Nail Biting Sunday : Two exciting close encounters in sporting events and a last minute aborted Chandrayaan 2 Mission.

Nail Biting Sunday : Two exciting close encounters in sporting events and a last minute aborted Chandrayaan 2 Mission. 

Sunday, the 14th of July, was a day full of nail biting moments for TV spectators - particularly in India - which started with the cricket World Cup, 2019, finals played between the hosts England and New Zealand and an equally fascinating Wimbledon finals, played between arch rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. What an exciting finals both these two games turned out to be, the former ending with both teams tied even-steven even after the super over and England declared the eventual winners by virtue of some strange ICC rules, while in the later, Djokovic overcame some anxious moments - including facing two championship points - against the veteran, Federer to win the equally coveted Wimbledon championship in a thrilling marathon five set match. If this excitement was not enough, there was more to come as night progressed. 

The excitement continued for tens of millions of Indians who stayed awake late into the night waiting to watch - live - the historic lift off of the Chandrayaan 2 mission scheduled to take off at 2.51 hours on early Monday morning. Most news channels and the media - both the print and web - had hyped up the launch of Chandrayaan 2 to an unprecedented heights, added to this, the Honourable President of India was to witness this launch live from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, creating that much more excitement in the mission. Incidentally this July also happens to be the 50th year of the historic Apollo 11 Lunar mission, which created history. Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Eagle, carrying three astronauts, landed on the moon on the 20th of July, 1969 and the subsequent small step that Neil Armstrong took on the surface of the moon, has resulted in India taking this giant step forward in space exploration, aiming to launch the Chandrayaan 2 mission and achieve what no other country has so far succeeded, in soft landing its Vikram Lander on the south polar region of the moon, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of mans landing on moon and the centenary of Vikram Sarabhai, ISRO’s founder. 

I was one of those tens of millions of Indians who remained awake late night on Sunday - early Monday morning - to witness live, India make tryst with its moon mission. Many news channels and several other Internet sites and You Tube were beaming live the launch of Chandrayaan 2 mission, for which the count down had begun in the early hours of July 14, 2019, at precisely 6.51 am, the customary 20 hour countdown for the launch. As the final hour of the countdown began so did the excitement, raising the hopes of millions of Indians for the success of the mission and the spacecraft reaching the moon and soft landing on it, which until now had been achieved only by Russia, USA and China. The recent efforts of Israel, and so also the earlier efforts of Japan and European Space agency had met with failures. With the start of the countdown, the clock in the mission control room started ticking backwards, signalling the scheduled launch at 2:51 am on July 15, 2019. The control panel in the launch control room came alive and displayed all the vital parameters of the launch vehicle, which were followed by the initiation of various steps of the launch sequences one by one. Every steps pointed to yet another successful ISRO launch until the initiation of the last significant step in the launch sequence, of filling fuel tanks of the third stage cryogenic rocket with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

At T-156 minutes, 12:15 AM on 15th July, came an announcement of filling of Liquid oxygen. Another 79 minutes of countdown went by and at 1.34 AM, 77 minutes to the scheduled launch (T-77), ISRO tweeted completion of the filling of Liquid Hydrogen and asked the followers to stay tuned for updates. The countdown kept ticking and with it the excitement. With less than an hour for the Chandrayaan 2 launch, suddenly some thing seem to have gone wrong with the launch, reaffirming Murphy’s law. The display screens went blank and the countdown clock stopped ticking, stopping at T-56:24. No one seem to know what exactly had happened, was it a power outage or something more serious, every one including the ISRO officials, who were interacting with the media, were as perplexed as the rest of us, with no specific answers. 

It was very well known that there was a limited window of opportunity for the launching of Chandrayaan mission and as time clicked from seconds to minutes a sense of gloom dawned and the worst fears of abortion of the mission soon came to dawn upon everyone. After waiting anxiously for another 45 minutes or so, an official announcement was made by ISRO representative - my friend, Guruprasad - who read out the official ISRO statement “ A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at T-56 minute and the Chandrayaan 2 launch has been called off and the revised launch date will be announced later”. Disappointment it was, but then all space missions are riddled with some of the most difficult technological challenges and there are in place checks and balances to try and minimise the errors which may lead to failures of the missions. Fortunately for ISRO the technical snag was noticed before disaster could vanquish the mission. All those who remained awake late into the night to witness yet another monumental success of ISRO mission were deeply disappointed. But then fortunately the snag was noticed by ISRO before it was too late. Let us hope ISRO manages to correct the technical snag as early as possible and begin the fresh count down. Until then let us all continue to support our scientists and the support staff of ISRO who have made our nation proud on innumerable occasions and will do so for yet another time and succeed in the Chandrayaan 2 mission as well. 

श्रद्धांजली to the Philanthropist, Businessman Basant Kumar Birla.

श्रद्धांजली to the Philanthropist, Businessman Basant Kumar Birla on his First Punyathithi. 

On this very date last year, 3rd July 2019, one of the doyens of the Indian Industry – Shri Basant Kumar Birlathe the philanthropic nonagenarian bid adieu to this world. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the  punyathithi of Shri B K Birla, who is inextricably linked to the very existence of our organisation, which took its birth from the very building in which BK Birla lived,  that was so graciously donated by the Birla family to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India for  the establishment of a world class science museum, it is an honour and privilege for me to post my tribute, which I had paid last year to this great  philanthropic industrialist, whose munificence remains etched in the history of the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, the mother Museum to the National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata,

The passing away of the nonagenarian (98 years old) B.K. Birla, the philanthropic Industrialist and grandfather of Kumar Mangalam Birla, and father of Aditya Birla, who died on Wednesday, 3rd July, 2019, in Mumbai, ends an era of philanthropy whose beneficiaries, among innumerable other religious and educational institutions include our very own mother museum, the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM). Just two days ago we celebrated the National Doctors Day on 1st July, as a mark of our respect for medical Doctors whose profession is reverential. 1st July is declared as National Doctors Day in memory of one of the legendary Doctors in India, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, who was awarded the highest honour of India - the Bharat Ratna, - in 1962 in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the areas of medicine, politics, science, philosophy, literature and Arts.  

Dr B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, after visiting the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany was so impressed with the Museum that he envisaged building a similar museum back home in Kolkata. Dr Roy, approached Ghanashyam Das Birla, father of B K Birla, for donating a suitable plot of land for establishing a Museum on the lines of the famous Deutsches Museum.  The Birla’s were known for their philanthropy particularly in the field of education. G.D. Birla willingly agreed to part with the 19 A Gurusaday Road plot of land and the building to Dr Roy for the establishment of the said museum on its premises. Dr Roy called up the Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, and sought his help to support his initiative for staring a world class technology museum in Kolkata.   The honourable Prime Minister of India incidentally also happens to be the President of the premier scientific research institution – the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, in India). Pundit Nehru assigned the task of developing the Technology Museum to the then Director General of CSIR, Prof M S Thacker, who with support from Dr Amalendu Bose, the founding Director, established the BITM, which played a pivotal role in the science museum movement in India and BITM has served as the mother museum for our organisation, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM).

