Eulogy for B V Sreekantan

Eulogy for  BV Sreekantan: Former Chairman of the Executive Committee of

Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and Member GB, NCSM (1982-90).

An eminent cosmic ray physicist, radio astronomer, and a key member of the project to detect neutrinos - mysterious, charge-less, massless subatomic particles - in the experiments that were conducted by TIFR scientists some 3 Kilometres below the surface of the earth in the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in Karnataka, and a student cum associate of Dr Homi Jahangir Bhabha, a Padma Bhushan awardee and a recipient of the Rajyotsava Prashasti by the Government of Karnataka, nonagenarian, Badanaval Venkatasubba Sreekantan, left for his heavenly abode on the night of the auspicious Deepavali day - Sunday, 27th October 2019 - in Malleswaram, Bangalore. He was 94 years old.

Sreekantan was among the preeminent scientists of India who made profound contributions to the fundamental research in the field of science while working with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for nearly four decades, including his tenure as its Director for more than a decade. There will be scores of eulogies and tributes penned down by many of his associates, students and admirers, which will touch upon his outstanding scientific contributions. However, I am not sure if any of the tributes to BV Sreekantan will mention his association with our centre - Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM). Among his innumerable achievements, Sreekantan’s contribution to the establishment of our centre and his association with the apex science centre/museum body in India, the NCSM, may find a miss in the eulogies that will be written and therefore, I feel it an honour to place on records that Dr Sreekantan was very closely associated with the Nehru Science Centre during its formative years. He held the all-important position of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of our centre for a record two terms (8 Years) from December 1982 to January 1990. During this period, he also served as a member of the Governing Body, NCSM.

The foundational values that were cemented by stalwarts like BV Sreekantan in the formative years of NCSM have resulted in the current respected position that NCSM commands in society particularly in the Ministry of Culture, which almost always depends on NCSM for execution of most of their time committed projects independent of whether such projects pertained to scientific topics or not. It was during the tenure of Dr. BV Sreekantan that one of the pioneers of modern architecture in India, Achyut Kanvinde, was selected and appointed as the architect for the design of the Nehru Science Centre building. The magnificent, castle-like, building that now stands majestically tall in the midst of 12 acres of green ambience in Worli today, owes its genesis, among others, to Dr Sreekantan. It was also during the tenure of Dr Sreekantan that the Nehru Science Centre was inaugurated - on the 11th of November 1985 - by the then Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, in the presence of Narasimha Rao, Dr. Sreekantan, Dr Saroj Ghose, R M Chakraborty and other distinguished dignitaries. It was during the Chairmanship of Sreekantan that the first ever satellite centre of NCSM - the District Science Centre - came up in Dharampur, Gujrat in 1984.

Sreekantan was born on 30th June 1925 into a priestly family to B V Pandit and Laxmi Devi in Nanjangud, a small town, known for centuries-old Srikanteshwara Temple (also called Nanjundeshwara Temple) in the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. Sreekantan was the fifth child among eight brothers and three sisters. B.V. Pandit, father of Sreekantan - a famed Ayurvedic doctor who is credited to be the originator of the famous herbal tooth powder from this town - named his illustrious son - Sreekantan - in reverence to the lord Srikanteshwara. B V Pandit deviated from his family profession of temple priesthood to pursue his Ayurvedic studies and completed his degree and became a ‘Vaidya’ - an Ayurvedic doctor. Apart from Ayurveda, Sreekantan’s father was also proficient in Sanskrit and Vedas. While pursuing his Ayurvedic practice, he developed a special dental powder ‘Nanjangud Tooth Powder’, which continues to remain popular even today. He also produced several other Ayurvedic products like Kasturi pills for stomach ailments and other Ayurvedic preparations, which continue to be popular even today. All this helped the Pandit family flourish in their business, which helped in developing a creative ambience at home. Sreekantan grew up in this creative ambience and was blessed with an intellectually stimulating atmosphere at home. His father had a huge collection of books on diverse subjects including religion, literature, philosophy, liberal arts, mythology, science etc. This atmosphere, very early in life, helped Sreekantan develop a keen interest in reading and writing. It also opened up a new vista to the world of knowledge.

Sreekantan developed an immense interest in science from the early days. He completed his formal high school in Nanjangud and obtained a two-year intermediate degree from Mysore. Influenced by his elder brother, he migrated towards physics and obtained his BSc Physics (Hons.) degree in 1946 and his post-graduation, MSc (Physics) in 1947, with a specialisation in wireless, from Central College, Bangalore. Sreekantan was taught by some of the best and most dedicated teachers in Physics at this college, which he reminisced about during one of his recent interviews. It was during this period that the Central College invited a number of scientists and experts from the Tata Institute and abroad to speak to the students. Homi Bhabha, who was then studying at the Tata Institute, delivered a lecture at the college and his lecture had a great impact on Sreekantan. Immediately after his MSc, Sreekantan joined the Communication Engineering Department of the Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore, as a research scholar. C V Raman was then with the Tata Institute and was facing stiff opposition for ‘patronising’ the Physics department at the cost of others. Frustrated with his humiliation, Sir Raman had almost certainly decided to quit the institute and start his own institute - the Raman Research Institute. Homi Jahangir Bhabha was one of the scientists who had worked with Raman at the Tata Institute and post his theoretical studies on cosmic rays in Cambridge, Bhabha had decided to introduce cosmic rays research at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), which he founded with support from his family. Young Sreekantan had heard about the new institute, TIFR, and knowing fully well that the Physics department in the Tata Institute was going through a bad patch, decided to join Bhabha’s team in TIFR in Mumbai.

Sreekantan had attempted to meet Bhabha in Bangalore during one of Bhabha’s visits to the city but had not succeeded. However, he managed to get another opportunity to prove himself when he was called for an interview for a Research Studentship at TIFR, Mumbai. It was on the 6th of August 1948 that Sreekantan was asked to present himself before the selection committee of TIFR in the premises of Kenilworth - the building where TIFR and its founder were born – for the post of Research Studentship. In his application for the post, Sreekantan mentioned ‘Theoretical/ Experimental Physics’ as an area of his interest. He was therefore first examined for his knowledge of physics by a committee that was chaired by Bhabha, which he cleared successfully. Since theoretical physics demanded a fair amount of knowledge in mathematics, Sreekantan was asked to appear before a second committee that consisted of Bhabha, D. D. Kosambi and Levy. He was asked questions on matrices by Levy while Kosambi asked some questions in statistics. After the success of his second interview, Sreekantan was called to Bhabha’s room for the final discussion and it was here that Sreekantan was offered the job and he decided to follow Bhabha’s advice to join the Cosmic Ray department in TIFR.

