"He was aware of his strengths..." ❤️

On Vikram Sarabhai |A Great Institution Builder

& His Relevance for Academia Today

#onhisbirthdaytoday ❤️

12 August 2023

Reading the biographies of great minds is an experience in itself. They not only help us capture the lived experiences of these legends, but also help us gain valuable life experiences from their ‘lives well-lived’!

His biography, titled, Vikram Sarabhai: A Life, written so passionately, by Amrita Shah gives us such myriad glimpses into his amazing life. 

On this note, knowing about Vikram Sarabhai - from his passionate biographer - is a great source of inspiration for all of us in academia. ❤️

For a brief introduction to Sarabhai –

Well, Vikram Sarabhai – considered the Father of the Indian Space Programme - played a major role in the creation of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

He was also instrumental in establishing the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) – which is one of his greatest achievements as well.

A great Institution Builder, he also helped in establishing the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, on November 11, 1947, when he was just 28 years old, and many many more! 

His proud teacher J. S. Badani [one of his teachers at The Retreat] has this to say, about his student -

“In some of the questions he asked me, he showed a keenness of observation and originality in his thinking which is very gratifying”,

he notes in his personal diary of 10th January 1936, on the legendary Vikram Sarabhai.

His daughter Mallika describes him as ‘always thinking’ with his chin on his hands, like Rodin’s Thinker!

His biographer Amrita Shah, adds on to say, that, Vikram was a pacifist like Gandhi, and a pragmatist like his father.

Part of Vikram Sarabhai’s education also consisted of an exposure to the best minds of the times.

Be it Tagore, or Jagadish Chandra Bose, or Jadunath Sarkar, or C. V. Raman, or J. Krishnamurti, or Gandhi, or MM Malaviya, or Dr. S. Radhakrishnan – these connections proved invaluable for Vikram later.

He was aware of his strengths, and realised he could make a greater contribution in the building of institutions of education and technology, instead of frittering away his energies in the rough and tumble of political activism.

It is significant that, though he was to make a number of public speeches on a host of issues throughout his life, he never alluded to current events or controversies of his time. His vision was always for the long term.

And in his childhood he had already chosen the subject that would not only be his object of passion, but also the vehicle for everything he was to do.

He had fallen in love with science.

He was familiar with the works of popular science writers of the time.

He was also aware of the mind-boggling advances in Physics and Rocketry through the local newspapers.

He got himself acquainted with magazines and technical journals such as Nature, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and Wireless World, that were available in school libraries.

Vikram moved on to Cambridge for his higher studies, from 1937 to 1940.

There is however, little evidence of an active extra-curricular life.

Unlike Nehru’s daughter Indira who was at Oxford around the same time, and who was active politically, Vikram stayed glued to his scientific studies.

However, in September 1939, when war broke out, his worried father, insisted that both brothers come back home immediately.

The brothers returned home, a few months into the war.

He made enquiries with the authorities at Cambridge about the possibility of continuing his work back home and was informed that, he could work on his postgraduate research in India, as long as it was under the supervision of C. V. Raman.

So in 1940, Vikram Sarabhai headed for the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. [IISc]

The Department of Physics had been established just then by the formidable Dr. C. V. Raman at the IISc.

C. V. Raman had won the Nobel Prize in 1930, for his ‘investigations into the scattering of light’, which later came to be called the ‘Raman Effect’.

At the IISc, he formed a wonderful friendship with another great legend, Homi Bhabha, the man who was to found India’s atomic energy programme.

Bangalore, then, was a period of incubation for Vikram Sarabhai.

Yes… If you love to read more on the legend, his life and his achievements, I exhort you dear reader, to buy for yourself a copy of Vikram Sarabhai: A Life, written by Amrita Shah, which I’m sure would inspire you to achieve great things in life.

So what, pray, is his relevance to academia today?

Well, his life teaches us a lot of lovely things.

First, the importance of reading reputed Newspapers, Magazines and Journals on a regular basis.

Secondly, the importance of visiting libraries.

Thirdly, the importance of associating with great minds.

Fourthly, choosing a good guide who can encourage you in your research.

Fifthly, not allowing trivial distractions to distract you from your aspirations and goals in your life.

Sixthly, doing your research with such high passion and commitment! 

Finally, to sum it all up, always think about what you can do for your society, for your country, in your own sweet ways.

Here’s wishing you the very best in all your academic endeavours!

PS: All quotations are from Amrita Shah’s biography titled, Vikram Sarabhai: A Life.