The BITM is housed in the historic and architecturally beautiful building, on 19 A Gurusaday Road.  This historic building with its majestic elevation with a porch and a pediment that is a mishmash of various European architectural styles, was constructed by N. Guinn & Company in 1922 and this building was home to the Birla family. Subsequently this building along with its surrounding area was donated by GD Birla to the government of India (CSIR) for the establishment of our mother museum, BITM, which opened its doors to the public on 2nd May 1959. This building is now popularly known as the Birla Museum, a befitting tribute to the benevolent family who donated this sprawling area and the majestic building. B K Birla and his wife Sarala Birla were frequent visitors to the Birla Museum and on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the Birla Museum (2009), they spent quite a lot of their time at the Museum interacting with visitors and employees of NCSM and also reminiscing nostalgic memories of their long stay in the Museum building. Shri B K Birla and his wife, Sarla Birla, were very frequent visitors to the Birla Museum. Therefore, when the news of the death of Shri B K Birla trickled in, a gloom of sadness engulfed all of us in NCSM particularly those of us who have started our long career in science museum from this very building. 

The end for the nonagenarian came in Mumbai and the body of B.K. Birla was flown from Mumbai to Kolkata, a city where B K Birla was born and so also his कर्मभूमि, and his पार्थिव शरीर was placed in the Birla Building, next to our Birla Museum, the place and ambience which shaped not just the extraordinary business and philanthropic career of Shri B.K. Birla but also the entire Birla business empire. Most of Industry captains, the Chief Minister and other distinguished citizens of Kolkata came calling to the Birla house to pay their last respect to the departed philanthropist industrialist. True to the very nature and reputations of the Birla’s, B K Birla was humility personified and lived a modest and humble life. The Birla’s have also played a pivotal role not just in the field of business but also in philanthropy and nation building. The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi ji was very closely associated with Ghanshyam Das Birla. Alongside the Tata’s the Birla business empire and its brand value is very closely in the hearts and minds of Indians, the evidence of which is seen in an often used metaphorical phrase ‘Tata- Birla’, which has made it into the Indian lexicon.

The “Tata Birla” phrase is used when referring to the high and mighty business magnates, who are also known for their extraordinary simplicity, kindness and benevolence. Our organisation, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is one of the innumerable beneficiaries of the munificence of the Birla in general and B.K. Birla in particular. Perhaps it was therefore providential and a divine coincidence that all the current Directors of the NCSM, which was born out of BITM, had assembled for a Directors meeting at the NCSM headquarters in Kolkata on the day of his demise for a meeting. The first thing that we did before the commencement of the meeting was to pay our reverence and sand in silence for a minute as a mark of our respect for the departed soul. All of us, while paying our homage to the departed soul of B K Birla, requested our colleague, Mr V S Ramachandran, the incumbent Director of BITM, to visit the Birla family for conveying our collective respect and condolences to the bereaved family. Mr Ramachandran paid his last respect to B K Birla on behalf of our entire organisation and in the brief discussion that he had with the Birla family including with B K Birla’s famous son Kumar Mangalam Birla, Mr Ramachandran was informed by the family of the immense interest that B.K. Birla had for the BITM.

The triumphs and tribulations that our organisation - the National Council of Science Museums - has faced, especially during the foundation days and years of the organisation including the troubled times of its separation from the CSIR, were actually shaped at BITM and it was here that the apex national body of science museums and science centres in the country - the NCSM - was born in 1978. It was in this very building - early home to the B K Birla and to his beloved wife Sarala Birla - that most of the founding fathers of the science museum in the country including Dr Amalendu Bose the First Director of Museums and the भीष्मपितामह of science museums in India, the former President of the International Committee of Museums (ICOM), Padma Bhushan, Dr Saroj Ghose, and all the current Directors and the Director General of the Council, and past Director Generals and Directors including yours truly, were baptised in to the museum profession at BITM. Incidentally, I started my NCSM career from this campus in the year 1986. Being completely new to the Museum profession and that too coming from the engineering background with work exerience of working for multinational companies like HP (Blue Star) and Intel ( Micronic Devices), it was not easy for me to adapt to the museum settings where my electronics and communication engineering skill alone would not be sufficient. But then I was fortunate enough to get a boss - Mr Samares Goswami, who too was an electrical engineer from IIT Bombay and he mentored me and gave me all that freedom and complete support and guidance to work on the latest of technologies including the robotics, which we introduced in the science museums and centres. BITM therefore has a special place for me in my museum career.

B.K. Birla and his family members have often times visited BITM and have been overwhelmed that their munificence has led to a massive growth of science museum movement in the country and has touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Mr Basant Kumar Birla, the youngest son, born in the year 1921, of the philanthropist Ghanshyam Das Birla, remained active in business since the age of 15. He was the visionary of the Birla family, who was instrumental in conceiving, fructifying and managing several business initiatives for the Birla’s starting with his stint as the chairman of Kesoram Industries and tapping into opportunities in sectors like cotton, viscose, polyester, nylon yarns, refractory, paper, shipping, tyre cord, transparent paper, spun pipe, cement, tea, coffee, cardamom, chemicals, plywood, MDF Board etc. People who have worked with him very closely have publicly stated that Basant Birla had a divine intellect, and this providential wisdom enabled him to sift through balance sheets and accounts in minutes and point out salient points, which would have taken several hours for the professionally trained chartered accountants to find out. Notwithstanding his unprecedented success in business and the wealth that followed, he continued to lead a simple Gandhian life.

 

 B.K. Birla’s father’s role in the Indian independence movement and his close association with leaders of the time had helped B.K. Birla to closely observe the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and other national leaders. Perhaps his early acquaintance with such great stalwarts of nation helped BK Birla to imbibe their nation building characteristics. It was perhaps this acquaintance and understanding of national spirit and social service, which helped him in several of his extraordinary charitable ventures and other social works which he continued to engage, particularly in the field of education. Even his business philosophy was heavily influenced by Gandhi’s socio-economic advocacy of trusteeship. Incidentally BK Birla’s marriage was also solemnised by Mahatma Gandhi and therefore it is no wonder that both he and his wife Sarla Birla, led an austere Gandhian life all through their lives. B.K. Birla was known as a perfect gentleman in industry circles.

BK Birla’s philanthropic and charity work has greatly helped build several educational and art institutions of excellence including the internationally acclaimed BITS, Pilani. There is a saying in the industry that his philanthropic works have overshadowed his equally illustrious accomplishments in business. B K Birla is responsible for opening around 25 educational institutions across India and other parts of the world, including a Sanskrit school in Rishikesh, the Birla Public School in Qatar and the BK Birla College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai. Although not formally trained, B.K. Birla was also a prolific writer, film and music lover, and a collector of rare stamps and coins. One of the veterans in science museums and a friend, Mr Dhaulakandi, the Director of the Pilani Science Museum, often used to speak about B.K. Birla and his kindness. He told us that any interaction with him was always a moment, all his employees would cherish. Birla literally means ‘rare’, and true to this literal meaning Shri B.K. Birla was very rare and will continue to be so for years to come and we at NCSM will eternally remain grateful for his benevolence.

Rest in peace respected Basant Kumar Birla ji, in the heavenly abode which is now home to you.

 

India - Pak World Cup Matches : A Theatre for Hyper-Nationalism.