Sreekantan joined TIFR on 12 August 1948. Thus began his long and eventful four-plus decades of journey in the world of scientific research in TIFR. Sreekantan was one of the first students of TIFR to carry out research in experimental cosmic ray physics. In his long scientific research career, Sreekantan, in the words of PC Agarwal - who wrote an excellent article on Sreekantan in the Living Legends of Indian Science section of Current Science - ‘went on to become that rare scientist whose work ranged from experiments a few kilometres deep underground in a mine - the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) - on cosmic ray particles and proton decay to altitudes up to several hundred kilometres with balloon and rocket-borne detectors to study X-ray emissions from neutron stars and black holes’, a rare feat indeed. Sreekantan had a remarkably successful career at TIFR culminating in his elevation as its Director in January 1975. Sreekantan served as the Director of TIFR for twelve long years (1975 -87) until reaching superannuation in 1987. He steered TIFR with distinction and left behind a rich legacy of cosmic ray physics and astrophysics, new research programmes and the creation of autonomous TIFR Centres, which are located away from the TIFR campus in Colaba namely; Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE, Mumbai), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS Bengaluru), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA Pune) and TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics (Bengaluru). His simplicity, sense of objectivity and fairness in the treatment of colleagues and other staff, generosity and accessibility to all, firmness when required and decisiveness won him appreciation from every quarter.

 During his 39 long years of service at the TIFR, Sreekantan put India on the world map of high-energy physics.

 With strong support from Bhabha and MGK Menon, Sreekantan nurtured and built an internationally recognized research group in TIFR, which studied the characteristics of high energy cosmic rays using a variety of detectors at ground level, mountain altitude as well as in deep underground mines. Sreekantan and other scientists’ early experiments in deep Kolar Gold Field (KGF) mines ultimately led to studies of energetic muons at a depth of up to 2760 metres. Failure to detect any cosmic ray-produced muons at this depth suggested the possibility

of detecting interactions of neutrinos in deep rocks in the mines. This ultimately led to the detection of a cosmic ray-produced neutrino event, which was the first of its kind and this finding was published in 1965. This finding paved the way for the TIFR group to undertake the well-known experiment to search for Proton Decay in the decade 1980–90 in the KGF mines. But most unfortunately that was not to be. The experiment by TIFR researchers - Sreekantan and others – on neutrinos warranted funding to the tune of 50 Crores of Rupees, which unfortunately was not forthcoming from the government. As a result, the project had to be shelved and the research in KGF had to be called off in 1990 and the mines of KGF were permanently closed. Had the Government been more indulgent and considered sanctioning the requisite budget, the course of the Nobel Prize in 2002 may have chartered a different story with an Indian name in it. The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2002 was divided, one half jointly to Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos" the very works which Sreekantan and others were wanting to carry out in the KGF, before the two Nobel laureates.

It is however heartening to note that there is a continuation of these efforts now and India has joined the global scientific community in commencing the India-Based Neutrinos Observatory project (INO). In December 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Security cleared the India-based Neutrino Observatory project, to be built at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. This is a milestone in the frontiers of science research programme which was initiated by Sreekantan at TIFR. INO is the latest in a series of neutrino detectors, neutrino factories and experiments being set up worldwide to promote research in particle physics. The INO project will be coming up at Pottipuram village, in Theni district, near the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe and their study can open new vistas in science.

Sreekantan was conferred with many awards and recognitions, which include among others; Padma Bhushan (1988), the CV Raman Award for Physical Sciences (1977) by UGC, the Homi Bhabha Medal for Physical Sciences (1978) by INSA, the R.D. Birla Memorial Award of Indian Physics Association in 1982 and the Ramanujan award of Indian Science Congress (1989). He was decorated with the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Senior Scientist State Award (2004) and the Rajyotsava Award by the Karnataka Government (1998). He was a UGC National Lecturer in 1978 and received the PMS Blackett Memorial Lecture Award of INSA– Royal Society in 1978. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru (1965); Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1976); National Academy of Sciences India, Allahabad (1989) and Maharashtra Academy of Science. He was President of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and President, of the Physics Section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He served as Vice-Chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission (1987-93), and a Member of the Atomic Energy Commission (1985-86). He was an Editorial Fellow of the project ‘History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture’ and served as the Chairman of the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharti Vidya Bhavan at Bengaluru until his last.

Sreekantan has mentored many scientists in their doctoral research and is the author of over 300 scientific papers. He is also credited with the publication of five books either as the author or editor.

Sreekantan served as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two terms, the first from 1954 to 1955 and subsequently from 1965 to 1967. He was associated with the University of Tokyo as their JSPS visiting professor in 1977 and taught at the University of California at their Irvine and San Diego campuses during 1993-94. He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He has served as the president of the Indian Physics Association (1976–78) and the physics section of the Indian Science Congress (1981). He held the post of vice chairman of the IUPAP Cosmic Ray Commission from 1987 to 1993, sat as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission during 1985-86 and has held the chair of the Research Council of National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. He is a former editorial fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture and chairs the Gandhi Centre for Science and Human Values of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. He also served as the chairman of the board of directors of Sadvaidyasala, an Ayurvedic medicine company founded by his father.

Sreekanthan remained academically active until his last and was the visiting professor of the National Institute of Advanced Studies  (NIAS) Bangalore.  I join the nation in general and the scientific community in particular in paying homage to this great son of India and pray for his noble soul to rest in eternal peace.

of detecting interactions of neutrinos in deep rocks in the mines. This ultimately led to the detection of a cosmic ray produced neutrino event, which was the first of

International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) 2019 : India bags, a Gold, Silver and a Bronze at Paitra neamt Romania.

The Deepavali celebrations for the Indian team at the XXIV International Astronomy Olympiad (2019) that is coordinated by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), got brighter with the results of the XXI, IAO 2019 which trickled in from Romania. All the three students, who were selected from amongst the best ones for representing India in the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) that was organised during the period from 19- 27 October 2019 at Piatra Neamt, Romania, made India proud by winning a Gold, Silver and a Bronze medal in the just concluded event at Paitra Neamt Romania. Dhananjay Raman from Delhi bagged the Gold for his stellar performance and was also adjudged the best student among all the contestants.

The Indian team which took part in the XXIV IAO 2019 at  Paitra neamt Romania included Dhananjay Raman from Delhi who won the Gold and the over all best performer, Venkata Aditya Josula from Hyderabad who won the Silver and Hitysh Lakshmi Kant from Bangalore who won the Bronze. The students were accompanied by three of our colleagues from across NCSM centres namely ; Dr Kanchan Kumar Chowdhury, Team Leader and Curator, NEZ Kolkata, Munikumar Balaji Minnal, Team Leader(Jury) and Curator,  RSC,Tirupati and Bharat Bhusan Shrivastava, Observer and EO, NSC Delhi. In all eighteen countries and 52 students took part in this highly competitive international Olympiad. The IAO (Jr)is one of the highly acclaimed International Science Olympiads that is coordinated and recognised by the HBCSE.