"The earth was slowly getting darker and darker during midday!" 💜

11 August 1999 ❤️

This Day - 24 years ago - from my personal diaries 😊

On the “Last Solar Eclipse of the Millennium”

Our First Kodak Camera Clicks

Fun and Frolic Time 😉

#memoriesfromdiaries ❤️

I guess the month of August has this quaint quirk of presenting us with a lot of celestial events!

This year too, we’ve got three such celestial events lined up this August, beginning with the ‘Zero Shadow Day’ on 18th August 2023.

As was the case with the August of 1999!

my personal diary entry, 11th August 1999 

Well, on this particular day, 24 years ago, we had such an awe-inspiring and exciting celestial event.

It was famously known as the ‘Last Solar Eclipse of the Millennium’, when darkness fell at midday! 

The government, for its part, had announced a slew of steps outlining the DOs and DONTs to be followed by the public, and they had also specified ‘a list of approved devices’ for viewing the sun with the naked eye on this particular day.

Since the Solar Eclipse could be viewed only from India, Europe and the Middle East, there was added excitement in the air.

The Moon, passing in front of the Sun, had blocked most of the light from the earth, which resulted in the earth slowly getting darker and darker during midday! The entire celestial event lasted about two full hours.

It was supposed to be an added delight for lovers of astronomy, since it was a rare chance to see the sun’s corona – which is usually hidden by the bright light of the Sun's surface.

However, for most of us in Tamil Nadu, the rains and the rain clouds together played spoilsport, thus robbing the sheen, off the event! 

On the fun side, well, I had just then bought a Kodak camera you see,😊 and so, we were all in our garden, clicking away on the Kodak Camera, which supported just 36 exposures. So we had to make every click with utmost care! 😊

On this particular day, since we were clicking away on our camera for the very first time, we tried out some fun and frolic postures with the camera! 

First, we tried posing for the traditional ‘three wise monkeys’ posture! 😊

Then, when pavapetta Sakthivel was sleeping, we all gathered around him in ‘wailing posture’, and took a memorable snap! 😊

Well, now let me conclude this post, by letting out the main reason for this particular day’s camera session 😉 I had just bought a new pair of Jeans and a tee-shirt, just the previous day, which was, I should admit, the real prima causa for the Kodak clickings today! 😉

"The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way."

On Individual Skills & Interactions

#memoriesfromdiaries

9th August 2001 ❤️

This particular day’s diary entry is memorable because it has some rich takeaways – especially on the importance of Group Discussion!

Yes! On this particular day, we had a lovely session of DOE!

DOE by the way, is a cute acronym for Debate, Oratory and Elocution Club.

The Group Discussion was on the topic, ‘Child Labour’.

Prof. Daniel David was the moderator, and he did an awesome job in his role as an effective Moderator.

DOE by the way, was a purely voluntary gathering, and we usually had around 25 to 50 students, taking part in DOE. I was kinda Convenor for DOE back then! 😊

These Group Discussions, in my firm opinion, have helped hone the social skills of many a student!

Indeed, it’s a lovely forum where students not only share their own knowledge, but also get the opportunity to enhance their own learning, by listening to others sharing their knowledge.

As such, it also helps build interpersonal skills.

In this regard, me thought of sharing from a lovely book that gives some enriching insights into group thinking!

The book is by Daniel Coyle, and it’s titled, The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.

Here goes –

Why do certain groups add up to be greater than the sum of their parts, while others add up to be less?

A few years ago, the designer and engineer Peter Skillman held a competition to find out.

Over several months, he assembled a series of four-person groups at Stanford, the University of California, the University of Tokyo, and a few other places.

He challenged each group to build the tallest possible structure using the following items:

• twenty pieces of uncooked spaghetti

• one yard of transparent tape

• one yard of string

• one standard-size marshmallow

The contest had one rule: The marshmallow had to end up on top.

The fascinating part of the experiment, however, had less to do with the task than with the participants.

Some of the teams consisted of business school students.

The others consisted of kindergartners.

The business students got right to work. They began talking and thinking strategically. They examined the materials. They tossed ideas back and forth and asked thoughtful, savvy questions.

They generated several options, then honed the most promising ideas. It was professional, rational, and intelligent. The process resulted in a decision to pursue one particular strategy.

Then they divided up the tasks and started building. The kindergartners took a different approach.

They did not strategize.

They did not analyze or share experiences.

They did not ask questions, propose options, or hone ideas.

In fact, they barely talked at all. They abruptly grabbed materials from one another and started building, following no plan or strategy.

When they spoke, they spoke in short bursts: “Here! No, here!” Their entire technique might be described as trying a bunch of stuff together.

To their surprise, they found that, kindergartners built structures that averaged twenty-six inches tall, while business school students built structures that averaged less than ten inches.

