapons cannot cleave the soul, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it, and wind cannot dry it.”

Bhagwan Krishna helps Arjuna overcome the fear of death and grief by explaining that no physical world can harm true self. The soul is completely beyond the reach of the four physical elements: Weapons, Fire, Water and Air. Death is only of the body. Soul is eternal, unchangeable, and immortal.

🙏Om Shanti🙏

Stipends, Stigma, and Structure: Why NAPS Applications Hit a 6-Year Low

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Applications generated under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) plunged to a six-year low in 2025 despite employers continuing to offer apprenticeship opportunities, according to data from the scheme’s public dashboard. 
The number of applications generated fell to 401,560 in 2025, the lowest since 2019. Applications had peaked at 4.28 million in 2022 before declining to 2.97 million in 2023 and 2.53 million in 2024. The latest figure is more than 90 per cent below the 2022 peak.

Global and Indian Apprenticeship Decline

Headlines in Business Standard screamed louder than the loudest Deepavali Firecracker. Apprenticeship applications under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) in India have hit a six-year low of just over 4 lakh, reflecting a broader global shift in how early-career paths are viewed. While organizations continue to post opportunities on government portals, actual candidate demand has plummeted significantly. This downward trend highlights a systemic disconnect between the current structure of vocational training and the immediate financial, professional, and cultural needs of young job seekers.

Pic Courtesy: Gemini

Aspirational Deficit Among Youth

A fundamental roadblock is the complete lack of aspirational value associated with technical and vocational training among modern Indian youth. For decades, the societal narrative has tightly coupled career success and white-collar prestige exclusively with engineering, management, or traditional professional degrees. Apprenticeships are widely misperceived as a last-resort fallback for academic underachievers or low-income segments, carrying a heavy social stigma. Because these programs fail to offer the visible social mobility, corporate lifestyle allure, or digital-age prestige that Gen Z candidates actively seek, the youth naturally distance themselves from blue-collar or shop-floor training pathways.

Structural Bottlenecks within the NAPS Framework

Beyond individual candidate hesitation, NAPS suffers from rigid operational design flaws that stifle its effectiveness. The scheme enforces standardized, inflexible curriculum templates that fail to adapt to rapid technological disruptions like artificial intelligence and automation. This curriculum lag means candidates often invest months learning outdated industrial practices that bear little relevance to modern factory floors or corporate workplaces. Additionally, the scheme lacks robust, independent quality auditing mechanisms to monitor training execution. This absence of accountability allows substandard training centers to operate freely, diminishing the actual educational value delivered to the candidate.

Reimbursement Delays and Industry Hesitation

Furthermore, financial friction within the NAPS administrative pipeline severely dampens stakeholder enthusiasm. The mechanisms through which the government reimburses partial stipends to participating companies are plagued by bureaucratic red tape and prolonged processing timelines. For small-scale employers operating on tight liquidity, delayed payouts turn a supposedly incentivized scheme into a financial strain. This cash flow bottleneck, combined with complex onboarding compliances, actively discourages thousands of potential employers from participating, thereby shrinking the overall pool of quality opportunities available to youth.

Core Financial Disconnect

The primary barrier to enrollment is that fixed stipends have failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living. Apprenticeship pay frequently falls below local minimum wages. When young workers relocate from smaller towns to major industrial or Tier-1 hubs to take up these roles, the compensation fails to cover basic food, transport, and rent. Without built-in accommodation or travel support, pursuing an apprenticeship becomes financially unviable for lower-income applicants who must instead prioritize immediate, higher-paying retail or service work.

Deepening Exploitation and Dead-End Pathways

High dropout rates and declining completion metrics—which have fallen to 25.47% according to NITI Aayog—point to severe structural issues within corporate programs. Many candidates exit early after realizing that employers utilize them as low-cost, temporary workforce replacements rather than providing high-quality skill training. This frustration is compounded by long, complex corporate application processes, a general lack of career clarity, and the absence of a structured, guaranteed pathway translating the temporary training contract into a stable, full-time salaried job.