The Nehru Science Centre a unit of NCSM, has been privileged to play a significant role in ensuring that this highly academic event, which until the year 2014 was mainly organised by the HBCSE with NCSM confining itself to the funding of the event only, has now been able to conduct the OCSC, PDC and also manage the IAO at the international level on its own and end up bagging medals for all the participants. What is even more creditable is that we at the NCSM were initially hesitant to shoulder this responsibility, which needs an extraordinarily high level of academic specialisation, and therefore we were relying exclusively on HBCSE - known for such academic excellence -  for taking up this responsibility. But then for the first time we took that bold initiative to attempt organising this highly academic event on our own, courtesy encouragement from Prof Mayank Vahia, the then National Coordinator of Astronomy Olympiad, and ever since we have been managing this event on our own at NCSM and this year we have been successful in ensuring that all the three participants have won the medal and what is more creditable is that not only did Dhananjay win the Gold medal, he has also been declared the best among the best, which in itself is a major satisfaction for all of us at NCSM particularly some of my colleagues ; Madan Gopal, Srivastava, Kanchan Chaudhury, Balaji, Saket, and several others whose support and advice and guidance we have taken.

I have had the honour to play a very small role in this feat. With unstinting support from my colleagues, I was responsible in taking that major decision of NCSM organising the IAO on our own steam, particularly the OCSC, PDC and the international leg of the IAO event. Thank you so very much, my dear colleagues who reposed that extraordinary trust in my conviction that NCSM can conduct such highly academic events on its own.  This years result show that we have more or less come to the same exacting standards of HBCSE, when it comes to preparing our students for the International Astronomy Olympiad competition. May NCSM continue to excel and produce even better results in the years to come and aim for the year when all our students get Gold medals and make our country proud.

Most unfortunately one of the students, Master Hitysh from Bangalore has fallen sick and had to be admitted in the hospital in Romania and there are issues with the Visa for his overstay and also for the overstay of Mr Srivastava who is taking care of him. We have talked to the Indian Embassy and have also talked to the worried parents of the student and hopefully everything goes as per our discussions with the Indian Embassy in Romania and Hitysh and Srivastava too return back to India safely at the earliest until then please  do join me in praying for the early recovery of Hitysh and their safe return to India.

Incidentally I also have an honour to be a member of the National Steering Committee (NSC) of all the Science Olympiads, that is so very efficiently organised and managed by the HBCSE in India.

The Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati

This Post is courtesy my wife who insisted that I write on the Kamakhya Temple.

I am one of those who, though not an atheist, is far removed from an array of rituals, traditions, practices - with a plethora of forms and beliefs -  that are central to the beauty of what Hinduism is all about. Besides, I am not well informed on matters pertaining to religious issues and therefore I never write on this subject. Yet, I am making one time  exception and attempting this FB post on the Kamakhya Mandir, courtesy my wife who insisted that I write on the Kamakhya Mandir, the darshan of which my wife and I had during our short sojourn to Guwahati and Shillong on a rare vacation. She has endured the incorrigible me, when it comes to my tardiness on most family matters, for all of three decades so I better oblige.

Hinduism (सनातन धर्म) has complex roots that involve a vast array of rituals, practices and an innumerable number of deities, including the Goddess Kamakhya, in whose reverence the Kamakhya Mandir was consecrated several centuries ago, who are worshipped by Hindus. The Kamakhya Mandir is an ancient temple - a highly revered शक्तीपीठ - which is one of the best known religious centres that was famous for its mysticism and tantric practices. It is also known for a range of its sculptural art - from different times - that amalgamates myth, religion and art in an extraordinary blend. The reconstructed Kamakhya temple , which we now see, situated atop the Nilachal hill in Guwahati, dates back to sixteenth century. Decorating the walls and interiors of the temple are a range of elegantly and artistically sculpted stone images - quite similar to the Gupta art style - trace the myth behind the tantric traditions, for which the temple was known. This holy place had once become a centre that witnessed tantric sacrifices, mysticism and dark fanatics of sorcery.

Kamakhya temple is one of the main Shakti pithas (sacred place), among the fifty one शक्तीपीठ (Shatkti pithas), that is dedicated to the Mother Goddess Kamakhya - another form of the legendary Goddess Parvati. Kamakhya is worshiped in this temple in the form of ‘ womb and a Yoni’. Like most history in India, which is unclear when it comes to its exact dating or establishing its period, the Kamakhya temple too has its own share of uncertainty to its history. There is little material evidence to trace the exact period when this temple was originally built. However there are several corroborative evidences including some ancient texts -  the Kallika Purana and Yogini Tantra - that do provide some reference to the antiquity of worship of Goddess Kamakhya. Based on these corroborative evidence, it has now been fairly established that the Kamakhya temple may have originally been built between 5th to 7th century A D and rebuilt several times later post it’s destruction. The temple has its own share of legendary tales.

Like the two legendary epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata - the most famous mythological stories that have transcended generations passing on from one generation to another through oral traditions, the Kamakhya temple too has its own share of oral legends and mythological beliefs. The origin of the Kamakhya temple owes its genesis to one such mythological story. Legend has it that according to the Kalika Purana, Daksha the father of Sati (Parvati) once organised an यज्ञ (sacrificial ritual) - a pious religious ceremony. In this decorated यज्ञ Daksha  invited all Gods and Goddesses but excluded his daughter Sati and his son in law her Lord Shiva, who he disliked due to the so called strange appearance of Shiva and also because Shiva once ‘neglected’ him and made him wait, when he visited his daughter. On hearing the news of यज्ञ being performed by her father, Sati went to her fathers home to attend the यज्ञ without an invitation. Daksha was unimpressed to see his daughter attend his Yagna, uninvited. He angrily started insulting her husband and not withstanding the pleadings by his daughter not to insult her husband, he was unimpressed and continued insulting Lord Shiva. Sati could not bear her husbands insults any more and in uncontrollable anger she gave up her life by jumping into the fire of the यातना कुण्ड. Incidentally the necessity of diverse shapes and exacting sizes of the fire altars that were used for the यज्ञ that are responsible for the the ancient Indians to excel in mathematics. Hearing the news of his wife’s death, Shiva - known for his infamous anger - became furious and went to his father-in-law's house in a fit of rage and destroyed the sacrificial alter and then carried the dead body of his beloved wife Sati, on his shoulder and started roaming around the tribhuvana performing his तांडव -  dance of distraction. Knowing well the rage of Shiva and his legendary Tandava Nritya, all Gods and Goddesses became fearful and went to seek solace with Lord Vishnu and requested him to give Mukthi to Sati. Lord Vishnu very cleverly used his legendary Vishnu Chakra to remove Satis body from the shoulders of Shiva and in the process Satis body was fragmented in to fifty one pieces and all the parts of Satis body were strewn over different places. Places where Satis body fell are consecrated as शक्तिपीठ। It is believed that one part of Satis body - the Yoni and the womb - fell on top of the Nilachala hill, which was then consecrated as the temple of Kamakhya.