India - Pak World Cup Matches : A Theatre for Hyper-Nationalism.
Congratulations team India for the spectacular win and maintaining the undefeated tag in the World Cup matches against Pak and stretching our drubbing of the Pakistanis to 7-0, going beyond the tennis scoreline. Cricket in India reflects or maintains a strong collective psychology of the people that gives rise to collective identities, which evidenced itself in multitude of Indian victory celebrations all across India and in England on Sunday.
If there is one match that stands out in any of the cricket World Cup matches it ought to be the India Pakistan match not necessarily because of the cricketing merit that it warrants, but because of the hyper nationalism that is evidenced on both sides of the border, by tens of millions of cricket fans who are glued on to their TV sets and also those few thousands who shell out huge amount of money and manage to make it to the ground for watching the match live. India versus Pakistan World Cup match is the biggest sporting rivalry in the world today. More than a billion people, watched the Old Trafford match live on television this Sunday. There are estimates that the organisers had received close to 700,000 requests for tickets for Sunday’s epic game. This shows the unending die hard fans hunger to see India and Pakistan play cricket in a World Cup match that is about politics, passion and national identity. There are reports that the tickets for this match were resold for an unprecedented £5,000 on resale sites. Such is the craving for watching the match live and being right there where it matters.
There was added hyper nationalism this year with media on both sides accentuating it particularly in the backdrop of the Pulwama attack. Pakistan did their bit by an ill timed commercial ridiculing Wg. Cdr. Abhinandan and fuelling fire to the already charged atmosphere in the background of the Pulwama attack. The Indian fans and media gave a befitting reply by conveying their ‘Abhinandan’ to the men in Blue for drubbing their arch rivals, Pakistan and taking revenge for the insult meted out to our hero Abhinandan. True to expectations from tens of millions of Indian fans from across the globe, India befittingly basked in sunshine at the Old Trafford outshining not just the Pakistanis but also the sun, which was trying to play hide and seek. Men in blue led by their run machine Virat Kohli, and the indomitable Rohit Sharma, proved they are far too superior to the Pakistanis, by winning almost a one sided match by an emphatic 89 runs. The organisers, too played their part by ensuring that the match is played on a Sunday, which guaranteed that many more eye balls, both on and off site.
Rohit Sharma was at his masterly best scoring a match winning 140 in just 113 balls, his second century in the current championship, which helped India post a daunting target for Pakistan to score 337 runs for the victory. Though there was a break of one hour when the skies opened up leaving one to wonder whether the Pakistani fans prayers for rain had come true, but then it was India’s and Rohit’s day, and the rain and sun gods too decided not to play spoil sport but to join those hundreds of millions of Indian fans to bask in the sunshine that the match facilitated for the Indian cricket fans.
Rohit Sharma has an extraordinary distinction of scoring three double centuries in the ODI, as against eight ever scored in the history of the men’s ODI cricket. Most interestingly the first ever double hundred to be scored in the ODI did not come from men, but from an outstanding women cricketeer, Belinda Clark. It was 16th December 1997, the same year when Saed Anwar of Pakistan had scored the highest ever ODI runs of 194 against India at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Chennai, when Belinda Clark broke into the 200 runs mark in a ODI going on to score 229 runs against the Netherlands. The first to enter the double hundred club in men’s cricket was the God of Cricket - Sachin Tendulkar who scored 200 against South Africa in 2010 at Gwalior. The other men to enter the 200 club include Rohit Sharma (3 times), Sachin Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag, Martin Guptil, Chris Gayle and Fakhar Zaman.
While curating the Cricket exhibition India - England, one of the section in the exhibition was Hits and Misses, under which I had compared the hits of a highest score of 264 that Rohit Sharma had scored with the misses of Sunil Gavaskar‘ infamous innings, which I wish to narrate here to put the excellence of Rohit Sharma in context.
The inaugural Cricket World Cup, hosted in 1975 by England, witnessed an infamous Sunny innings. Sunil Gavaskar, the first man to reach 10,000 runs in Tests and the player who had carved out a special name for himself in his debut series against the mighty West Indies in 1971, played an innings which he insists he would like to obliterate from his records. England batsmen made merry and beat Indian bowlers to pulp to record the first 300-plus score (334/4) in an ODI. India made a disastrous debut in the inaugural ODI World Cup. Needing a massive 335 to win in the given 60 overs, India ended their innings disastrously, at a leisurely 132 for three after batting the full quota of 60 overs. The legendary opener, Sunil Gavaskar played one of the slowest ODI knocks, as he carried his bat through the innings to score a slothful 36 not out facing 174 balls scoring just one boundary.
This infamous innings of Gavaskar can best be seen when juxtaposed with the innings of his city player Rohit Sharma. Rohit scored a mammoth 264 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Garden - the highest ODI international score till date- facing 173 balls, one ball less than what Gavaskar had faced. Such is the power of the Rohit, which came to play yesterday against our arch rivals Pakistan. In the three matches that he has played in this World Cup he has already scored two hundreds and a half century. One billion plus Indians will be hoping and praying that he takes this form till the end of the season and help India win the World Cup for the third time.

VIGYAN SAMAGAM: Pushing the Frontiers of Science

VIGYAN SAMAGAM: Pushing the Frontiers of Science
“Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to the progress in science”. This statement, by Bertrand Russell, succinctly describes the the importance of science for human society. The Vigyan Samagam exhibition that is currently on at the Nehru Science Centre, which presents the frontiers of science research in seven mega science projects, is therefore a befitting exhibition that is intended to present, in layman’s language, what these projects are and how will they shape and benefit human society. This exhibition is now heading towards its final leg and visitors in excess of 90 thousand have already visited the exhibition and those of you who are yet to visit are requested to do so before the curtains are drawn and the exhibition moves out to Bangalore.
For eons we have taken science for granted. Not withstanding the fact that technologies - the application of science - are inextricably linked to our day today lives, we hardly ever try to hazard a guess to even remotely understand from where do these benefits come from and who sowed the seeds of science for unravelling the secrets of nature at its deepest and farthest to shape our modern technologies for benefitting human society. A look at the history of science reveals that the giant leap towards modern society was shaped by human understanding of the universe and its governance. The Vigyan Samagam presents some of such efforts in understanding the universe and is aimed at creating interest in science particularly among the students
The progress towards harvesting scientific knowledge for modern society was kick started when Galileo aimed his telescope to look beyond our Earth and Newton began to unlock the secrets of the gravitational force that govern our universe at the macro level. Ever since, scientists have continued to strive to provide answers to many of the mysteries of the universe, and with that knowledge the human race has achieved incredible benefits. All of this has underpinned our technological adventure into the 20th Century. Our understanding of the building blocks of matter – atoms – brought about the next technological age - the computer age, undoubtedly the most impactful invention from this science was the Nobel prize winning discovery of the humble transistor in the middle of the 20th century. Transistors shaped the Silicon Valley and without the transistors it perhaps would have been impossible for us to have computers, smartphones or any electronic devices, which we see all around us today.
From powering the industrial revolution to sparking the digital and information era and unlocking the secrets of the stars, researching and pushing the frontiers of science has underpinned our technological adventure into the 21st Century. Now that we are at the cusp of entering the third decade of this century it is befitting that global partnerships, with India as one of the partner, have been cemented to further push the frontiers of science. The ongoing exhibition showcases seven mega-science projects, which are pushing the frontiers of science and in each of these projects India is collaborating with other international scientific bodies. These projects include, Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Square Kilometer Array (SKA), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). In the years and decade/s to come, these projects and findings from them are sure to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of our universe and in the process our understanding could further benefit human society and help us in the much awaited sustainable and millennium development goals, which have been set by the U.N.
The Vigyan Samagam exhibition highlights some of the frontiers of science research projects in which India is actively involved. This exhibition is supplemented by unprecedented number of lectures from the best of scientists, other outreach educational activities, demonstrations and quizzes. Through this post once again I would like to stress on the importance of this exhibition and appeal to every one particularly the students, to please make best use of the opportunity for visiting the exhibition and participating in the events, lectures and activities. For details of the exhibition and the ongoing lectures and events please see;
www.vigyansamagam.in
www.nehrusciencecentre.gov.in
Jai Vigyan, Jai Hind

