One of my all time fav. quotes. Chandra got it from Milne. Chandra had great temperament for scholarly work, & one can learn a lot from his style of working. His biographer, KC Wali, was a particle physicist, & his article linked is worth reading: https://jstor.org/stable/24100199
If interested, you can listen to a podcast I did on Chandra (one of the two of the similar name)…
Even before the age of social media, Carl Sagan played a prominent role in communicating science to the public. His book ‘Cosmos’ is a classic, and his public lectures (a few are on YouTube) are certainly worth watching.
For me what is very impressive about Sagan’s communication is that he is not condescending by any means. This attitude is probably one the most important aspect in communicating science to society. The moment the public feels that scientific thinking is an elitist’s endeavour, they tend to repel.
Not only was Sagan an excellent scientist, but also a person who articulated the role of science in society, especially by contrasting it to religion and politics. A very famous quote of his is reproduced here, that highlights the value of scientific thinking, and how it elevates the human mind.
Quote reference: Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. “Do Science and the Bible Conflict?” Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003
One of the important aspects of reading a preface to a book is to know why an author wrote that book. This is one place where authors freely express their opinion on various things, and sometimes this opinion is not necessarily related to that book. For me, reading the preface connects me to the author in a better way than say, reading a review of the book, which I generally do after reading the book. Over the years, I have made it a habit to read the preface of almost any book I have come across.
In this context, recently I came across one of the most hilarious prefaces I have read. This is from Girish Karnard‘s memoir (translated from Kannada) titled : this life at play.
Below I reproduce the preface (which is by the way, available online) :
Dharwad, 1973
Aayi (my mother), Bappa (my father) and I were having lunch. My first film Samskara had won the President’s Gold Medal. My second, Vamsha Vriksha, had had a successful run and won the National Award for best direction. My latest film Kaadu was in the final stages of production. I was a Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee. And I had just been named the director of the Film and Television Institute of India. The air at home was thick with self-congratulation.
Then Aayi looked at Bappa and said, ‘And we had thought of not having him.’Bappa went red in the face. After some stammering, he managed to say, ‘That was all your idea, not mine. Why bring this up now?’ and hid his face in the plate in front of him.
I had to know more. I asked Aayi, and she explained: ‘I had three children already when I became pregnant with you. I thought that was enough, so we went to a doctor in Poona named Madhumalati Gune.’
‘And?’
‘She had said she would be at the clinic, but she wasn’t. We waited an hour and returned.’
‘And then?’
‘And then, nothing. We never went back.’
I was stunned. I was then thirty-five years old. Still, I grew faint at the possibility that the world could have gone on without me in it. For a while, I sat there unaware of my surroundings, considering the idea of my non-existence. A thought struck me. With some bewilderment, I asked about my younger sister: ‘Then, what about Leena…?’
Aayi said, somewhat coyly, ‘Oh, we had stopped thinking of all that by then.’ She burst out laughing. Bappa remained engrossed in the contents of his plate.
Had the doctor arrived at the clinic as promised, these memoirs and their narrator would not have existed. So, I dedicate this autobiography to the memory of the person who made all this possible: Dr Madhumalati Gune.
Girish Karnad
Bangalore, 19 May 2011
VISMAYA - History & Philosophy of Science 