It is also widely believed that the original temple was destroyed by an Islamic ruler  but then it was soon reconstructed on its remains. According to an inscription on the Kamakhya temple, Koch king Naranarayana reconstructed the temple over the ruins of the old structure in 1565 A D. The nature of the current temple indicates that the original structure of the stone built temple is reconstructed many times; hence, the sculptural compositions of this temple reflect their characteristic style of different periods. Historians and archeologists have suggested that some of the stone carvings on the walls of the temple reveal the characteristic styles of the Gupta art as well as art of Orissa. Sculptures of Assam closely associated with the style of Bengal and Orissa are also seen on the temple walls.  The Kamakhya temple essentially follows the Nagara style of architecture that are seen in most temples in North India. The sculptures are apparent mostly on the exterior walls as well as on the interior walls of the temple. A good number of sculptures are also fixed on the temple gates and some of these can be clearly seen in the attached photos which we clicked during our दर्शन of the deity on the 13th October. There was unending queue divided into three separate lines one for the Defence Personnel and their family one each for a special and General  दर्शन। It took almost three hours for us to complete the दर्शन, not withstanding the special दर्शन that we sought. All through the queue my wife was fully engrossed in her religious thoughts and beliefs while I was trying to try and understand the art and architecture of this unique temple.

One may differ when it comes to ones religious beliefs but then one thing is a constant in India across all historical monuments - including the temples and mosques and churches and other religious and worship places - they exhibit an outstanding knowledge of ancient Indians in art, architecture and technological acumen that establishes ‘The Wonder that was India’ - borrowing from Basham.

Our trip to the North East besides Guwahati also included a visit to Shillong and its surroundings including the lesser known Nartiang Monoliths, which I managed to visit by convincing my wife that the place also has another शक्तिपीठ, the Durga Temple. The monoliths of Nartiang were truly a visual treat which can be seen in the accompanying images that I clicked.

All in all it was a memorable vacation that we enjoyed from 12th to 18th. A long waiting time in Kolkata airport helped me complete this post, which I hope pleases my wife at whose insistence I have penned this post.

Mahabalipuram (Mammalapuram) : A Reminiscence.

Mahabalipuram (Mammalapuram) : A Reminiscence.

 Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), the sixth century centre of Pallava art and architecture and a world heritage site, known for its centuries old connect with China, has rightfully been chosen for the ongoing meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The visible optics and the chemistry between the two leaders, as they walked through the historic sites in Mamallapuram until halting at the precincts of the Shore temple for witnessing a cultural treat in an extraordinary setting with the majestic shore temple as a backdrop, hopefully augurs well for the cementing of the bilateral relationship between the two giants of Asia. Watching live the two leaders walk through the heritage sites in Mamallapuram, reminded me of our visit (my wife and I) to this city during May 2018, and here I am reminiscing our visit to this city, particularly those sites, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited.

The name Mamallapuram - also known as Mahabalipuram - is said to be derived from the word "Mamallan" - meaning great warrior - a reference to the great Pallava King Narasimhavarman I, of the Pallava dynasty, who ruled the region from 630 to almost 670 AD and was known for his love of art and sculpture. This ancient historic beach side city, is a curious potpourri of art, culture, history, heritage, architecture that is considered to be an archeological treasure trove with its famous group of monuments listed among UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. The first thing that strikes you in Mamallapuram, is the majesty of the rocks, the pristine sands, the clear blue sky, the deep blue sea.

The Five Rathas are by far the most famous of the many rock cut arts in Mahabalipuram, which are mesmerisingly imposing in their grandeur, intriguing in their concept and amazing in their art. The Rathas represent the five Pandava brothers and their wife Draupadi from the epic Mahabharata and all of them are carved from a single boulder. They are master sculpted with intricate carvings that portray mythological tales, which are depicted in these sculptures.

Shore Temple, by far the most famous heritage structure of Mahabalipuram, is perched atop a rocky outpost with the deep blue sea as its natural backdrop. It is an architectural masterpiece, which represent the peak of the Pallavas’ artistry. Unlike the rathas and the mandapas, the Shore Temple is the earliest example of a stone built temple. The design of the temple is such that its unusual architecture is famously called a landmark by day and a beacon by night. The Shore Temple is also interestingly an abode of both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu, a rare occurrence in temple architecture.

The Arjuna’s Penance exemplifies illustrated in rock art of the city. The story of Arjuna’s penance or as some historians believe, Bhaghirathis’s penance to bring river Ganges to earth is depicted in bas relief. The surrounding scenes present everyday life depictive of the times. This is what makes Mahabalipuram rock art so unique. It is resonant of the cultural influences that it has absorbed over the times and disseminates it through the various sculptures that depict that time.

Mahabalipuram was a seaport right from the beginning of the Christian era. The epigraphical sources confirm Pallava kings' active contacts with Ceylon, China and the Southeast Asian countries. The city came to the glory after the Pallava started building the structural and monolithic temple architecture in this area. The city was dotted with "Seven pagodas' once upon a time, as referred by the earlier mariners. Now all but one, Shore Temple' has survived and the rest are all believed to have been submerged in the sea as per the local traditions and the foreign accounts. There are records from the European travellers, who gave the name as ―Seven Pagodas, that while they were sailing along the Coromandel Coast, they noticed Seven Pagodas, from a few miles away on the sea. It is believed that there stood seven pagodas topped with copper roofs, which helped as a landmark for the mariners as the sun-rays used to reflect from those roofs. It is also believed that out of a total of seven temples originally constructed, all have submerged in the sea over a period of time and the only temple that has survived is the Shore Temple.

It is therefore no wonder that this historic city, which connects both India and China to more than a thousand years, was chosen for the India China summit meet for the two two leaders and hopefully the ambience and the art and aesthetics of the city helps the two countries to strengthen their bilateral relations.

Lithium Ion Battery the Driver of Ubiquitous Computing, Deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019)

Lithium Ion Battery the Driver of Ubiquitous Computing, Deservedly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2019)

Can any one of us imagine an Indian curry without the ubiquitous chillies and masala? Will definitely not. Both these important ingredients are integral part of any Indian cuisine, and so is the Lithium Ion Battery for any of the portable electronic devices that are ubiquitous and are an integral part of the human society in the modern day connected world, that we now live in. It is in recognition of the primacy that the lithium ion battery enjoys in the modern world, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded this year’s Noble Prize in Chemistry to Dr. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, ‘for the development of lithium ion batteries’. Many scientists were anticipating a Nobel recognition for the invention of this battery and finally their anticipation has come true and in the process Prof Goodenough has become the oldest Nobel laureate in the Nobel history, he is now 97.

The three laureates are lithium ion battery pioneers and are the movers and shakers of the technology that shaped these batteries and ushered them to the current era. Their remarkable research, which they have endured, has led to the modern day technology for the lithium ion batteries, which now form an inalienable & Integral part of the rechargeable mobile computing world. These lithium ion batteries provide a lightweight, rechargeable power source for mobile phones, laptop computers, and other electronic gadgets. The lithium ion batteries have now shifted gear to make their inroads into the next generation automobiles and electric vehicles - made famous by the likes of Elon Musk - The Tesla automobiles and others.

Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing - a world where smart devices are all around us woven inextricably into the very fabric of everyday life - has now more or less became a reality and the Lithium Ion Batteries have played a pivotal role in making this possible. Weiser was the chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States and he is widely considered to be the father of ‘ubiquitous computing’, a term he coined in 1988. He said “Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.”. This profound and prophetic visionary statement is now here for every one of us to see and experience cutting across sections of society. Ubiquitous computing has now become a reality with the explosion in the information technology and the Internet of Things, connecting devices of our daily life with the global internet. Central to the ubiquitous computing is the Lithium Ion Battery, which silently plays a pivotal role in the background every single gadgets that drive the ubiquitous computing world.

Supplying constant, uninterrupted and uninterruptible power to the mobile computing devices, which drive the ubiquitous computing world we live in today, without encumbering the user is an ongoing challenge. In the modern world of ubiquitous computing, the breakthrough in the rechargeable lithium ion batteries, gifted to humanity by the three Nobel laureates, Dr. John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino, have had an unprecedented role and therefore rightfully deserve to be awarded the Nobel Prize. The lithium ion battery gave that initial impetus to the ubiquitous mobile computing tools. Most of these gadgets like the mobiles, laptops wireless devices, etc rely exclusively on rechargeable lithium ion battery. We have now become so accustomed (almost addicted) to charging our devices that first thing what we look for, wherever we go, is a power point, where one could recharge our lithium ion battery. The absence of such a simple but important facility, which has now become a must ritual, in the modern world, can cause significant inconvenience and sometime may also lead to psychological issues.

Unlike the conventional batteries, which get their power from chemical reactions that break down the electrode, lithium-ion batteries generate power via the reversible flow of lithium ions between the anode and the cathode. But to make this technology possible, the scientists had to tame lithium—an alkali metal that is prone to explosion. The story of lithium ion batteries’ discovery dates back to the 1970s, when the world was facing a major oil crisis. There were efforts to try and combat oil crisis and one such successful attempt was made by Stanley Whittingham at Binghamton. He was working for the oil and gas company - Exxon - and was researching energy rich materials. It was during this period that he figured out how to make a battery cathode from titanium disulfide (TiS2). TiS2 is a layered material, and lithium ions slip between its layers, and this process is known as intercalation. Whittingham paired this with an anode made from metallic lithium and added an organic liquid electrolyte that could conduct lithium ions between the two electrodes. This was the first rechargeable lithium battery.

Whittingham’s batteries were not free from problems and issues. The lithium metal was prone to cause short circuit in the battery, overheat, and then, possibly explode. Goodenough, who was working at Oxford University, discovered that lithium ions could also intercalate through cobalt oxide. At around the same time, Yoshino, who was working at Asahi Kasei Corp., showed that lithium ions could also intercalate in graphite. By using cobalt oxide as the cathode and graphite as the anode, Yoshino was successful in creating a battery that could run at about 4 V, much higher than the 2.4 V battery which was earlier developed by Whittingham. This improved battery was also safer, because it contained no metallic lithium. The battery could be recharged hundreds of times without its performance deteriorating. This improved lithium ion battery was introduced commercially in 1991. What is more interesting is that one of the Nobel Laureates, Prof Goodenough, is now the oldest Nobel laureate ever at 97. Many were hoping that he is rewarded for his work and fortunately their hopes came true. While announcing the Nobel Prize, Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, who was explaining the Nobel Laureates work during a press conference called the invention of this wonder device - the lithium ion battery “a highly charged story of tremendous potential.”

The lithium ion batteries are here to stay and drive the ubiquitous computing world, until a new era of battery free mobile computing dawns in, until such time we the consumers of these devices must eternally be grateful to the three nobel laureates, who made this possible.                  

A look into the past of our universe, wins this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

A look into the past of our universe, wins this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

The year 2019 has been an exciting year for global space enthusiasts, particularly in India. It happens to be the fiftieth year of the monumental ‘Giant Leap’ for mankind (Moon landing), the fiftieth year of the formation of the Indian premier Space research institution - the ISRO - and also the centenary year of Dr Vikram Sarabhai - the founding father of Indian space programmes. The icing on the cake came with yesterday’s announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, which honoured the the discoveries of the early universe and the exoplanets.

From the dim millennium of prehistory, humankind’s quest for observation, particularly the heavenly bodies, clubbed with the evolutionary trait of opposable thumb and bipedalism helped man to scale up to the top of the evolutionary pyramid and it is this quest that enabled humankind to advance knowledge, stretching far beyond the realms of our physical world, to the origin of our universe and humanity’s position in this unending cosmos. This year’s Nobel prize in physics recognises the contributions of three scientists who helped in our understanding of the origin of our universe and the discoveries of Exoplanets. James Peebles, a physicist at Princeton University, won half the Nobel prize (9 Million Swedish Krona) for his contributions to the physical cosmology, while Michel Mayor, a physicist at the University of Geneva, and Didier Queloz, an astronomer at Geneva and at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, shared the other half, for their discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star.

James Peebles - Bhishm peetamah in the field of cosmology -, professor emeritus at Princeton University, has helped us in understanding how from the Big Bang, the universe has swirled into galaxies and stars and other heavenlybodies, which we now see in the night sky, and so also other stars and galaxies that we cannot see. Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, were the first to discover an exoplanet, or a planet circling around our sun-like star. James Peebles has been studying the cosmos and trying to understand about the formation of the universe and its constituents for more than six decades. From the beginning of the 1960s, when the information and knowledge available in the field of cosmology was sparse and imprecise, Peebles has been painstakingly trying to understand the origin of our universe. Although astronomers had observed the cosmos and its constituents - the stars, galaxies, clouds of gas etc . - through telescopes, unfortunately they were struggling to explain much about them - the constituents of the Universe. Even the fundamental knowledge of the cosmological distances between celestial bodies or the age of the universe were imprecisely defined and measured. In doing so, there was also a wide variance to such measurements. Dr. Peebles’s research laid the foundation for the subject of cosmology to be more precise and that it relied on mathematical foundations.

The first of the evidence for the contributions of Peebles came in 1964-65, when two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, discovered - by serendipity - a background hiss of microwaves pervading the universe - Cosmic Microwave Background (CMG) -, which was an ancient light emitted when the universe was some 380,000 years old. The CMB provides a snapshot of the young universe. Penzias and Wilson were perplexed with the CMB, until they came across theoretical calculations of Peebles and others who had predicted this background radiation, which was a result of the universe cooling some 400,000 years after the Big Bang and thus producing the first of the chemical elements - the hydrogen and helium atoms - the forerunners to the world we know today. Peebles made detailed calculations (1966) of the abundances of difervent isotopes that would have been produced in this process, known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Ever since, Dr Peebles has been involved in most of the major developments, particularly post discovery of the CMB, in 1965. Later, in the 1970s, Peebles pioneered the theory of cosmic structure formation, which throw light into how the universe evolved into galaxies and dark matter and dark energy, which we now understand, what the entire universe is made up of in the present. Peebles work showed that the matter known to us only make up five percent of the universe, while the other 95 percent is made up of "unknown dark matter and dark energy".

It is for this reason that the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, while announcing the Nobel Prize said “ Dr. Peebles’s work on physical cosmology enriched the entire field of research and laid a foundation for the transformation of the science of cosmology over the past 50 years, from speculation to science.”

