Directors of ‘Efficient Brainy Academy’ are CHEAP and FRAUD’- Prof. Narendra Nayak
Directors of ‘Efficient Brainy Academy’ are CHEAP, FRAUD & BEGGARS’- Prof. Narendra Nayak, said during a press meet briefing about the Scam and Fraud administered by the people who run the Franchisee of Efficient Brainy, having 100’s of branches, where they are creating a racket called as WBDP (Whole Brain Development Programme) in which they are allegedly balancing the activities of both sides of the brain- and simply FOOLING the Children
Mangaluru: Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Hotel Woodlands- Mangaluru on Saturday evening at 5pm, Prof. Narendra Nayak- President, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, Mangaluru said, “An entity called “Smart Brainy” located near Shree Mahalingeshwara Temple, Puttur claiming to be a franchisee of Efficient Brainy which is allegedly a franchiser having hundreds of branches has been running a racket called as WBDP or whole brain development program in which they are allegedly balancing the activities of both sides of the brain. This is supposed to work only on children between the ages of 6 to 16! Thereby they claim to increase the memory power, intelligence and also guide the future career of the child by what they call as DMIT.”
Prof. Nayak further added, ” Since both these are frauds we had lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district and he had instructed the DDPI to investigate the allegations. The report of the same investigation is ready and has been submitted yesterday, and action will be taken soon on our request. The number of experts and activists in the field who had visited the premises of the party/academy conducting this activity have proved that this system is nothing but fraud and fake. I have been following on this kind of thing for the last six years, and now such an academy has opened in Puttur- and we will see that they don’t continue their operations which is looting children parent’s hard earned money. I call the MD’s/Directors of this Academy as CHEAP, FRAUD, and BEGGARS?.Seeing something blindfolded is nothing but fake and fraud. Even I can play that trick, which I will demonstrate soon. All this time we took this issue on a lighter level, but now for the first time we are proceeding through an administrative level- and we are confident that this kind of scam and fraud is stopped immediately without any delay”.
A parent named Keshav Murthy from Puttur who had admitted his 9-year-old daughter to this “Smart Brainy Academy-Puttur” speaking to the media persons said, ” I think spending Rs 10-12 thousand on this three months course to make your child is not worth because it is all fake and fraud. It’s only a money making business opened by these few people, who are running this Franchise without any licence, no trademark, no registration, no tax etc- and they don’t open their branches in big cities, I or II Tier cities, instead in outskirts/villages like Puttur, Sullia etc, where they can cheat innocent people there”
“I have seen parents taking a loan, even rickshaw drivers have pledged gold to get loan and send their children for this course. Even the persons who train these children are not experienced, no knowledge, and some look like they have no brains at all- how can a child learn from such trainers. I am trying to convince other parents not to send their children to such fake academies run by cheaters. This is just wastage of time for children taking up the 3-months course, and wasting their parent’s money. I along with few other parents who wish to join me, will approach the Consumer’s Court to get my money back, and also see that these people get punished for fooling our children. So beware of such academies, and don’t enroll your children there”.
Dr Madhav Rao, former president of Karnataka Psychiatrists Association, Dr Raghavendra-HOD of Neurologist at Fr Muller Hospital; Dr Varun Pai, a specialist in forensic medicine at Kanachur Hospital speaking to the media expressed their expert opinions about these and also answered many queries about the same. “Illusionist Munna” a magician from Mangaluru also demonstrated how he can read blindfolded, and proved that Blind Folding reading promoted by Smart Brainy is nothing but a gimmick and fraud. Aboobacker Arlapadau- President of Karnataka State Vijnana Parishat-DK Dist. was also present on the dais.
While concluding Prof. Narendra Nayak also said, “Some parents from Puttur who have been cheated by them have also decided to file consumer cases against and have already issued notice to them. The office bearers of Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishat both past and present have also played a role in exposing this scam by visiting the premises along the BEO of Puttur Smt. Sukanya. Junior Shankar of Giligili magic and Dr Ganesh Prasad have already put forth their opinions that the claims of balancing brains and blindfolded seeing are not supported by any evidence. We have been also informed that the franchiser of this fraudulent scheme Efficient Brainy has more than a hundred branches all over Karnataka with thousands of victims of this scam. “
“We herein appeal to the department of public instructions of Karnataka State to take action on this matter to close these down. I along with couple other members will also take a jatha from 30 October across some regions of the state and culminating in Belgaum (where one such academy is situated, and the Director Mallikarjun has challenged me to investigate) about creating awareness about these scams among students and public from Mangaluru to Belgaum where the head office of Efficient Brainy is situated, with programs at some important places on the way ending with a demonstration and press conference there. Many other organizations have agreed to collaborate with us particularly Manva Bandhutva Vedike.