The result is hard to absorb because it feels like an illusion.

We see smart, experienced business school students, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a poor performance.

We see unsophisticated, inexperienced kindergartners, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a successful performance.

But this illusion, like every illusion, happens because our instincts have led us to focus on the wrong details.

We focus on what we can see - individual skills.

But individual skills are not what matters.

What matters is the interaction.

The business school students appear to be collaborating, but in fact they are engaged in a process psychologists call status management.

They are figuring out where they fit into the larger picture: Who is in charge? Is it okay to criticize someone’s idea?

The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way.

They are tapping into a simple and powerful method in which a group of ordinary people can create a performance far beyond the sum of their parts.

To sum up, as is the case with an effective Group Discussion –

Individual skills are not what matters.

What matters is the interaction!

How true…!

PS: You may want to read on one such DOE Club activity, in our past post HERE!

"Are you a coffee person or..." ☕

Coffee Habits | From Novice to Aficionado😊

#memoriesfromdiaries ❤️

8th August 1994

#HSC Days | MCC School Days

This particular day’s diary entry, [that dates back to almost 30 years now], has a lovely ponderable, for quite a few reasons.

Firstly, hostel days taught us the importance of cultivating good habits, like - 

rising up early, 

having our bath quite early into the morning, 

cleaning up our cubicles, 

making our bed, 

arranging all our notebooks and textbooks in our book shelves, in a neat order, 

stacking our socks and our shoes etc, 

and only then were we ‘permitted’ to leave our cubicles for our classes. 😊

When I look back on these glorious hostel days, I really feel that, these good habits have shaped me to the core, teaching me self-discipline in the process!

In this context, me thought of sharing from a lovely book I’m reading at present. 

It’s titled, Discipline is Destiny, and it’s by Ryan Holiday.

And I quote –

Aristotle described virtue as a kind of craft, something to pursue just as one pursues the mastery of any profession or skill.

“We become builders by building and we become harpists by playing the harp,” he wrote.

Virtue is something we do. It’s something we choose.

It’s a daily challenge, one we face not once but constantly, repeatedly.

Will we cultivate a good habit or a bad one?

Stay the same . . . or grow?

The easy way or the right way?

Self-discipline - the virtue of temperance - is even more important.

Discipline, then makes it more likely you’ll be successful.

The converse is also true: a lack of discipline puts you in danger; it also colors who and what you are.

“When a man can control his life, his physical needs, his lower self,” Muhammad Ali would later say, “he elevates himself.”

Quotes Ryan in this lovely inspirational read.

Coming back,

But well… er… um… the most important good habit is, to have my cup of coffee as early as I possibly could, into the morning! 😊

During our hostel days, right from 5 am, the dining hall would be beautifully lined up with lots of kettles – kettles filled with piping hot tea and coffee! A hostelite was given the liberty to have as many cups as they wish to!

We made use of this lovely opportunity, to sip our cuppas and simultaneously talk our hearts out over cups and cups of the nectar of the gods! 😊

Interestingly, this particular habit, has continued to cling on to me even today. 

Yup! Even today, the only thing I ask, when I get introduced to someone, is,

‘Are you a coffee person or a tea person?’ 😊

If they say, ‘Coffeeeee’ with such happiness and excitement writ large on them, the next instant, my heart pops out and dances that lovely happiness gig you see! 😊

Even this morning at 5.36 am, I was happily sipping my cuppa at my favourite bistro in this part of Chennai – Shri Gowri Krishnaa, known for their yummy filter coffee!

Yes! between 5.30 and 6 am, on any given day, chances are, you can find me here at GK, connecting with the sun, the moon and the stars above, via the brew! 😊

To conclude, kaapi or coffee is an emotion and a nectar only when you have it early into the morning. Anytime after that, it becomes a mere beverage or a pavapetta drink!

As simple as that! 😉

Researchers of all hues… Invited!

Symposium | @ In Tandem

#intandemqmc

Do you have a unique idea waiting to be shared with like-minded literary souls?

In Tandem, the Research Club of the Department of English, Queen Mary’s College (Autonomous), Chennai, invites original papers from Faculty members, Research Scholars and students of literature, for presentation in their fortnightly Symposium. Certificates of Presentation will be provided to all Paper Presenters. 

This week’s symposium is on Graphic Fiction.

If you’re interested in presenting a Paper, do ping me or the organisers at the earliest.

Best wishes! 

A friend is a sweet song to our music! ❤️

On Famous Literary Friendships

Reflections | Friendship Day ❤️

#onhisbirthdaytoday [Tennyson]

The role of friends in our lives is indeed indescribable by all means!