Are we alone in the unending universe and are is planet Earth and our solar system unique? This was one of the profound questions that was central to human curiosity. Fortunately astronomers had long presumed that there must be planets - similar to our solar system - in orbits around many other stars. But for several years, until 1992, astronomers could not locate any such planets. Whatever little claims of spotting planets that came up, could not stand closer scientific scrutiny to the exacting standards of science. But then in the year 1992, astronomers found the first planets outside the solar system, which orbited an exploded star, making them an unlikely place for life to exist. Three years later this year’s Nobel laureates - Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz - successfully found a planet around 51 Pegasus, a star similar to our sun, 50 light years away. Although this planet too was not habitable, it laid the foundation for the astronomers to study planetary systems that could be similar to our own. Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz did not see the planet directly. Rather, they looked at a ‘periodic wobble’ in the colors of light from the star. The gravity of the planet pulled on the star. The motion back and forth shifted the wavelengths of the starlight (Blue and Red Shift) much like what we experience when we hear a horn of a train or the siren of an ambulance, which rises in its pitch when approaching and falls when receding ( Doppler effect). This discovery was soon confirmed by other astronomers. This finding forms the basis for our modern understanding of the universe. The discovery of the first planet outside of our solar system, announced by Dr. Mayor and Dr. Queloz in 1995, has revolutionised astronomy. Now it is estimated that more than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy, some of which could be habitable. More and more planets are being spotted with more minds and money pooling into the search. With numerous projects planned to start searching for exoplanets, we may eventually find an answer to the eternal question, are we alone in the universe?

As we march towards our interplanetary exploration in which India too is actively involved with our plans for Chandrayaan, Gaganyaan and Mangalyaan, and we aim for those illusive years when man is likely to colonise outer planets, it is now time for us to celebrate and hail this year’s Nobel Laureates who paved way for this exploration.

Oxygen Sensing Cell Mechanism wins the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Oxygen Sensing Cell Mechanism wins the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Couple of years ago the whole of India witnessed what was called as the ‘Siachen Miracle'. Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad, aged 32, an Indian brave heart Soldier,(one of those 9 Indian soldiers on duty in the treacherous Siachen Glaciers who were struck by a sudden snow avalanche) had defied certain death and survived for all of six days, buried under snow, until succumbing later to multi organ failure, pneumonia and blood clotting at the Army Hospital in Delhi, where he was airlifted from Siachen. It is generally believed by experts that nearly 90% of completely buried avalanche victims can be revived if and only if they are recovered within 15 minutes. The chances of survival beyond a day are almost non existent. But then was it a miracle that Hanumanthappa could survive for six days under the wall of snow? Perhaps not. The science underpinning the so called miracle of Hanumanthappa’s survival, can now be explained in the works of this year’s Noble laureates in Physiology or Medicine, who have been awarded this year’s Nobel prize for their work on 'how cells adapt to oxygen availability’. The significance of their work can best be seen in the statement of Venki Ramakrishnan, President of Britain’s Royal Society, who said ‘Oxygen is the vital ingredient for the survival of every cell in our bodies. Too little – or too much – can spell disaster. Understanding how evolution has equipped cells to detect and respond to fluctuating oxygen levels helps answer fundamental questions,”. He added, “This work.. also gives insights into the way these processes continue to shape our health and wellbeing.”

The three physician researchers; William G Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg L Semenza have been jointly awarded this year’s Noble prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on Hypoxia. The three of them - physicians as well as scientists - share an astounding prize money of 9 Million Swedish Krone (7.41 Crore ₹). One third of the prize money goes to William Kaelin, a Howard Hughes investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard. One third to Gregg Semenza, who is at the Johns Hopkins University. And the third part of the prize money goes to Sir Peter Ratcliffe, who is with the Oxford University. Their combined research work has established the basis for understanding of how oxygen levels are sensed by cells, a discovery that is being explored by medical researchers seeking to develop treatments for various diseases that work by either activating or blocking the body's oxygen-sensing machinery. Their work centres on the hypoxic response - the way the body reacts to oxygen flux - and reveals the elegant mechanisms by which our cells sense oxygen levels and respond. The statement of the Nobel prize announcing committee says “The seminal discoveries by this year’s Nobel Laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life’s most essential adaptive processes. They established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function. Their discoveries have also paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anaemia, cancer and many other diseases.”

Oxygen is inextricably linked to life on planet Earth and it is used by the mitochondria, present virtually in all animal cells, to convert food into useful energy. The Oxygen we inhale, through our lungs, crosses over into tiny blood vessels, where it piggybacks on the hemoglobin protein - that are present in red blood cells- to serve as the life delivering services in human system. The Red blood cells (RBC) transport oxygen to each tissue where the cells let in just enough oxygen to carry out a precise amount of work. However the body has to adjust its requirements of oxygen to different atmospheric conditions of the planet and in different situations. How and what cell mechanism is used to sense the precise requirements of oxygen in different conditions had remained a mystery until the works of this year’s Nobel laureates made head way in unravelling it. Moreover there aren’t consistent levels of oxygen available everywhere on this planet. For example the higher the altitude we travel (Siachen or the Himalayas), the thinner the air, and less the presence of oxygen and this condition is called hypoxia. Our cells need to make more or less energy depending on the place where we are or whether we are active or sedentary and accordingly we need more or less oxygen. This year’s Nobel laureates have conducted years of research that helps explain how cells sense oxygen levels, and how they adapt to higher or lower amounts of the molecules in the atmosphere. When the body detects that less oxygen is present, the kidneys release a hormone called erythropoietin, or EPO, which tells the body to make more red blood cells to carry more oxygen around (erythropoiesis).The importance of hormonal control of erythropoiesis was already known at the beginning of the 20th century, but how this process was itself controlled by Oxygen had remained a elusive.

Decades of work from Semenza and Ratcliffe identified how this system works in more detail. They found that a protein called hypoxia-inducible factor, or HIF, rises when there is less oxygen around. HIF then bonds to sections of DNA near the gene that produces EPO. Extra HIF protein around the EPO gene acts like a turbo charge for the hormone’s production, which is how the body knows to make more RBC. When there’s sufficient oxygen available, HIF levels drop, as do RBC counts. These were important findings that showed the mechanism was general and functional in many different cell types.

It was around this time that William Kaelin, Jr. a cancer physician was researching on an inherited syndrome, von Hippel-Lindau's disease (VHL disease). This genetic disease leads to dramatically increased risk of certain cancers in families with inherited VHL mutations. Kaelin showed that the VHL gene encodes a protein that prevents the onset of cancer. Kaelin also showed that cancer cells lacking a functional VHL gene express abnormally high levels of hypoxia-regulated genes; but that when the VHL gene was reintroduced into cancer cells, normal levels were restored. This was an important clue showing that VHL was somehow involved in controlling responses to hypoxia. Additional clues came from several research groups showing that VHL is part of a complex that labels proteins with ubiquitin, marking them for degradation in the proteasome. Ratcliffe and his research group then made a key discovery: demonstrating that VHL can physically interact with HIF-1alpha and is required for its degradation at normal oxygen levels. This conclusively linked VHL to HIF-1alpha.

