Ignited Minds Page 3

  On another occasion, I addressed a very large gathering of students at St Mary’s School, Dindigul in Tamil Nadu on their seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations. Among the large number of children wishing to meet me were two who were in a hurry to get an answer from me. One student asked, ‘I have read your book Agni Siragugal (the Tamil version of Wings of Fire). You always give a message to dream. Tell me, why dream?’

  My answer was to ask the gathered children to recite the following: ‘Dream, dream, dream. Dream transforms into thoughts. Thoughts result in actions.’ I told them, ‘Friends, if there are no dreams, there are no revolutionary thoughts; if there are no thoughts, no actions will emanate. Hence, parents and teachers should allow their children to dream. Success always follows dreams attempted though there may be some setbacks and delays.’

  Another boy asked, ‘Please tell me, who would be the first scientist in the world?’ It occurred to me–science was born and survives only by questions. The whole foundation of science is questioning. And as parents and teachers well know, children are the source of unending questions. Hence, ‘Child is the first scientist,’ I replied. There was thunderous applause. The children enjoyed this different way of thinking. Teachers and parents also smiled at the answer.

  During my visit to Assam, I visited Tezpur. I had gone for the convocation ceremony of Tezpur University and also to receive the honorary doctorate conferred on me. After the convocation, I took off to meet schoolchildren. It was a big gathering of young people. The theme of my address was ‘Indomitable Spirit’. As soon as I finished my talk the youngsters mobbed me for autographs. When I finished giving autographs I faced two interesting questions. One was: ‘Why cannot water from the Brahmaputra, which is in flood much of the time, be diverted to Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu which are starved of water?’

  Only children will have these innovative ideas. Grown-ups tend to see more impossibilities. It was such a powerful question, I was completely beaten. I was sure even the Prime Minister would not have been able to answer it! How to tell the boy, rivers are a state subject and our states are fighting for the rights to their waters? That these would bring them prosperity some day but meanwhile they were flowing wastefully into the sea and causing floods every year. How to answer it?

  I said, ‘India Vision 2020 demands from the young that they start a great mission of connecting rivers cutting across the states.’ I personally feel the young have the most powerful minds. They can overcome the negativity of the bureaucracy and some self- centred policies of the state governments to enrich the people of the country. They can even improve coordination between the states and the Centre. And they surely will!

  Another student asked me a question for which again I had no ready answer. He said, ‘Sir, big leaders in any field don’t come and talk to us. We see our Prime Minister often going to Chennai, Lucknow, and many places. But he never comes here. We want him; we want to talk to him.’ I was impressed by this urge to communicate with the country’s leaders. I said, when I reach Delhi, I will tell your dream to the leaders and your dream will come true.

  I later narrated this to the Prime Minister. He conceded the point and said, ‘Children don’t talk to me any more. Maybe the security cordon has created a separation.’ I request our leaders in different fields to interact more with the children of the country for a better understanding of their own purpose in life as also for helping create a better future for our children.

  I have visited Jharkhand a number of times after its formation. Every time I visit it, I am struck by the tremendous resources that wait to be harnessed in the state, which will multiply its wealth manifold. At the Sri Ramakrishna High School, Bokaro, I addressed a gathering of about 3,000 students and saw their creativity on display in an exhibition of their paintings, toys and other items made by them. In my conversation with them, one student asked me, ‘In Jharkhand, it is green everywhere. We have forests, streams and hills. Why is it that we have a desert in Rajasthan?’

  The question reminded me of a similar one in Assam: Why cannot the Brahmaputra’s waters be taken to Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan? ‘You know, twenty years ago, you would not have seen much cultivation in Rajasthan. But once the Indira Gandhi Canal was constructed agriculture became possible in many places. It is possible for man to transform the desert into a fertile land.’ I repeated what I had told the student in Assam. ‘It has to be one of the greatest missions of India to connect rivers so that water can reach many water-starved states. Visionary action is needed. When you grow up you will probably be part of reconstructing this nation and giving shape to these thoughts.’

