***********************************************************************************************************
Unlike her father and her grandkids, Indira Gandhi belonged to our generation. We watched her grow as a leader and as a PM. We rejoiced when she drove away the old guard of Congress who called her a Dumb Doll (gungi gudia). We relished it when she abolished the privy purses of the vestigial remnants of wasteful princes. We were wowed when she nationalized all our major banks. And enthralled when she led Free India to her only war-victory (Kargil Conflict was but an Operation). We were sorry when a coterie formed around her and misled her into making fatal mistakes of statecraft. We were sad to lose her the way we did. In short, unlike to the other lady currently on her throne, we could relate to Indira Gandhi. She belonged to us and we practically owned her.
She was one of the most famous and powerful women in the world. But she was never free. Her private life was close to a disaster. She married against her parents' wishes. And lost her husband early. She lost her fond son tragically. She estranged his wife and kid. She was jailed by a short-lived vindictive regime. She was beleaguered and made disastrous mistakes that killed her in the prime of her political career. And the events that followed were wounds that bleed even now.
Our current prime minister too holds a coveted second successive term as the leader of the largest democracy. He was an eminent economist and an honest and efficient bureaucrat. He allowed himself to be led by his nose by unscrupulous cabinet colleagues over whom he had little power which lay elsewhere. His second term is such a disaster that he had to appeal to future historians to rescue him from ignominy. He had enough fame but never any freedom. He couldn't even make money...either for himself or his country.
Unlike the God of other religions, our Hindu gods are very human. Instead of God making us in His image, we made our gods in our own images so we could relate to them...and even own them with a vengeance.
Lord Raam is surely our most loved god...he was so human...maryada purushottam. We revere him and do many petty things in his name. But his own private life was anything but happy...according to our standards. He led his wife to a forest-life. And lost her. And had to ask her to jump into the fire for public satisfaction. And banished her into the forests when she was pregnant. And didn't have too much of an endearing parentage with his sons.
And Lord Krishna had too many wives, wedded and otherwise, and thousands of love interests. But he didn't have enough time to devote to them...he was too busy. Not much is known about his sons and grandsons, if any.
Shivjee is powerful enough to destroy this and all the other worlds. But his family life is none too happy. One wife sundered his body. The other took her cockpit seat on his head. And to his mortification, he beheaded his wife's spiritual son and had to transplant an elephant's head.
Brahma, the Creator, did the best of a very bad job. But there are very few temples dedicated to him. Very few worship him. His wife and he are rarely seen together in pictures and paintings and idols.
All this is to prove the dictum of Robert Wyatt quoted above...one has to choose between fame and freedom...they rarely coexist.
During my time, the physics department of IIT KGP was a mother-figure to us. Like the ideal mother, she cared for her kids for what they were and not what they wore. None of us was so famous that we lost our freedom. None of us bothered to apply for coveted memberships of sundry powerful academies that Feynman so profoundly trashed. None won too many prizes and awards. We were allowed to do what we were good at. And what we pleased.
I was even allowed not to do what I didn't like to do. And yet, miraculously I was given all sorts of unmerited 'merit promotions' by and by.
I recall the morning in January 2000 when our HoD, Prof MLM, entered my room and insisted that I do something for the department instead of gathering wool at Harrys endlessly. And said that the department was organizing a prestigious UNESCO Regional Summer School at IIT KGP for selected college physics teachers from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan (which dropped out since they didn't get visas due to Kargil). About 40 teachers in all.
And MLM asked me to give 6 lectures in the program. I asked him on what. And he said he was asking the other profs to lecture on their specializations. That looked a nice escape route for me. I said I didn't have any specialization...the whole of physics was my field of ignorance. But MLM was too smart for me...he said I could do whatever I wanted to do with them in those 6 hours but I had to engage them...orders are orders and I had to obey for once.
So I took all those 40 colleagues from other colleges to our 4th year lab of which I was the Guide & Adviser, a post created specially for me by MLM earlier on. And told them that I wanted to learn Relativity all my life and spent 15 years teaching it without getting a touch-feel sense of it...till I got hold of the first and only problem-solving graphics software on relativity called Spacetime Software from an MIT pen-friend of mine.
And then I learned in 15 days what I couldn't in 15 years. And I gave them a demo and split them into batches and gave them my sheet of intricate problems on the subject and asked them to have a go at it on the only primitive PC in our lab. After 4 days ('lectures') they were hooked and asked for copies of the software, manual, problem sheet and so on. I gave them all for free although the software was copy-righted by APS...I had a written permission from the author, Ed Taylor.