The discovery of a molecular switch that regulates how cells adapt to fluctuating oxygen levels have opened up new approaches to treating heart failure, anaemia and cancer. Now that the scientists know and have understood how the body regulates oxygen uptake, they can now develop new therapies for individuals for whom that process has gone wrong and help in saving millions of lives.

Long live oxygen the life sustainer on Earth.

Sesquicentennial Tribute to the Mahatma

Sesquicentennial Tribute to the Mahatma

The Nehru Science Centre joined the nation in celebrating the sesquicentennial birthday of the Mahatma by opening an exhibition - in collaboration with Department of Posts- of philately and other memorabilia on the Mahatma, from the rare collections of Mr Kishore Jhunjhunwala. The exhibition and also the specially designed holographic display of the Mahatma, was opened by large number of students (boys and girls) who formed a circular chain holding hands and the chain ended with a school teacher on one side and the Post Master General of GPO, Mumbai, Ms Swati Pandey, on the other. When this hand holding circular chain was completed, a symbolic Charkha started moving automatically - signalling the opening of the exhibition, to a thunderous applause by the audience. The message on the sesquicentennial birth day of the Mahatma was, when India stands united in all its diversity, the movement of the Gandhian charkha, symbolising nations progress, begins and when this unity is broken the Charkha stops moving. India stands united in the vast diversity that exists in the country in terms of language, religion, caste, food habits and what not, when it comes to commemorating the nation or its builders, and primary among them is the Mahatma and what best tribute one could give to the Mahatma but to highlight the importance of our unity for nations progress.

It was a pleasant surprise to be invited by Mr Gadanayak ji, DG NGMA to visit NGMA exhibition at the time of its installation, which I happily did on the 30th September and learnt about the exhibition from DG NGMA, Mr Vilas Shinde, Chairperson Advisory Committee NGMA, and others including Dean JJ SChool of Art who too was present in the commissioning of the exhibition. The Sesquicentennial Mahatma Gandhi commemorative exhibition at the NGMA aptly titled, ‘Santati’, captures the very essence of the Mahatma - extraordinary simplicity yet monumentally profound and unique in character. The exhibition weaves an outstanding tapestry of a diverse range of artistic majesty, filled with elegance and captivating beauty that include paintings of renowned artists like Nandlal Bose, Gaitonde, Hussain, Ramkinkar Baij among others, sculptures, art installations, textiles and lastly an amazing traditional handloom woven sarees - using the Jamdani technique - with unimaginable replicas of the famed Raja Ravi Verma’s colourful paintings, woven into the khadi (A symbol of Mahatma) sarees. The experience to touch and feel this masterpiece of art crafted painstakingly by the artisans from the traditional families of Srikakulam, is an experience that will remain etched in my memory for a very long time.

The Santati exhibition was opened yesterday by Sadguru, Jaggi Vasudev at the NGMA and I had the honour to be present for the opening of this unique exhibition. The exhibition begins with a display of an outstanding range of paintings and sculptures of master artists all of which are inspired and in memory of the Mahatma Gandhi. The cavernous high-domed interiors of the NGMA precincts designed along the lines of London's famed Royal Albert Hall, by Delhi-based architecture Romy Khosla, has on display in five floors and a dome area, a range of extraordinary art works in memory of the Mahatma, including Kulwant Rai Photographs of the Mahatma, from the collections of NGMA, rare collections of Gandhi memorabilia from Gandhi aficionado Mr Kishore Juhunjhunwala from across the world, art installations and other works of art and culture all aesthetically curated and displayed. The dome area has on display the jamdani khadi sarees which have replicas of the Raja Ravi Paintings and it is these works which appealed to me the most.

Textiles have fascinated mankind since ancient times and many ancient civilizations, besides their other achievements, produced incredibly refined and elaborately designed textiles and India was among the top in creating its own distinctive style and patterns of textiles an evidence of which can be seen in the dome area of the exhibition, which displays a range of khadi sarees woven with the replicas of the Raja Ravi Verma paintings. The pallu of each of the khadi saris displayed in the exhibition bears woven replicas of paintings, created painstakingly by the artisans using what is called the Jamdani technique. The works of these master craftsmen are an absolute tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, who’s credited with the revival of India’s Khadi industry. Gandhi firmly believed that the essence of swadeshi consisted in producing enough cloth to wrap each Indian, which would be possible through spinning and weaving by the masses. Considering the inextricable linkage of textiles and khadi with the lives of the Indians, it is no wonder that the Mahatma used the spinning wheel and khadi, basically a hand spun yarn, as a symbol to galvanise the nation for a peaceful struggle for our independence and therefore befittingly NGMA has used this symbolism to commemorate the Mahatma’s 150th birth centenary.

Jamdani is a brocaded fabric woven with discontinuous extra weft yarns. This old old horizontal tapestry technique has been used to create the replica of the painting of Raja Ravi Verma, on fabric. The outcome creations are an enchanting fusion of tradition and craftsmanship. The designer, Mr Gurang Shah, has transformed the total outlook of a khadi sari in terms of texture, designs, color and finish using jamdani weave, bringing it at par with international design standards, which I am sure will appeal to every visitor to the exhibition, who cares to see the intricacies of the weaving involved in these works. Weaving is an art with its own unique creativity. It requires skill, precision and rhythm. When one aims to replicate such intricacies as the Raja Ravi Verma Paintings in to the design, it requires an overwhelming dexterity and a skill for delicate weaving. Since the defining aspect of the Sarees on display are the replicas of the paintings, which are filled with rich motifs, that are all intricately added by hand, Jamdani is touted as the most advanced hand weaving technique in the world. Each motif has been craftily inlaid into the fabric by adding denser threads to fine warp threads, and this process is so time intensive that for completing one saree, the master weavers have taken any where between 6 to 12 months for one work. The displayed sarees are therefore a visual treat which will take us back in history to exemplify why were the Indian artisans held in such high esteem world wide and it is also no wonder that this traditional art of weaving Jamdani has been declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. One of the artists involved in making of these works Mr Annaji Rao, from Srikakulam, is seen in the photo.

All in all the exhibition Santati is a befitting sesquicentennial tribute to the Mahatma, which I am sure will appeal to the visitors. On this occasion it is also important for us to remember another great leader of India, Late Lal Bahadur Shastri, who shares his birthday with the Mahatma and it is also a great coincidence that Raja Ravi Verma the great painter, died on this very day the 2nd of October, all in all an excellent tribute to the Mahatma on this important day.

Linguistic Diversity of India : An exhibition to commemorate the International Year of Indigenous Languages ( IYIL).

Linguistic Diversity of India : An exhibition to commemorate the International Year of Indigenous Languages ( IYIL).