  One child came to me with a serious expression and asked, ‘Sir, will your Agni missile cross the ocean and reach America?’

  I was a little startled by this thought. ‘For us no country is our enemy to send Agni there. Particularly America is our friend. Agni symbolizes our strength. It shows that India has all the capabilities.’

  During my visit to Cuttack I participated in the birthday celebrations of the late Justice Harihar Mahapatra. I went there at the invitation of Justice Ranganath Mishra. For me, it was a revelation, how the independence movement, the first vision for the nation, had created the larger-than-life figure of Justice Harihar Mahapatra. He lived to the age of ninety-two and established Cuttack Eye Hospital, Utkal University and above all organized multi-pronged efforts to remove poverty. My biography in Oriya was released. At the end of my speech the youngsters crowding around put forth many questions.

  The first question was, ‘Sir, tell us which are your favourite books, that you loved and which have shaped your mind?’

  I said, ‘Four books in my life have been very close to my heart. I cherish reading them. The first is Man the Unknown by Dr Alexis Carrel, a doctor-turned-philosopher and a Nobel laureate. This book highlights how the mind and body both have to be treated in an ailment as the two are integrated. You cannot treat one and ignore the other. In particular, children who dream of becoming doctors should read the book. They will learn that the human body is not a mechanical system; it is a very intelligent organism with a most intricate and sensitive feedback system. The second book, one I venerate, is Tiruvalluvar’s Thirukkural, which provides an excellent code of life. The third is Light from Many Lamps by Lillian Eichler Watson which has touched me deeply. It illuminates how we live and has been an invaluable guide to me for fifty years. And the Holy Quran is, of course, a constant companion.’

  While I was addressing another gathering of schoolchildren in Anand, Gujarat, one smart boy asked a very intelligent question: ‘Who is our enemy?’ I liked the question and put it to the other students, encouraging them to come forward with their views. Then came the answer, ‘Poverty.’ What a wise reaction from this young child whom I have mentioned in the dedication.

  The last question, which I am including here, came from the powerful mind of another child. ‘Tell me, sir, are Pakistani weapons stronger than Indian ones?’ I asked the child why this doubt arose in his mind. Reports he read in the media led him to think so, he said.

  ‘This is a unique characteristic of our country–to belittle our capabilities. It may even be genetic!’ I said. ‘India can design, develop and produce any type of missile and any type of nuclear weapon. This is a capability only four countries in the world have. You remove all the doubts from your mind,’ I told the child, who gave me a very satisfied look.

  I have selected only eleven questions here from among the hundreds of questions I have been asked during the course of meeting 40,000 high school students so far. The questions reflect the children’s innocence, but most of all they show how strongly they feel the desire to live in a strong and prosperous nation. I also realized from these sessions how important it is for them to have role models, whether in science, industry, sports, entertainment or some other field. The question is: Can we give our children a role model? And how?

  At the dawn of the new millennium came the news that the human genome had been decoded. Al
l the 30,000 genes that human beings carry today, we are told, are identical to those of our Stone Age ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. One of the traits that has come down to us from them, along with others that are needed for survival, is the desire for achievement.

  It is said that nature gave us this instinct because the need to achieve, like the need to reproduce, the need to eat, the need to drink and the need to breathe, is simply too important to be left to chance. History shows the hunger for achievement is a highly evolved one and undoubtedly the strongest one. We tend to forget it but it underlines much of our experience. Most important, without it, how would we learn and grow, aspire to greater perfection?

  I have seen Dr Vikram Sarabhai’s vision succeeding over three decades through sustained and coordinated achievement. At work in that and any other endeavour was this same desire to exceed the limits. As we try and excel, role models play a guiding role. The power of Vikram Sarabhai was such that others took up his vision and completed it long after he was no more. For you it could be someone else whom you admire–a sportsperson, a teacher, a successful entrepreneur.