Eulogy for Girish Karnad

Girish Karnad, an exemplary playwright and a creative artist, Jnanpith, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, who excelled in art, culture, theatre, literature and movies, and whose penchant for blunt speak was legendary, left for his heavenly abode on the 10th June 2019,  leaving behind a grieving nation, full of admiration for his colossal creative contributions. Flowering eulogies have poured in from the powers that be and whose who of the country including the Honourable President and the Prime Minister and almost every form of media - print, electronic and social - has covered unending tributes for Karnad, written by the high and mighty and the leading lights of literature, theatre, cinema, media, art and culture. It therefore becomes extremely difficult, almost impossible, for a science communicator, and not an art, literature or theatre person, to pen another eulogy for Karnad. But then here is my attempt for an eulogy for Girish Karnad, who proudly professed his Kannada and Dharwad identity, the place where most of my friends from Sainik School and Engineering College have settled and more importantly the place where I met my wife and got wedded to her in an arranged Veerashiva traditional marriage. Dharwad is also the place where I was the first among equals, from the team of Vishveswarayya Museum, Bangalore, instrumental in establishing and opening the Dharwad Regional Science Centre.

The creative artist that Girish Karnad was, he was very found of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore, which he frequently visited, like most other artists of the city. I was fortunate to head this institute,  briefly, and it was during this period that I had an opportunity to meet Karnad and learn first hand about his profound knowledge in diverse fields of art and culture. S G Vasudev, a leading artist and a great friend of Girish Karnad and one of the members of the distinguished advisory committee of NGMA Bangalore, became friends with me during this period and provided me an unique  opportunity and honour to share a common platform, during the release of a documentary film on Vasudev, which Karnad ji released in one of the art galleries on the MG Road in Bangalore. I was also fortunate to meet him on some other occasions both at NGMA Bangalore and NGMA, Mumbai which I headed from February 2013 to October 2018.

Most of the tributes paid to Karnad have hailed him as one of the leading playwright of the country and have touched upon his stellar contributions in the field of literature, theatre, cinema, art and culture, rightly so. Some have highlighted his contributions as an  institution builder by bringing to focus his outstanding contributions to the  FTII, Pune  and the Nehru Centre in London, which he headed and so also the Sahitya Akademi, Delhi. 

Karnad was fortunate to grow up in a creative ambience and he was greatly  influenced by  great thinkers and writers the primary among them was Da Raa Bendre, a poet par excellence who had made Dharwad his home.  Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, Jnanpith awardee, after living in several different places, as an adult, returned to Dharwad to spend the rest of his life.  And it was here that Karnad came under the influence of Da Raja Bendre. As a child, Girish Karnad has grown up watching the theatrical prodigy and singer Balgandharva, who left a major influence on the music and theatre-scapes of North Karnataka, particularly the Dharwad city. Karnad was also lucky to have had an opportunity to see a wide ranging rich folk performances at Sirsi, a hill station in North Canara, close to Dharwad, where his father was posted on duty. Although Karnad was born in the state of Maharashtra he had a special love and fondness for Dharwad, where he came under the great influence of Da Raa Bendre. Karnad’s first play ‘Yayati’, which he wrote in 1960 was published in Dharwad, and it gave him a major breakthrough as a playwright. The play also bagged the ‘Mysore State Award‘ in 1962.

 It was perhaps for this that reason that Dharwad always remained at the core of Karnad’s heart.  He had mastery over many languages including Kannada in which he excelled and won the coveted Jnanpith award. He was compulsively a blunt speaker and a straight speaking man, who never shied away from articulating his thoughts even if they were contrarian in thoughts to a huge majority. Straight talk often got Karnad into controversies. But it did not faze him. He did not believe in playing to the gallery. And if he didn’t like something, he would tell straight up. Girish Karnad had the conviction and courage to criticise the legendary Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore by calling him a second rate playwright. He also vehemently criticised Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul. He resigned from the post of Director of FTII in protest against the imposition of Emergency. Such was his nature to express what he truly believed in, openly without any fear whatsoever.

The great writers from Dharwad , Da Ra Bendre and V K Gokak were of great inspiration to Karnad both of whom  encouraged Karnad in the diversity of his interest in art and culture. Karnad was very particular about a few things -- he always used to get his footwear repaired at a particular shop and buy ‘jamun’ fruits from an old woman in front Manohar Granthamala in Dharwad.  Even after he became famous, there was no change in his attitude. He used to mingle with all people in Granthamala, which was a meeting point for all writers and people involved in the literary world in Dharwad.  The Kannada Sahitya Sambrahama, a brain child of Karnad, which is now famously organised every year since 2013 in Dharwad was an out come of Karnad’s efforts. He was also responsible for starting Karnataka state’s first film society, the ‘Chitra Film Society’, in Dharwad in 1971. It was organised to introduce award-winning international and national films to the people.

Among several of his artistic creative contributions one  of his contributions has been relatively underplayed, which relates to his playing a lead anchor for the Turning Point, DD television programme, which he hosted and had for company the legendary Prof Yash Pal. The Turning Point programme in television (DD), was one of those very few programmes, which no science buffs was willing to miss, during those early days of TV in India. Girish Karnad was the lead anchor for this programme and the Turning Point demonstrated that science programmes on TV can be visually enriching and interesting and could be produced on a relatively modest budget. Most people, specially those interested in science, will remember Karnad and Prof Yashpal for Turning Point, a very high TRP programme, which was telecast on Doordarshan in the early 1990s. Karnad and Prof Yashpal made Turning Point one of the best science communication programme, which could explain the most complex questions on science in layman's language. Production of quality science programme, requires good understanding of science and decent grasp of scientific grammar, which Karnad could master while he anchored the Turning Point. The programme went on to win several awards both national and international. Karnad has another connect, though indirectly, with science. He played the role of Dr Varghese Kurien, the milk revolution man, in Shyam Benegal’s film Manthan, which won the National Award for the best feature film and for the screen play. The title song of the film, ‘Mero Gaam Kathaparey’ is now inextricably linked to Amul.

Karnad is no more but his contributions in the field of playwright, literature, art, theatre, cinema, and culture will continue to live in the hearts and minds of all Indians. RIP.