And in the 2 remaining 'lectures' in the SN Bose Seminar Room, I sat down in my chair facing close to them and started asking them questions that my IIT students had asked me during the last 35 years and which made me think and publish their answers in AJP, EJP, and PE. They were pleased and amused.
A gentleman, just a decade younger to me, sat in the front row and joyously participated in the entire program. We became friends in just those six days. And he went back to his college in Agra and implemented the software in his student-lab. And got a free copy of Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics, with best compliments. And asked his son working in the US to buy and send him the latest book of Taylor & Wheeler on Black Holes and GR (without tensors). And we became co-authors for a paper in PE by and by.
And I retired and continued to do what I liked and not to do what I didn't like. What I didn't like was to continue with physics. Just dropped it like a hot potato.
What I liked to do was to relive my past through blogging.
And this freedom brought me in touch with many of my ex-students who cherished their time at IIT KGP.
But I hardly ever expected this heartening mail I got one morning last month:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
************************************************************************************************************
"Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less"
...Robert Wyatt
..............................................................................................................................................................................
...She was a dedicated grandparent, and anticipated with a quiet joy rejoining the family at the end of the day. Once she remarked, "I don't really mind the long hours at the office but the worst of it is that some days the children are asleep when I go home." I met her in the March of this year at her residence, when she was about to leave for her office and she suggested that I go along with her. From the car she called Sanjay's child to come up for a ride with her, and explained, "I don't have enough time for this child. He has temperature. I don't know why." She kept feeling his brow all the time. In the brief journey between her residence and her office, she somehow managed to keep up her conversation with me and also with the child, pointing to him the trees in bloom and birds along the way. After reaching the office she sent the child back home with many words of caution and also pointing to me, "You know this uncle writes very interesting stories." ...
...RKN on Indira Gandhi
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Unlike her father and her grandkids, Indira Gandhi belonged to our generation. We watched her grow as a leader and as a PM. We rejoiced when she drove away the old guard of Congress who called her a Dumb Doll (gungi gudia). We relished it when she abolished the privy purses of the vestigial remnants of wasteful princes. We were wowed when she nationalized all our major banks. And enthralled when she led Free India to her only war-victory (Kargil Conflict was but an Operation). We were sorry when a coterie formed around her and misled her into making fatal mistakes of statecraft. We were sad to lose her the way we did. In short, unlike to the other lady currently on her throne, we could relate to Indira Gandhi. She belonged to us and we practically owned her.
She was one of the most famous and powerful women in the world. But she was never free. Her private life was close to a disaster. She married against her parents' wishes. And lost her husband early. She lost her fond son tragically. She estranged his wife and kid. She was jailed by a short-lived vindictive regime. She was beleaguered and made disastrous mistakes that killed her in the prime of her political career. And the events that followed were wounds that bleed even now.
Our current prime minister too holds a coveted second successive term as the leader of the largest democracy. He was an eminent economist and an honest and efficient bureaucrat. He allowed himself to be led by his nose by unscrupulous cabinet colleagues over whom he had little power which lay elsewhere. His second term is such a disaster that he had to appeal to future historians to rescue him from ignominy. He had enough fame but never any freedom. He couldn't even make money...either for himself or his country.
Unlike the God of other religions, our Hindu gods are very human. Instead of God making us in His image, we made our gods in our own images so we could relate to them...and even own them with a vengeance.
Lord Raam is surely our most loved god...he was so human...maryada purushottam. We revere him and do many petty things in his name. But his own private life was anything but happy...according to our standards. He led his wife to a forest-life. And lost her. And had to ask her to jump into the fire for public satisfaction. And banished her into the forests when she was pregnant. And didn't have too much of an endearing parentage with his sons.
And Lord Krishna had too many wives, wedded and otherwise, and thousands of love interests. But he didn't have enough time to devote to them...he was too busy. Not much is known about his sons and grandsons, if any.
Shivjee is powerful enough to destroy this and all the other worlds. But his family life is none too happy. One wife sundered his body. The other took her cockpit seat on his head. And to his mortification, he beheaded his wife's spiritual son and had to transplant an elephant's head.
Brahma, the Creator, did the best of a very bad job. But there are very few temples dedicated to him. Very few worship him. His wife and he are rarely seen together in pictures and paintings and idols.