  I recently had the chance to meet a legendary personality, a role model herself. Lata Mangeshkar was presiding over a function in remembrance of her father, Master Deenanath Mangeshkar. Lata Mangeshkar is a recipient of the Bharat Ratna and I felt honoured that she had asked me to inaugurate the 450-bed Deenanath Hospital and Research Centre in Pune. I visited the hospital just before the inauguration. I found that it would be treating nearly 30 per cent of the patients free. I was touched by the fact that despite her wealth and fame, she had not lost sight of the fact that one needs to do all one can to help relieve the suffering of others.

  Her songs played over the radio have brought pleasure to countless hearts over the decades. During the India—China conflict in 1962, her song ‘Ae mere vatan ke logo’ moved an entire nation. Few people can claim to have influenced the lives of millions in such a delightful way.

  Role models can help us focus on what is correct for us as individuals, as groups and, of course, as a nation. They can also lead us to great success. We seem to have got carried away with the success of a few in the field of information technology. But that is indeed nothing compared to what we can and should achieve. Ancient India was a knowledge society and a leader in many intellectual pursuits, particularly in the fields of mathematics, medicine and astronomy. A renaissance is imperative for us to once again become a knowledge superpower rather than simply providing cheap labour in areas of high technology.

  SUMMARY

  A nation’s wealth is the young generation of the country. When they grow up, who can be the role models? Mother, father and elementary schoolteachers play a very important part as role models. When the child grows up, the role models will be national leaders of quality and integrity in every field including politics, the sciences, technology and industry.

  3

  Visionary Teachers and Scientists

  Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

  —Goethe

  The great minds of the country had the ability to make others join their endeavour to convert dreams into reality. For them, the nation was bigger than themselves and they could draw thousands to act upon their dreams.

  In December 2000, I had participated in the birth centenary celebrations of Adhyapaka Rathna T. Totadri Iyengar. I graduated in science from St Joseph’s College, Tiruchirapalli (1954). As a young student I saw Prof. T. Totadri Iyengar–a unique, divine-looking personality–walking through the college campus every morning and teaching mathematics to the students of B.Sc. (Honours) and M.Sc. The students looked at him with awe as one would at a guru, which indeed he was. When he walked, knowledge radiated all around. At that time, ‘Calculus’ Srinivasan was my mathematics teacher. He used to talk about Prof. Totadri Iyengar with deep respect and would organize integrated classes for first year B.Sc. (Honours) and first year B.Sc. (Physics) to be taught by him. I also had the opportunity to attend some of these classes, particularly on the subjects of modern algebra and statistics. When we were in first year B.Sc., ‘Calculus’ Srinivasan used to pick the top ten students as members of the Mathematics Club of St Joseph’s where Prof. Totadri Iyengar used to give a lecture series.

  One day, in 1952, he gave a lecture on ancient mathematicians and astronomers of India. He spoke for nearly one hour. The lecture still rings in my ears. Let me share with you my thoughts about some ancient mathematicians, glimpses of whom I saw in Prof. Totadri Iyengar in my own way.

  Aryabhata, born in AD 476 in Kusumapura (now called Patna), was an astronomer and mathematician. He was reputed to be a repository of all the mathematical knowledge known at that point of time. He was only twenty-three years old when he wrote Aryabhatiyam in two parts. The text covers arithmetic, algebra and trigonometry and, of course, astronomy. He gave formulae for the areas of a triangle and a circle and attempted to give the volumes of a sphere and a pyramid. He was the first to give an approximation to pi as the ratio of a circle’s circumference and diameter, arriving at the value of 3.1416. To celebrate this great astronomer, India named its first satellite launched in 1975 Aryabhata.

  Brahmagupta was born in AD 598 at Billamala in Rajasthan in the empire of Harsha. He wrote the Brahma Sphuta Siddhanta at the age of thirty. He updated works of astronomy. He covered progressions and geometry. He also studied and gave what is known as the solution of indeterminate equations of different degrees as well as solutions to quadratic equations.