Immemorial Moment : 12th June 2017, Lords London

Immemorial Moment : 12th June 2017, Lords London
This day (12th June), two years ago, should ideally have been a day, which I should never have forgotten, but then like all Indians in whose DNA documenting history is almost non existent, I too was found wanting and forgot the event completely until a friend of mine reminded me by sending some of the photos of an opening of the “Cricket Connects : India England Cricket Relations” exhibition that happened on the 12th of June 2017, at the Lords stadium - the Mecca of Cricket- London. Having had the honour to curate this exhibition, I was in for a surprise when the entire Indian Cricket team who were touring England for the Championship trophy turned up at the invitation of the Indian High Commissioner for the opening of this exhibition at the Lords and I had the honour to explain the exhibition briefly to Virat Kohli and his men in Blue including Dhoni.
Although I had divided this exhibition into 10 sections, my favourite was the introduction section in which under the spinoff benefits sub section. I had tried to connect the discovery of Ramanujan by the greatest of mathematician, G H Hardy, a die hard cricket fan, using cricket parlance. A compulsive science communicator that one tends to become after serving for more than 3 decades in a science museum, I subconsciously connected India and England cricket relations using a science thread.
India shares more than two centuries of common heritage with Britain, and with it, many other inherited institutions and arenas of common interaction. Our shared history includes the English language. India today produces a large number of sought after scientists and technologists, and is considered a serious competitor to the Silicon Valley in the USA. “Say no to Bangalore and yes to Buffalo”, was the mantra of the then US President Barack Obama as far back as 2005, as he tried to bring the ailing American economy back on track. Similar sentiments prevail in the US even today and the word “Bangalored” seems to have found a place in the lexicon of global economy. This vantage position that India finds itself in is due to the English language advantage that Lord Macaulay introduced to India as far back as in 1835 with the English Education Act 1835 piloted by Lord William Bentinck. The English language advantage serves India well to this day; it also brought to India the first and only Nobel Prize in Literature, to Rabindranath Tagore – the first Asian to be so honoured. The discovery of the brilliance of Ramanujan: “A Bradman class Mathematician” by the renowned mathematician G H Hardy, is another case in point that has connection with our English language.
GH Hardy - a diehard cricket aficionado – and one of the predominant English mathematicians of the pre-war era, is synonymous with pure mathematics. He is however better known to the Indians as the benevolent mentor of the Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. Hardy was extraordinarily devoted to cricket. Hardy’s interest in cricket is seen in the statement of the internationally acclaimed economist Maynard Keynes, the founder of Keynesian economics and a friend of Hardy at Cambridge. He said “If Hardy had read the stock exchange for half an hour every day with as much interest and attention as he did the day's cricket scores, he would have become a rich man”.
Hardy used cricketing parlance in ranking notable mathematicians and physicists. In a postcard to Snow he wrote, "Bradman is a whole class above any batsman who has ever lived: if Archimedes, Newton and Gauss remain in the Hobbs (Jack Hobbs, England Cricketeer) class, I have to admit the possibility of a class above them, which I find difficult to imagine. They better be moved from now on into the Bradman class."
Ramanujan had dared to write to Hardy, while working as a clerk at the Madras port Trust, in the shared language - English - that connected us. He wrote that he had found new path of his own in divergent series and a definite expression of prime numbers, which Hardy in one of his papers had suggested did not exist. Although Hardy did find the letter bemusing yet, courtesy his co mathematician Littlewood, was convinced that here was a man of great intellect in maths and invited him to Cambridge. The rest is history and the legacy of Ramanujan continues to be applauded even today by mathematicians across the world. What is more important is that Hardy ranked our Ramanujan into the Bradman class. A befitting India England connect using cricketing parlance.
Now that the whole of India is hooked onto Cricket World Cup, I feel honoured to share my memories of 12th June 2017 when I had the honour not only to meet the Indian Cricket team but also to conduct a brief curatorial walk of one section of the exhibition to the entire team at the Lords Stadium.

The Cricket World Cup: Indian imprint all the way (आख़िर पैसा बोलता है।)

India begins its World Cup 2019 campaign today and the primacy that this sporting event has received, over the years particularly post the 1983 World Cup, is because of the stellar role played by the political and business leadership of India. Most Indians, particularly the Indian media, have two constant punching bags - the Politicians and the Businessmen, who are blamed for anything and almost everything, including sports, that is wrong with India. But then how many of us are aware that the seeds for the unprecedented scale of success, which the Cricket World Cup has been receiving over the years, were actually sown by a combination of these very people - the Indian politician and an industrialist. Perhaps not many. While majority of Indians are well informed about the game of cricket, their cricketing heroes, ICC Cricket World Cup - including our World Cup victories in 1983 and 2011 - but not many are aware as to what has made India the leader in the administration of this sporting event. Therefore, this post on Cricket is not about the game per se but about the robust foundations that went into making India a predominant player in the international cricketing arena and for paying respect to some of the people who made this possible - NKP Salve, Mrs Gandhi and Dhirubhai Ambani.

The Cricket World Cup, a flagship event of the international cricket calendar, is one of the world's most viewed sporting events. The participation of tens of millions Indians, and several hundreds of thousands of overseas Indians as spectators, the companies who sponsor the game, the men who manage and influence this game is what makes the World Cup so very special. This greatest of the sporting spectacle, The Cricket World Cup, which the whole of India is now perhaps glued to, is now hosted on rotation basis by different Cricket playing nations once every four years or so. It was not the case when this event began in 1975. The first three versions of the Cricket World Cups - The Prudential World Cups (named after the sponsors) - were hosted only by England in 1975, 1979 and 1983. Until then England alone was thought to be capable of organising huge resources to stage an event of such magnitude. The first three World Cup matches consisted of 60, six-ball, over per team, played during the daytime in traditional form, with the players wearing cricket whites and using red cricket balls. The power dynamics of the game of cricket was mostly with England who were unwittingly supported each time and every time by their arch cricketing adversary the Australians, while other teams including India were mostly bystanders. The fourth World Cup in 1987 changed all of this for good and ever since India has been a dominant player in administering and controlling the game of Cricket.

The Reliance CUP 1987.

The 1987 World Cup marked the first steps towards altering international cricket's power dynamics, and gave birth to the rotation system for hosting the World Cups. The Indian Cricket administrators, led by NKP Salve, buoyed by India winning the 1983 Prudential World Cup, emboldened their bid for the staging rights for the 1987 World Cup, jointly with Pakistan. Moving the World Cup away from England was not so simple, since it involved one of the most complicated negotiations, unprecedented financial resources, political manoeuvring not just between India and Pakistan but also with other cricket playing nations, the ICC, leaders, politicians, cricket administrators and businessmen. It was the combined spirit and efforts of Dhirubhai Ambani, N K P Salve and Mrs Indira Gandhi who made this impossible looking task possible. But most unfortunately, their contribution has not adequately been acknowledged by the cricket loving fans in India. The three of them showed how politicians, professionals and industrialists can help to shape the world through the medium of sports.