More details about Blind Folded Seeing (other than details from this Press Meet) as furnished by Prof. Narendra Nayak:
Blindfolded seeing has been touted as a supernatural power by many unscrupulous charlatans since long. There have many claimants to that but have been exposed at some time or the other. Again. It has been a part of magic used by many professional entertainers who openly admit that it is a trick. But, recently there have been efforts in India to make it a technique to develop extraordinary brain power, make your children into super geniuses and what not. The first such public claim was by a girl called Ranjana Agarwal who was exposed by me in 2010. It was claimed that she has the powers to see when blindfolded.
Later on, a new use was discovered for this alleged power of seeing with blindfolds. The activity was called as Midbrain activation. It was claimed that by a super secret process children between the ages of 3 and 16 could be made into geniuses who could read hundreds of pages in a minute, develop astonishing acuity of senses, could see things hundreds of miles away etc. Since faculties like this would be asked to be proved they had one tangible bit of ‘evidence’ to prove it. The children could read blindfolded. This was touted as an ability which children who were not subjected to this would not have. To establish this claim they could bring midbrain activated children who could be blindfolded and would read, write, identify objects and so on.
This has been claimed by them too in various ads and brochures. This came to the forefront from around 2014 or so. Numerous such centers were opened all over the country and the owners of these started going around schools with children in tow who could do many activities with blindfolds on. This would naturally amaze other children who would also want to acquire such powers! They would naturally pressurize their parents into enrolling them into the course and of course for a fee! These classes would be conducted on holidays and as the process was a super secret one no outsiders would be allowed to enter including the parents.
As the subjects were only children who would claim to see when blindfolded it would be very difficult for anyone to doubt their credibility as children would not lie! With this build up the industry became a flourishing racket with commissions being given to parents who would bring more customers into the fold. When one child would go before his/her friends and become the center of attraction by showing off the supernatural ability to read blindfolded, the others would naturally like to acquire the same. So, new customers for the racketeers would be ensured!
We started a campaign to expose these and some of them challenged us to test the abilities of their children in public. One of such got a good coverage and is on Youtube.
(Watch Video Here) This followed by our campaigning in many states resulted in the gradual decline of this. But still, efforts went on others joined the bandwagon like the art of living people. Who brought out a pamphlet:
Even the rape allegation tainted Nityananda came out with something he called as third eye activation – Click Here for Video
Since the numerous exposures made bad news about this scam, those running them decided to go the Vedic, yoga way calling it Nada yoga and such fancy names. Previously it was claimed to be Japanese being invented by a Makoto Shichida who was proclaimed to be an educationist. Now, in Karnataka, the same old wine has now reappeared in a new bottle called as brain balancing claiming to balance two sides of the brain. Since the A grade cities have been saturated and not many left to exploit they have moved to B grade cities and towns. An enterprise called as efficient brainy academy has opened its franchisees all over the state. Find more about them Here
This enterprise has branches in North too at Gurgaon and there are supposed to be 80 franchisees all over Karnataka. One such had opened in Puttur near Mangalore and brought out pamphlets like these claiming that their trained children can do anything with their eyes closed! So, we had lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of the district that they are making wild claims without any scientific evidence and an enquiry should be held into their affairs since the public would lose their money and the process could damage the brains too.
A complaint has been also lodged with the advertising standards council of India and the process of enquiry there is also on. In the meanwhile, the team constituted by the Deputy Director of Public instructions, Mangalore has visited Efficient Brainy, Puttur on the 17th inst and have made a report. The team consisting of the Block Education Officer, Dr Ganesh Prasad, psychiatrist, Subash Rai, Karunakar of the Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishat, Dakshina Kannada unit, Junior Shankar, magician of Gili Gili magic have visited the place where the so-called training was going on, examined the trained children and have submitted a report that the children are not having any special powers but just peeking through the gaps between the blindfold and nose. The final report of the DDPI is now awaited.
We are planning to complain to the Education Minister of Govt. of Karnataka to get this fraud investigated by the CID as this is a big scam having defrauded parents of crores of rupees as they are collecting amounts from 10,000 upwards from each parent promising to make super geniuses of their children. Since they have published pamphlets with the name of a medical doctor on it, we have also complained to the health department and the Indian Medical Association as it amounts to professional misconduct of advertising a product. The same enterprise is also giving an added bonus of DMIT (dermatoglyphics multiple intelligence tests) which purportedly charts out the future career of the child by analyzing the fingerprints. While all forensic and medical experts are in agreement about the use of fingerprints in identification and crime detection the Efficient Brainy have extended this ‘science’ to foretelling the future of the child.
I fully support Prof.Narendra Nayak and his team who are trying to expose frauds in our society. This pseudo-science needs to be confronted and exposed. In a free society, this is how things should be exposed in a civil and logical manner.
At the same time, I also understand the cheap thrill these ‘rationalists’ and their fans get by targeting only one type of groups. There are fraudsters in other communities who promise miraculous healing and many such things. I encourage Mr Nayak to gather some courage and go after all fraudsters. Otherwise, the terms ‘cheap, fraud and beggars’ may very well point at his own group of ‘rationalists’.