An International Year - declared by the United Nations - is dedicated to raising awareness of a particular topic or theme of global interest or concern. NCSM has almost always joined hands in this global endeavour to commemorate UN declared international years by curating exhibitions on the topic, which travel across science centres. This year there are two topics of international year, the first one is the International Year of Periodic Table (IYPT) - to commemorate the 150th year of the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, about which I had posted on my FB - and the second one is the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL). The Nehru Science Centre has been tasked to curate an exhibition on Languages. In my career of 33 plus years in NCSM there has never been an occasion that the concept for any such travelling exhibitions or for that matter any exhibition/s, have ever been presented to the apex body of the Council - The Governing Body - for approval of the concept. However this was not to be for this year’s exhibition on Languages and I was given this unique responsibility to present the curatorial concept document and artistic plans for the (IYIL) exhibition, to the GB, NCSM at the National Science Centre Delhi, on the 24th September afternoon. Having done so while on my way back home I have prepared this post through which I wish to present in brief the exhibition concept and artistic impression of the exhibition which we are planning to develop after it is approved by the GB. I would like to request FB friends, which includes several distinguished scholars and museum professionals to please offer your comments on the brief concept of the exhibition - which has been prepared with content advise by eminent linguist Prof Ganesh Devy the architect of People’s Linguistic Survey of India - and the artistic impression of the exhibition, which has been prepared with support from our passionate team who have worked with me in this project.

Indians have been by and large multilingual in habit and Indian cities and towns show presence of an unusually high number of diverse languages in use. India is blessed with an extraordinary language diversity and an estimated 788 languages (as per the People’s Language Survey of India) are spoken in India as against an estimated 7111 languages globally (As per the 22nd edition of the Ethnologue). India is also one of the four most linguistically diverse countries in the world, along with Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria. India has been identified as a Language Hotspot, which constitutes a region with a high level of language diversity and endangerment, and a low level of documentation.

Language is one of the most intriguing aspect of human behaviour. It not only functions as the medium of communication for us, but also with the help of language, the reality of the social world gets constructed. Language is a highly organised, systematic means of representing experience, and as such, it assists us to organise all other ways of representing. Each language has its own uniqueness with its structural, social, cultural and political embeddedness. and therefore the language diversity must be preserved and it is for this express reason that UN has declared this year as the IYIL. Every Language, which is one of the most important acquisitions that distinguish humans from other animal species, represents a unique worldview. It takes great human labour for a language to evolve. Humans have spoken languages nearly for the last 70,000 years.

The British who were known for commissioning all kinds of studies to understand the nature of the land they were in the process of purloining, surprisingly were late in commissioning the Linguistic Survey for India. The Great Trigonometrical Survey —to measure the length and breadth of the country— had been launched as early as 1802 and the Archaeological Survey of India had been extant since 1861. The British also carried out the Census as early as in 1865. However the first Linguistic Survey was started only in 1898. Sir George Abraham Grierson, an Indian Civil Service Officer (ICS), who held a mathematics graduation from the Trinity College, Dublin, is credited with the Survey. He began his monumental work of undertaking “a deliberate systematic survey of the languages of India", the Linguistic Survey of India. It took Grierson 30 years to gather data on 179 languages and 544 dialects. The survey, carried out between 1903 and 1928, was published in 19 volumes, spanning 8,000 pages. The survey contains the description of the languages and dialects of much of British India. Only British-governed Madras Presidency, Burma, and the princely states of Hyderabad and Mysore were not covered by this survey. We are very fortunate to collect digital copies of this survey including rare recordings that he had recorded in the gramophone records. The original recordings are still available at the British Library’s Sound Archive in London. We feel that this and several other archival information and data will add value to our exhibition.

It was a remarkable foresight of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and the makers of the Indian Constitution that they thought of creating a dedicated Schedule of Languages - the 8th Schedule -, which initially included 14 languages. The list was subsequently enlarged so as to adjust the intent of the Schedule to the linguistic realities in the country. As of 2015, the Schedule has in it 22 languages. These languages known as the ‘Scheduled Languages’ are: Assamiya, Bangla, Boro, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. Our Constitution has empowered individual States to identify any language/s as official language/s even if it is not in the 8th Schedule.

The above write up on the concept is not exhaustive but only provides a birds eye view of what the exhibition is likely to be and the accompanying images of the artistic view of the exhibition reveal other aspects of the linguistic diversity of India.

May India continue to treasure its linguistic diversity yet be united as one. Long live the Indigenous languages.

National Conference on India in Space and Nuclear Science : A Centenary tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, The Father of Indian Space Program.

National Conference on India in Space and Nuclear Science : A Centenary tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, The Father of Indian Space Program.

The night of 6th September 2019 was a momentous occasion not just for ISRO but for the entire nation. It was on this day that Vikram Lander - named after the founder of the Indian Space program - was to soft land on the South Pole of the lunar surface, the first for any nation. We had made arrangements for the live telecast of this historic moment at our centre and the Mumbaikars overwhelmingly responded to our invitation and as against our capacity of 270, we had more than 400 audience, including school going students, and some dignitaries. It was a first for our centre that we had organised an event in the dead of night and true to the spirit of the nation, Mumbaikars turned out in large numbers and stayed put at our centre right until 3 AM on the 7th of September.

Most unfortunately, the last moments for the Chandrayaan 2 mission, before making history, turned out to be unscripted. The telemetry signal that the Vikram Lander was providing went according to the script until about 2.1 kilometres from the surface of the moon and then something went wrong and the signal from the Vikram Lander was lost and the nation waited with bated breath, hoping against hope for the best, which was not to be. The mission to soft land the lander and row the Pragya rower on the southern pole of the moons surface may not not have been a success but then the achievements of ISRO remained unprecedented. Space missions are rid with complex challenges and it is not for nothing that the term 'Rocket Science' has crept into the lexicons of English dictionary. The five thrust rocket engines, which were meant for charting a programmed decelerated path for the Vikram Lander, perhaps did not work to the exacting engineering standards that was expected of them, leading to the loss of the telemetry signals from the Lander.

While the ISRO scientists and the nation are all disheartened, let us not forget that the main orbiter from the Chandrayaan 2 mission will continue to orbit the moon for not just for one year as planned, but for several more years and will continue to send data to usher newer knowledge for humanity. It was truly heartening to see the PM address the failure as he did, which I am sure will not only motivate the team ISRO but will also enter into the best of management practices the world over.

While ISRO continues to find reasons for the partial failure of the mission, we at the Nehru Science Centre join the nation in expressing our solidarity with team ISRO and wish them well for eternity.

To commemorate the centenary of the founder of ISRO, Vikram Sarabhai, we have joined hands with the National Centre for Science Communicators to organise a “National Conference on ”India in Space and Nuclear Science”, which will be a befitting Centenary tribute to Vikram Sarabhai, in whose honour the Vikram Lander was named. A galaxy of experts in the subject will be sharing their thoughts on this all important topic during the course of the full day conference. For those of you who may be interested in attending this one day conference on the 16th of September at our centre, please send a request email to the Nehru Science Centre or to the National Centre for Science Communicators

director@nehrusciencecentre.gov.in

The conference is only for invitees so please hurry before we close the registration. May ISRO and the DAE continue to live up to the ideals of the great Visionary Dr Vikram Sarabhai.