It all started with one phone call from the PMO to Dhirubhai Ambani on one of those monsoon mornings in Mumbai, way back in 1983. Dhirubhai was asked to urgently meet Mrs Gandhi, the PM of India, within a couple of days. Dhirubhai did not know the reasons for the urgency of the meeting nor did he want to know, all he wanted was to take the earliest flight to meet the PM. The very next day he landed in Delhi and was at Mrs Indira Gandhi’s residence, at 10 Janpath to meet the prime minister. N K P Salve, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was also asked by the PMO to be present for the meeting. Salve was also a cabinet minister in Mrs Gandhi’s cabinet and was very highly rated by her for his integrity and commitment, both as a Minister and as a lawyer politician. Mrs Gandhi asked Dhirubhai whether he would financially support the initiative of her government to try and bring the Cricket World Cup to India. Dhirubhai Ambani, having heard the PM, realised that the image and prestige of India was at stake and with no hesitation whatsoever, agreed to bear all the financial liabilities associated with the event without even understanding what the scope was. He nodded in agreement and uttered, “Madam, yes, I would be too happy to give a blank cheque to cover the entire cost of the tournament since it is for a national cause.” Dhirubhai, the grand visionary that he was, had immediately realised that the Indian honour was at stake and for him this in itself was reason enough to offer a blank cheque to the PM. 

But then what prompted Mrs Gandhi to stake her claim for hosting the 1987 World Cup Cricket in India? Well it is an interesting story, which began at Lord’s on the 25th of June 1983, the day when Kapil’s men made history. The Indian team - the underdogs in the tournament with a ridiculously low possibility of winning any single match, let alone the tournament, had miraculously reached the finals and were to play the defending champions, the indomitable rampaging West Indies, led by their legendary captain Clive Lloyd’s at the Lord’s. India had defeated the hosts, England in the semi-final, to reach the finals. N K P Salve, the president of the BCCI, had requested the authorities at Lord’s to provide two tickets for the final, which were meant for Siddhartha Shankar Ray, the Indian High Commissioner to the US at the time, and his wife Maya. Most shockingly, the authorities at Lord’s had turned down the request of the BCCI president. He was not even provided the priced tickets let alone the complementary VIP passes to watch the finals. This was too embarrassing even for Salve, an epitome of gentlemanliness. The president of one of the finalist teams could not offer even two tickets to an Indian ambassador. It was at this instance that Salve, perhaps, decided not take this insult to his country lying down. As luck would have it, Indian team won the 1983 Prudential World Cup and Salve lost no time in taking the Indian winning team on their return to New Delhi from Heathrow, to meet the prime minister, Mrs Gandhi and it was during this meeting that Salve narrated about his insult to the PM and expressed his interest to consider hosting the next edition of the world cup in India. Salve also had informed the PM about his discussions of a joint bid for hosting this event with Pakistan, which he had with Pakistan's cricketing chief, Air Marshall Noor Khan.

The political commitment for the game shown by Mrs Gandhi was ably supported by her Pakistani counterpart. With financial and political commitments in place the ball was set rolling for luring the eight full members and 21 associate members of the ICC for agreeing to shift the World Cup from England to the Indian subcontinent. Every one of them including the players and cricketing boards were offered such an extraordinary financial allurement that it was just a matter of time that the English opposition was blow away and there was consensus in shifting the next World Cup to India. Most unfortunately when everything had fallen in place, Mrs Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984 and there was huge uncertainty on the continued political and financial commitments, which was not to be. Mr Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister and continued his patronage to the game. Dhirubhai assigned the work of managing this mega event to his younger son Anil Ambani, who did an admirable job in most professionally managing this entire event including providing more than adequate financial resources for the tournament. NKP Salve was later made the Chairman of the India-Pakistan Joint Managing Committee for the Reliance Cup. The massive success of that tournament saw the World Cup live up to its name as a world event played in all the continents. The Reliance Cup also marked a step in the shifting of the cricket headquarters from Lord's to Eden Gardens, culminating in the election of Jagmohan Dalmiya as the first Asian president of the ICC.

The Reliance Cup, was a major success with packed crowds and huge stadiums playing host to every single match. Both the host teams, India and Pakistan, performed exceptionally well with impressive performances in the group stage and ended up group toppers and qualified for the semi-finals. India lost in the Semi-finals to England, in a match that was played in Mumbai in front of a massive crowd. Pakistan too lost its semi-final match against Australia and in the finals played in front of a mammoth Eden garden crowd of more than 100,000, the Australians defeated the English team to begin their dominance over the cup. Ever since every single ICC World Cups have been a roaring success with huge audience, mostly Indians, and unprecedented sponsors for whom the ICC World Cup and so also the IPL are two extremely important events from the advertising standpoint. 

As India takes on South Africa in their inaugural 2019 World Cup match later today, it is time for us to look back and credit Mrs Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, NKP Salve, Anil and Dhirubhai Ambani, for their extraordinary political and business leadership, shown for the game of Cricket, which to every Indian is nothing short of a religion.

Live World Cup Cricket : Spare a thought for Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary who laid the foundation for making this a reality.

Live World Cup Cricket : Spare a thought for Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary who laid the foundation for making this a reality. 

The whole of India was united in hailing the spectacular victory that Kohli’s men in Blue achieved in yesterday’s match against Australia. The victory was that much more sweeter, since Australia had deprived India of yet another possible World Cup victory in 2015, by defeating India in the semifinal’s. Tens of millions of people across India were glued to their TV sets, on Sunday, watching live their cricketing heroes beat the Australians at the Oval. Scores of articles have been written on India’s victory by experts in the field including several legends and hundreds and thousands of gossips and discussions have happened in most offices, homes and on the social media platforms and therefore, I dare not write a word more on this. 

My post is on the TV revolution in India and the space technology, which has made possible every Indian watch and enjoy the cricket matches live. While the whole of India is praising, rightly so, Kohli and his team for the spectacular victory, please do spare a thought or two for the visionary scientist, Dr Vikram Sarabhai - whose centenary we are celebrating this year - the father of Indian Space Programme (ISRO), who laid the foundation for the space programme in India, which in turn ushered in the TV revolution.
India was two decades late in commencing the TV broadcast, which was introduced in India for the first time on September 15, 1959, in Delhi. However, the first television service of the world was started by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1936. The TV broadcasts in India expanded to include educational programmes for school children and it was 13 years later, in 1972, that India’s second television station was opened in Bombay, followed by stations in Amritsar and Srinagar and Madras, Calcutta and Lucknow. TV in India was more of a figment of imagination for majority of Indians, particularly for our rural population. The efficacy of this new found media for creating awareness on the stressing societal needs was soon realised by Dr Vikram Sarabhai, who said “There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society."

Vikram Sarabhai, a man of passion for science and its benefits to human society, was appointed the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966, after the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash. Sarabhai envisaged harnessing the power of space science to find solutions to the problems India was facing in the field of communication, meteorology, and education. Sarabhai used his stature to connect with NASA, leader in space science, to start the first experiment of commencing TV programs in rural villages in India and the result was the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). The SITE, program was launched in 1975 and became the first major India-US partnership in space, which has grown from strength to strength, notwithstanding the cold era period and the sanctions that India endured. SITE was India’s first attempt to use technology for education through TV broadcasts. Courtesy the success of the SITE, India began launch of communications satellites beginning with the INSAT 1 and also brought about a revolution in establishing Low Power Transmitting TV stations from 1982, which helped India in taking giant leaps in the field of mass communication particularly the TV transmission. There has never been a looking back.