  Bhaskaracharya was another unique intellectual of his time. He was born in AD 1114 at Vijjalbada, located at what is now the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra. He wrote the famous Siddhanthasiromani in four chapters. He dealt with astronomy and algebra and is known to be the first recognized mathematician who evolved value to zero from the concept based on Aryabhata’s discovery. To honour him, ISRO’s second series of satellites was named Bhaskara I and II (1979 and 1981).

  The work of these three mathematicians of India provides the context of Albert Einstein’s remark that ‘We owe a lot to the Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.’

  Then comes to my mind the greatest of all geniuses ever known and acknowledged, and who lived within our present memory– Srinivasa Ramanujan. He lived only for thirty- three years (1887—1920) and had no practical formal education or means of living. Yet, his inexhaustible spirit and love for his subject enabled him to make a vast contribution to mathematical research and some of his contributions are still under serious study, engaging the efforts of mathematicians to establish formal proofs. Ramanujan was a unique Indian genius who could melt the heart of as rigorous a mathematician as Prof. G.H. Hardy of Trinity College, Cambridge. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was Hardy who discovered Ramanujan for the world. Why do not our reputed scientists locate another Ramanujan in our schools? Oh my friends why don’t you in every field integrate and grow instead of differentiating!

  ‘Every integer is a personal friend of Ramanujan,’ one of the tributes to Ramanujan said and it was no exaggeration. Prof. Hardy, while rating geniuses on a scale of 100, put most of them in the range of around 30, giving a rating of 60 to the rare exception. However, for Ramanujan, he suggested, only the value of 100 would fit. There can be no better tribute to either Ramanujan or to the Indian heritage. Ramanujan’s work covers vast areas including prime numbers, hyper geometric series, modular functions, elliptic functions, mock theta functions, even magic squares, apart from some serious work on the geometry of ellipses, squaring the circle and so on.

  I hope that eminent teachers who teach and inspire the young students of mathematics will continue their unmatched and noble services in the years to come, thus ensuring the march of Indian brilliance in this field. Prof. S. Chandrasekhar, the astrophysicist, continued the Indian mathematics tradition in his work abroad. Of course mathematic
s is universal. Now the tradition will further blossom with the efforts of Prof. C.S. Seshadri, Prof. J.V. Narlikar, Prof. M.S. Narasimhan, Prof. S.R.S. Varadhan, Prof. M.S. Raghunathan, Prof. Narender Karmakar and Prof. Ashok Sen, among others.

  Sir C.V. Raman started his career in the Office of the Accountant General, Calcutta. But the scientist in him would not let him rest and he was always probing for answers to some of the problems that interested him. Fortunately, he was supported by the great educationist Ashutosh Mukherjee, who encouraged Sir C.V. Raman to pursue his research. It is noteworthy that the Raman Effect, the discovery of which brought him the Nobel Prize, did not come out of a grand establishment set up at vast expense. I believe the urge to show to the world the excellence of Indian minds would have been a major motivating factor for Sir C.V. Raman. The same is the case with Prof. S. Chandrasekhar, also a Nobel laureate for his work on black holes. There are some interesting statements in his biography Chandra by Kameshwar C. Wali. As it points out, ‘Chandra grew up in what was a golden age for science, art and literature in India, spurred on partly by the struggle for independence. J.C. Bose, C.V. Raman, Meghnad Saha, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and Rabindranath Tagore, by their achievements in scientific and creative endeavours, became national heroes along with Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and a host of others …’ Possibly, their great success helped produce an atmosphere of creativity. Howsoever it may be, it is worth noting, as Chandrasekhar observed, ‘that in the modern era before 1910, there were no (Indian) scientists of international reputation or standing. Between 1920 and 1925, we had suddenly five or six internationally well-known men. I myself have associated this remarkable phenomenon with the need for self-expression, which became a dominant motive among the young during the national movement. It was a part of the national movement to assert oneself. India was a subject country, but … particularly in science, we could show the West in their own realm that we were equal to them’.