These forty steps
Exactly forty years ago, on January 23 1966 the time was frozen when the person who made India realise her dream of excelling into pure sciences, stepped out of his office. The very next day, he was dead and the pages on his desk calendar were never flipped again.
Bhabha was much ahead of his time. He was probably the first Indian who realised the importance of basic sciences in an era, when most fertile brains of the world were engaged in making bombs. Anyone could have questioned his intentions that time, but luckily no one did and the things went well.
Following years were of exponential growth in TIFR, but suddenly, he left everyone and those who remained had a challenging task of giving a more concrete shape to his dreams. In deed, they did their best.
"Why TIFR could not collect a single Nobel in last 60 years"? A very valid question, though at the first glance only, often raised (mostly by journalist type people, who have been caught saying that Stephen Hawking is a string theorist! Thank God, they are less aware of Fields Medal). I agree, medals do bring the prestige to the country, and to the lucky scientist in whose lab, people work hard to achieve, intentionally or unintentionally something which others find useful for the mankind. I am sure, medals do not judge the true intellect of the scientists and no one gives medals for nation building. Nation building is not merely an empty word, it has something inside and TIFR has achieved that.
Who would have expected 60 years ago from an institute of pure sciences to come up with the first indigenous computer TIFRAC? Later on, in late sixties when no one knew the meaning of a software, TIFR scientists and administrators initiated the idea of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and played a key role in its genesis. The first e-mail from India was sent from TIFR and establishments like NCST (now C-DAC) and SAMEER were side products of the institute's activities. GMRT was another show carried out by Indians under the guidance of the man who saw its dream. Medals can not count the value of these things. I do not think that it brings less pride to the "otherwise poor" country (as they would say), when they request us to let them use GMRT. Now even in Science Education and Olympiad activities, HBCSE has become hub of the country, and has even hosted two - Maths (1996) and Chemistry (2001) international olympiads.
I am not here to write an essay on 101 achievement of TIFR, but want to justify that the institute founded to carry out pure research, has contributed substantially to the nation's growth even after Bhabha's departure forty years ago.
That desk calendar still stays frozen in the auditorium named after him, which he could never see. The date of his last visit to the institute comes every year, and is an occasion for the institute to tell her creator that the show is still going on.
Bhabha was much ahead of his time. He was probably the first Indian who realised the importance of basic sciences in an era, when most fertile brains of the world were engaged in making bombs. Anyone could have questioned his intentions that time, but luckily no one did and the things went well.
Following years were of exponential growth in TIFR, but suddenly, he left everyone and those who remained had a challenging task of giving a more concrete shape to his dreams. In deed, they did their best.
"Why TIFR could not collect a single Nobel in last 60 years"? A very valid question, though at the first glance only, often raised (mostly by journalist type people, who have been caught saying that Stephen Hawking is a string theorist! Thank God, they are less aware of Fields Medal). I agree, medals do bring the prestige to the country, and to the lucky scientist in whose lab, people work hard to achieve, intentionally or unintentionally something which others find useful for the mankind. I am sure, medals do not judge the true intellect of the scientists and no one gives medals for nation building. Nation building is not merely an empty word, it has something inside and TIFR has achieved that.
Who would have expected 60 years ago from an institute of pure sciences to come up with the first indigenous computer TIFRAC? Later on, in late sixties when no one knew the meaning of a software, TIFR scientists and administrators initiated the idea of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and played a key role in its genesis. The first e-mail from India was sent from TIFR and establishments like NCST (now C-DAC) and SAMEER were side products of the institute's activities. GMRT was another show carried out by Indians under the guidance of the man who saw its dream. Medals can not count the value of these things. I do not think that it brings less pride to the "otherwise poor" country (as they would say), when they request us to let them use GMRT. Now even in Science Education and Olympiad activities, HBCSE has become hub of the country, and has even hosted two - Maths (1996) and Chemistry (2001) international olympiads.
I am not here to write an essay on 101 achievement of TIFR, but want to justify that the institute founded to carry out pure research, has contributed substantially to the nation's growth even after Bhabha's departure forty years ago.
That desk calendar still stays frozen in the auditorium named after him, which he could never see. The date of his last visit to the institute comes every year, and is an occasion for the institute to tell her creator that the show is still going on.
2 Comments:
Very topical...I just hope that the good work continues at TIFR and fundamental science continues to be nurtured.
That was informative. I always wonder what if Homi Bhabha had not died? Would TIFR have been better institute then? Would it have been truly world-class?
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