True to Sarabhai’s vision Indian Space programme has come a very long way from the humble beginning of the launch of our first launch vehicle - SLV- and the satellite Aryabhatta, to the current era in which ISRO creates, builds and launches gigantic rockets, including the most successful PSLV - the work horse- which carry Indian and international payloads, satellites, and complex spacecraft not just for our country but also for several other countries. Projects like the Chandrayaan, Mars Orbit Mission, built at frugal costs, not only exemplify Indian excellence in Space but also kindle an outstanding sense of Indianness among the people. Today, courtesy Sarabhai’s vision and the initial success of SITE and the Indian Space programme, we have 900 plus television channels including the Star Sports channel, which is beaming live the WORLD CUP cricket matches to us from England and several of these TV channels operate on Indian satellites, which include the INSAT 4A, GSAT 10 and GSAT 17. 

So next time when Kohli or Dhoni hoists a Six or Bumrah takes a wicket, do cheer for the Indian team but don’t forget to remember Sarabhai, who helped us in watching the cricket matches live from the comforts of our home. 

May India win the 2019 World Cup and let this win be a befitting tribute to the father of Indian Space Program, Dr Vikram Sarabhai. Jai Hind.

Kilogram is History : Long Live the Kilogram.

Kilogram is History : Long Live the Kilogram.

20th May, 2019, will remain etched in the annals of human history, not because it happens to be my 58th birthday, but for reasons more scientific and majorly significant. On this historic “World Metrology Day”, one of the most commonly used measurements, the Kilogram, has been permanently redefined and the new measurement will be more precise than what we have been using for all of 144 long years. The genesis for this change was shaped during the 16th, November, 2018, General Conference on Weights and Measures in which most participating countries including India, agreed on one of the most significant revisions to the International System of Units (SI).
Measurements are integral to our way of life and it is since time immemorial that human society has been measuring things all the time – how long, how heavy, how quickly and so on – primarily because we need units of measurements for activities such as trade and commerce and so also for advancing of our worldly knowledge. The challenge however has been getting an exactitude of standard measurements, which make sure that mine, yours and others measurements are precisely the very same. This is all the more a necessity because almost every one of us trust the standards of measurements and take what is displayed on our measuring scales for granted and consider that a second is a second, metre a metre and a kilogram a kilogram. For most of human history, however, measures of time, length and mass have been arbitrary, mostly defined according to the whims of local customs or rulers.

Metrology, or the study of units of weights and measures, has a long history and has references across civilisations including our very own Indus. The first study of some kind of a standardisation in weights during the Indus period was done by A S Hemmy (1931) on the basis of cubical objects of chert and other stones discovered from the Harappan site. Modern studies by Michel Danino, Kenoyer, Balasubramaniam and others have shown that there has been a continuing standards of length measurement (angula), which span centuries stretching from the Harappan times right until the majestic Taj Mahal construction. There however seems to have been no decrees regarding standardisation.

One of the earliest decrees that national measurements must be standardized came in 1215 AD, from the Magna Carta. Clause 35 of the Magna Carta demands standard weights and measures for grain, wine, beer and cloth. It was not until the French Revolution that necessity for standardising measurements gained momentum leading to the first standards of length and mass, with two platinum standards representing the Metre and the Kilogram. These two new standard measurements were defined on 22nd June, 1799, in Paris. Ever since, there were efforts to extend the standards of measurements across countries and it was German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss who advocated the idea of agreed global standards in measurements. A major breakthrough came when representatives of 17 nations came together to create the “International System of Units (SI) signing the Metre Convention treaty on the 20th of May, 1875. Subsequently over 100 countries have adopted the metric system of measurements, the SI units, which has been in practice since 1889.
In the SI units used in most parts of the globe, the base unit of mass is the kilogram. The kilogram is defined as the mass of an object, known as the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK), which is carefully preserved - in two safes and three glass bell jars - since 1889 at the International Bureau for Weights and Measures ( Bureau International de Poids et Mesures BIPM in French) in France. All the mass standards around the world are calibrated from time to time against this artefact object, which serves as a base standard to ensure worldwide uniformity of weight measurements in kilogram.
The IPK, also called the ‘Le Grand K’, is an alloy of 90% platinum and 10% iridium, machined into a right circular cylinder of 39.17 mm diameter and equal height. The alloy is extremely hard, of high density (21 times higher than water), resistant to oxidation and a good thermal and electrical conductor. The IPK has been preserved in an environmentally safe condition enclosed under three bell jars. Three independently controlled keys are required to take it out. The original IPK has only been weighed three times before, (1889, 1946 & 1989) against a number of near-identical copies. India too based its measurement of the kilogram on the IPK, an official copy of which came to India in 1958 and is preserved at the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

The IPK was mandated to remain stable over time, but most unfortunately that was not to be, notwithstanding the highest levels of climatic controlled conditions in which the original IPK has been stored. Over the decades the scientists were surprised to see a drift in the mass of the official copies relative to the original IPK. Majority of the official copies of the IPK showed an increase in their mass with respect to the original IPK. This necessitated a rethinking among the scientists to redefine the Kilogram. Thus after more than 100 years of defining the kilogram according to a metal artefact - The IPK - metrology scientists started preparing to change the unit based on a constant, which is nature dependent and not man made.

The definition of all seven SI units, except that of the kilogram, are based on some fundamental constants of nature. The last one to be redefined was the unit of length, the Metre. Earlier, like the Kilogram, the measurement of the unit of length, the Metre, was based on a man-made artefact. It was defined as the distance between two marks on a platinum rod. In 1983, the measurement of Metre was redefined in relation to the speed of light. Accordingly, the Metre is now defined as the distance in vacuum, traveled by light in 1/ 299,792,458 seconds. Since both speed of light and also the second are based on natural universal constants, the Metre too will remain constant.
In the year 2005 the International Committee on Weights and Measures recommended that the measurement of the weight - the Kilogram - too needs to be redefined on the basis of some fundamental natures constant, which will help the measurement of the kilogram liberate its dependence on IPK. The General Conference on Weights and Measures, which met in November 2018 recommended redefining the kilogram in terms of the Planck’s constant and passed a resolution to that effect unanimously. The changes of this resolution have now come into effect from 20th May 2019.

The kilogram will now be defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant, h, to be 6.626 07015 × 10 to the power -34, when expressed in the unit Joules, which is equal to kg metre square / second. Sounds quite complicated but not really. The Planck constant describes how the tiniest bits of matter release energy in discrete steps or chunks (called quanta). And from this fixed value of the Planck constant, scientists can derive the standard mass of a kilogram. Redefining the kilogram in terms of the Planck constant has been an immense challenge. This work required careful measurements with an incredibly complicated machine called the Kibble balance - named after Bryan Kibble from the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, who died in 2016- as well as observations of an extremely round sphere of silicon. Currently, only France, Canada and the US have Kibble balances capable of making the measurements needed to fix the Planck constant. India too - National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi - is aiming to have its own Kibble balance.