All this is to prove the dictum of Robert Wyatt quoted above...one has to choose between fame and freedom...they rarely coexist.
During my time, the physics department of IIT KGP was a mother-figure to us. Like the ideal mother, she cared for her kids for what they were and not what they wore. None of us was so famous that we lost our freedom. None of us bothered to apply for coveted memberships of sundry powerful academies that Feynman so profoundly trashed. None won too many prizes and awards. We were allowed to do what we were good at. And what we pleased.
I was even allowed not to do what I didn't like to do. And yet, miraculously I was given all sorts of unmerited 'merit promotions' by and by.
I recall the morning in January 2000 when our HoD, Prof MLM, entered my room and insisted that I do something for the department instead of gathering wool at Harrys endlessly. And said that the department was organizing a prestigious UNESCO Regional Summer School at IIT KGP for selected college physics teachers from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan (which dropped out since they didn't get visas due to Kargil). About 40 teachers in all.
And MLM asked me to give 6 lectures in the program. I asked him on what. And he said he was asking the other profs to lecture on their specializations. That looked a nice escape route for me. I said I didn't have any specialization...the whole of physics was my field of ignorance. But MLM was too smart for me...he said I could do whatever I wanted to do with them in those 6 hours but I had to engage them...orders are orders and I had to obey for once.
So I took all those 40 colleagues from other colleges to our 4th year lab of which I was the Guide & Adviser, a post created specially for me by MLM earlier on. And told them that I wanted to learn Relativity all my life and spent 15 years teaching it without getting a touch-feel sense of it...till I got hold of the first and only problem-solving graphics software on relativity called Spacetime Software from an MIT pen-friend of mine.
And then I learned in 15 days what I couldn't in 15 years. And I gave them a demo and split them into batches and gave them my sheet of intricate problems on the subject and asked them to have a go at it on the only primitive PC in our lab. After 4 days ('lectures') they were hooked and asked for copies of the software, manual, problem sheet and so on. I gave them all for free although the software was copy-righted by APS...I had a written permission from the author, Ed Taylor.
And in the 2 remaining 'lectures' in the SN Bose Seminar Room, I sat down in my chair facing close to them and started asking them questions that my IIT students had asked me during the last 35 years and which made me think and publish their answers in AJP, EJP, and PE. They were pleased and amused.
A gentleman, just a decade younger to me, sat in the front row and joyously participated in the entire program. We became friends in just those six days. And he went back to his college in Agra and implemented the software in his student-lab. And got a free copy of Taylor & Wheeler's Spacetime Physics, with best compliments. And asked his son working in the US to buy and send him the latest book of Taylor & Wheeler on Black Holes and GR (without tensors). And we became co-authors for a paper in PE by and by.
And I retired and continued to do what I liked and not to do what I didn't like. What I didn't like was to continue with physics. Just dropped it like a hot potato.
What I liked to do was to relive my past through blogging.
And this freedom brought me in touch with many of my ex-students who cherished their time at IIT KGP.
But I hardly ever expected this heartening mail I got one morning last month:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Dear Professor Shastry,
It was a great joy to find your e-mail ID after a long time. I was a participant in UNESCO sponsored program at IIT KGP in year 2000 and was fortunate to get an opportunity to interact with you. After Prof Saraswat's untimely death, I tried to locate you but did not succeed. Today I found your blogs and the wonderful memory of time spent at IIT KGP flashed back in my mind.
How are you and where have you settled after retirement? I also retired from St. John's College Agra in June 2013. At present, I am in Hyderabad. I shall be grateful if you kindly write back.
with best regards,
JK Sharma
It was a great joy to find your e-mail ID after a long time. I was a participant in UNESCO sponsored program at IIT KGP in year 2000 and was fortunate to get an opportunity to interact with you. After Prof Saraswat's untimely death, I tried to locate you but did not succeed. Today I found your blogs and the wonderful memory of time spent at IIT KGP flashed back in my mind.
How are you and where have you settled after retirement? I also retired from St. John's College Agra in June 2013. At present, I am in Hyderabad. I shall be grateful if you kindly write back.
with best regards,
JK Sharma
...AMEN!
************************************************************************************************************
Thank you Prof Shastry for incorporating my mail in your blog. I am enjoying your blogs as much as I enjoyed spacetime software.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Taylor also sent to me other software on ACTION and QED.
Gestetner's elaborate description was lovely.
regards .. JK