Cultural Bias and Alternative Skill Channels

Traditional academic paths and government exam preparation still hold massive social equity and prestige over vocational routes. Many parents and schools continue to push formal university degrees, causing youth to choose underemployment while studying for public sector exams rather than accepting a corporate apprenticeship. Simultaneously, the younger generation is turning to flexible alternative channels like short-term certifications, bootcamps, freelance networks, and creator-economy gigs, which offer rapid revenue without binding them to a rigid multi-year physical training contract.

Regional Gaps and Administrative Friction

Apprenticeship opportunities are highly concentrated, with just ten states accounting for over 80% of all engagements, leaving youth in regions like the North East or central India with few local choices. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) widely avoid the ecosystem due to cumbersome regulatory compliance. Furthermore, digital fragmentation across separate platforms, such as NAPS for general trades and NATS for graduates or diploma holders, creates severe administrative friction and confusion for applicants seeking a streamlined process.

Overhaul Blueprint

To reverse this decline, policy frameworks from NITI Aayog suggest consolidating administrative efforts into a unified National Apprenticeship Mission. Reclaiming applicant trust requires repositioning these programs as prestigious, financially viable alternatives to traditional university education. This turnaround depends on significantly boosting stipend adequacy, offering formal social security or insurance, and actively funding travel and accommodation support for marginalized candidates.

Credentials vs. Capability

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For many decades, National Institute of Skills held holy grail status for manufacturing industry. It was not place of air-conditioned comfort. It was dusty, loud, relentless powerhouse. Students lived by simple code: 8 AM to 6 PM, six days week, exactly two weeks of vacation year. Schedule mirrored brutal reality of industry. By graduation, hands were calloused, muscle memory flawless, confidence unbreakable. Graduates did not just understand machines; they spoke their language.

Then came modernization wave. New management took over, looking to boost enrollment and cut costs. Board looked at grueling schedule and saw inefficiency, not excellence. Within months, curriculum was overhauled. Workshop hours were cut by half. Lectures on digital manufacturing theory replaced grease-monkey time. Standard academic vacations and long holidays were introduced to keep students relaxed. Shiny new marketing brochures boldly claimed: Industry Ready from Day 1. Veteran instructors shook heads. One cannot learn weight of hammer from PowerPoint slide.

True test came during annual campus placement drive. KV Steel, legacy manufacturing giant and oldest recruiter, arrived with challenge instead of interview panel. Plant Head Raghav, gruff alumnus, led top ten students, all straight-A theorists from new batch, to malfunctioning, vibrating automated hydraulic press. Raghav ordered them to fix choking pressure valve and dead digital sensor.

Students jumped into action. They opened tablets, cited fluid mechanics formulas, debated thermodynamic properties of hydraulic oil, and spent two hours drawing digital schematics. But when Raghav handed them wrench, they hesitated. Hands were soft. They did not know how much torque to apply without snapping bolt. They could not feel vibration of machine to diagnose internal friction. They had all knowledge, but zero skin in game. They were paralyzed.

Raghav looked at row of silent students and sighed. This was tragedy of new curriculum; it confused credentials with capability. Vast, treacherous gulf exists between basic literacy and true mastery. Literacy is merely ability to read manual. It does not mean one has education, which teaches how to think critically about text. Yet, even education remains static without active learning, messy process of trial and error. Over time, learning crystallizes into knowledge, intellectual bank of facts and formulas. But knowledge alone is hollow. Only through thousands of hours of sweat, failure, and repetition does knowledge mature into wisdom, instinctual, unwritten understanding of when and how to apply what you know. Students had been given shortcut to knowledge, but they were entirely bankrupt of wisdom.

Sweat of Capability vs Comfort of Credentials

Sensing disaster, old workshop assistant, barely year from retirement, stepped forward. He did not know latest textbook jargon. But he had spent thirty years working old institute schedule. He did not look at screen. He simply placed bare, calloused palm against vibrating metal hull of press. He listened to pitch of whine. With three swift, practiced movements of heavy spanner, honed by thousands of hours of repetition, he bled valve, adjusted tension, and machine purred back to life. Total time taken was four minutes.

Raghav turned to stunning but helpless students. Knowledge tells you what machine does, Raghav said, wiping stray drop of oil from face. But only hours on shop floor give instinct to make it work. You have been trained to think, but you have not been trained to work. Institute had traded sweat of capability for comfort of credentials. In real world, credentials do not fix broken engines.

A cat with gloves never catches mice.