It is time for saying good bye to the IPK, which has served us well over 144 years. The kilogram of yesteryear’s, which was based on the IPK, from now now will be history but then the Kilogram will leave for eternity serving humankind in a more precise way.

I have also published a more detailed article on this subject in Science Reporter - August 2019 issue, which can be seen in this link

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/49511

Eulogy for Dr. Subbarayappa: the doyen of History of Science in India.

The Indian Civilization has a long history of scientific culture that goes back to more than 5000 years and with China; India is one of the longest surviving civilizations which has made profound contributions to the growth of science and technology. Yet when it comes to portrayal of India’s contribution in science and technology, most unfortunately it is completely neglected or over looked. One finds mainly a Eurocentric perspective in history of science; typically, it starts with Greece, neglecting the influences of other civilisations upon Greece and then it fast forwards many centuries to the renaissance period to portray modern science to be the sole contribution of Europe. Fortunately there have been efforts made by some scholars from India to redress this issue and among them the contributions of Dr B V Subbarayappa are note worthy.  Dr. Bidare Venkatasubbaiah Subbarayappa, one of the preeminent scholars in history of science in India, passed away, on 8th April 2019, at an advanced age of 94 years. Dr Subbarayappa has made profound contributions to the history of science in India and his works have been extensively referred by national and international scholars including yours truly and other curators of NCSM. 

Ever since the formation of our Council, the NCSM, our founding fathers, majorly Dr Saroj Ghose, former DG NCSM, has tried to showcase the contributions of ancient Indians to the field of science and technology in international forums through the exhibitions that were presented as a part of the Festival of India in different countries. One of the major section and prime attractions of the Festival of India exhibitions, that the NCSM developed and exhibited in different cities in USA, RUSSIA, China and some European countries, during the period from 1985 to 1994 was the History of Science and Technology in India. I had the honour to be associated with two of these festival of India exhibitions in the erstwhile USSR (Moscow and Tashkent) in 1987 and in Beijing in 1994. For presenting a well researched exhibition on the history of science and technology in India, the works of Dr Subbarayappa served as a major source of reference for the these exhibitions. It is therefore a great honour for me to be writing this obituary post as a mark of our profound respect for Dr B V Subbarayappa and in paying our homage for him and offering our prayers for his soul to rest in eternal peace.

Most curators in NCSM, particularly those studying for the MS course were mandated to read “A Concise History of Science” book, a publication of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), edited by Dr Subbarayappa and SN Sen, to get initiated into history of science in India - one of the major objectives of NCSM. My interest in history of science also started with this book more than three decades ago. I had the honour to listen to Dr Subbarayappa and interact with him on few occasions and this helped me in getting profoundly interested in the history of science and technology. Fortunately I was given an opportunity to curate an exhibition “ Our Technology Heritage “ for presenting it at the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai and during course of my research on the subject while curating this exhibition I got another opportunity to interact with Dr Subbarayappa and several other experts in the subject including late Prof R Balasubramaniam, Prof Ranganathan, Prof Vibha Tripathi, Dr Paul Craddock, Prof Mark Kenoyer, Prof Vasant Shinde, Prof Sharda Srinivasan, Dr Frank Winter, Dr R S Bisht, Michel Danino, Dr. Kanungo, Dr D P Agarwal, Prof Jamkhedkar and Dr Bisht and several others. Subsequently this subject became my passion. The success of the exhibition in NSC Mumbai helped me I curate two more acclaimed exhibitions on history of science and technology in India at the National Science Centre in Delhi and RSC Dharwad. Dr Subbarayappa was a constant source of support for me and he helped me immensely during the curation of these exhibitions. The research for these exhibitions included, among other literature, several of the peer reviewed and validated books and articles published by Subbarayappa and number of communication exchanges that I had with him and other experts.

We, the Indians, are infamously known for our tardiness in keeping historical records and when it comes to history of science in India, it gets even worse, the evidence of which comes to limelight during the India Science Congress. In the recent past (post 2014), almost every year the annual India Science Congress (ISC), which is supposed to be the biggest gathering of scientists in India, has been receiving adverse publicity of repeated misuse of this extraordinary scientific platform to spread ‘so called’ pseudoscience and irrationality, resulting in many of the leading scientists including Prof Venky Ramakrishnan, Prof CNR Rao and others loosing interest in the ISC and disassociating themselves with this event. Most of the allegations pertain to hyperbolic claims of so called unprecedented achievements of ancient Indians in science and technology, by some sections of the scientific community who profess to be scholars in history of science but their findings are not based on the exacting evidence that is mandated in science research. This has led to appeals by agencies like the All India Peoples Science Network to the President, the Scientific Advisor to the PM! and so also to the three Indian Science Academies and the Indian Science Congress Association to step in to end, what they call spread of pseudoscience, referring to over board claims on India’s achievements in science. While it is true that certain claims that India’s so called knowledge in fields like aviation or cloning or such other baseless scientific achievements, do bring in disrepute, it is equally true that India indeed has made profound contributions in Science, the evidence of which have overwhelming scientific basis and are brought out by people like Dr Subbarayappa through their untiring research on the subject. Unfortunately past achievements of India in science and technology are getting eclipsed by pseudoscience and irrational claims.

It is in this context that the contributions of Subbarayappa and other acclaimed historians of science and technology become extremely important. Dr B V Subbarayappa, a chemist turned science historian and philosopher, has an extraordinary distinction of being the first non-westerner to be elected to the internationally acclaimed post of the President of the History of Science division of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (under ICSU, Paris), during the period 1998-2001. He has authored several books on the subject and has also published innumerable scholarly papers on the history of Indian science, science and society, and related themes in various national and international journals.

Subbarayappa’s Book: “Science in India: A Historical Perspective” is a comprehensive and in-depth study on the subject that chronicles the fascinating saga of ancient scientific ideas and techniques and other accomplishments, which hold an exalted position. The book also describes how India displayed its originality not only in mathematics and computational astronomy but also in holistic medicine, metallurgy and other fields. Based on authentic sources and their in-depth study, this book deals with the origins, ramifications and achievements of India in traditional astronomy, mathematics, medicine and chemical practices, besides certain concepts related to the physical world. The book is a historical and factual perspective on science in India, traversing a span of more than 5,000 years.

A recent exhibition “Illuminating India : 5000 Years of Science and Innovation in India”, which was presented at the London Science Museum, UK, during the period from October 2017 to May 2018, to commemorate 70 years of India’s Independence, bears testimony to the works of Dr Subbarayappa. This exhibition with outstanding objects and artefacts presents India’s achievements in science moving as it does from the Bakshali manuscript that has ‘the earliest example of our numeral zero ever found’, and weights from the Indus Valley civilisation ( it was the Indus valley civilisation whose people fashioned standardised weights around 4000 years ago: items that indicate high levels of arithmetical literacy, communication and trade) to old coins, astrolabes, maps and manuscripts, reconstructions of Ayurvedic surgical instruments described in records dating back to around 500 BC, to the current era camera used by ISRO’s Mars orbiter in its Mars Orbiter Mission.

So next time when we read about pseudoscience and irrationality let us also remember Dr Subbarayappa. The mortal remains of Dr Subbarayappa May have gone but copious amount of scholastics that he left behind will continue to remain immortal and he will ever be remembered for eternity.