Indeed, a good friendship enriches our lives in many sweet ways.

A good friend always encourages you to keep going, by their positivity, their sense of humour and their unconditional love for you!

True friends also give you a warm hug and a shoulder to cry on! Indeed they are quite important to our well-being.

In short, they have the charm and the power to transform you into a ‘better version’ of yourself.

On International Friendship Day today, this little post would like to foreground some of the famous literary friendships – and how such a friendship impacted each other’s lives mutually, for the better!

As eminent critic Scupin Richard rightly points out –

A friend is a sweet song to our music!

A lovely melody to our tunes!

A beautiful harmony to our verses!

First and foremost, the friendship of Apollinaire and Picasso.

Guillaume Apollinaire, who is credited with coining the terms, Orphic Cubism and Surrealism, got into the friendship of Pablo Picasso, which impacted their lives and their careers for the better. 

Well, Picasso is credited with pioneering Cubism, one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century. Both of them - were instrumental in laying down the foundations of modernism in 20th century art and literature.

Secondly, the friendship of Boccaccio and Petrarch.

The Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio is best known for his The Decameron. His memorable friendship with Petrarch, proved invaluable in carving Boccaccio’s artistic development. 

Boccaccio was indeed a great fan and admirer of Petrarch. In 1351, Boccaccio went to Padua, along with a huge delegation, to help restore the citizenship of the poet, which he had lost because of the political upheaval during his day.  

Subsequently, when Boccaccio went through a period of spiritual crisis, it was his friend Petrarch who requested his dear friend not to sacrifice his literary calling, and not even think of burning the manuscript of The Decameron. The duo went on to lay down the foundations for the humanism of the Renaissance.

Thirdly, the friendship of Emerson with Carlyle.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s friendship with Carlyle was mostly via snail mail! It was Emerson who recommended Carlyle to a famous Boston publisher to publish the latter’s Sartor Resartus! Again, it was Emerson who introduced Henry David Thoreau to Carlyle and his works!

Fourthly, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, when he was schooled at Christ’s Hospital in London, got the friendship of Charles Lamb. 

Later on, when Coleridge went to Oxford, he got the friendship of Robert Southey. The two great poets then met to discuss and to develop a plan for a ‘‘pantisocracy,’’ – an egalitarian agricultural community.

Fifthly, Thomas Gray had a very memorable friendship with three other students: Thomas Ashton, Horace Walpole, and Richard West. 

They called themselves as the ‘‘Quadruple Alliance’’ and like the members of the Bloomsbury group, they very often met and discussed life and literature, impacting each other for the better.

Sixthly, Friedrich Nietzsche moved to Basel, where he got the friendship of the famed German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner’s influence on Nietzsche’s first book, titled, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), was immense! 

Interestingly, Nietzsche had concluded the book advocating Wagner’s musical drama as a revival of Hellenic tragedy.

Seventhly, Rumi’s friendship with the Sufi mystic Shams al-Din Tabrizi had a profound mutual influence on the two of them. 

Rumi had hence dedicated most of his writings to this wandering Sufi. [Something akin to the friendship of Thomas More and Erasmus – a beautiful thirty-year long friendship, which saw each dedicating their works to the other].

Eighthly, Derek Walcott’s friendship with American poet Robert Lowell when they met for the first time, in Trinidad in 1962, is indeed a memorable, lasting one of sorts! 

When he moved over to the United States, Walcott got the friendship of two other literary giants - Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney! Quite interestingly, all three of them – Brodsky, Heaney and Walcott - were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and coincidentally, all three of them were published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 

Yet another similarity amongst the three of them was that, all three of them were outsiders in the United States: Brodsky was an exiled Russian, and Heaney an Irish expatriate.

Ninthly, today, coincidentally happens to be the birthday of the legendary Victorian poet - Alfred Lord Tennyson, who was known for his memorable friendship with Arthur Hallam.

When he joined Trinity College, Cambridge, Tennyson got the friendship of Arthur Hallam, son of the eminent historian Henry Hallam. 

This friendship was a turning point in Tennyson’s life, impacting him for the better. But the tragic death of Hallam was a great shock to Tennyson. He subsequently wrote an elegy for his close friend titled, In Memoriam, a vast poem comprising of 131 sections.

To conclude, then, with a lovely number from Petra,

Friends!!! love one another

Friends!! sisters and brothers

… Friends are a gift from above

Friends are devoted and true

Then when the goin' gets tough!

They're lovin',

Carin'

And prayin' for you!

Then when the goin' gets touuugh!

They're lovin',

Carin'!

And prayin' for you!

So here's wishing you all a very Happy and memorable Friendship Day dear readers!