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HOBBIES & PASSIONS IF
Ronald Ross could take time off from his pursuit of the malarial
parasite to write poetry and play the piano, in India, we had Homi
Bhabha, the father of the nation’s nuclear programme who was also a
violinist and painter, and another physicist, Satyen Bose, who composed
complicated ragas on his esraj.
That was in the past. Today, an increasing number of India’s top-line scientists are taking to the arts, if only to seek a quiet diversion from the labs and lectures. Not much is known about this facet of their lives as they haven’t allowed their proficiency in the fine arts to overshadow their accomplishments in science. Take nuclear scientist Raja Ramanna, for example. Since 1954, when he joined Bhabha after a stint at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, he has made headlines for designing India’s first atomic reactor Apsara, the fast reactor Purnima and of course, conducting the famous Pokhran I nuclear tests in 1974. But what few people
know is that Ramanna is also an accomplished pianist, holding a diploma
from the Royal School of Music, London. "For some, music might be
associated with release, but I am motivated by the beauty of the
movement," he informs. "After all, music is made up of
vibrations, a physical, scientific phenomenon. Music and mathematics are
said to stimulate the same area of the brain." |
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A retired man now, Ramanna is making up for "lost time" by playing at western music concerts. "If Idon’t play for a couple of days, I feel I am missing something," he elaborates. "And when I do get back to my piano, it takes a couple of sessions before the music comes up to par." Ramanna’s passion for music is shared by a few other scientists, notably K.Radha Krishnan, director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad, Abhijit Mookherjee, dean at the S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in Kolkata and Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, a biochemist with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai. Deshpande is a khayal singer with a sangeet visharad degree from the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and has undergone training under Pt Narayanrao Datar. Her mother, Manik Bhide, is also a noted classical vocalist. But it was at the instance of her physicist father that she did a Ph.D in enzyme engineering and landed the BARC job. Today, as she divides time between the lab and recording studios, Deshpande sees no difference between the pure sciences and fine arts. "Both fields demand equal discipline and commitment," says the exponent of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. "My scientific temper was useful in my music training." Mookherjee echoes her feelings as he confesses to "stealing time" from his theoretical physics research into the electronic structure of disordered alloys. "Music is my spirit and physics my inspiration," says the 57-year-old vocalist whose wife is a pianist and his two daughters also accomplished singers. For Krishna though, the route to music was via theatre and dance. "My strength was rhythm," reveals the former Kathakali dancer who was struck by arthritis at an early age. "I felt my legs were amputated. As I struggled to cope with the agony, I turned to singing. Music is now my tonic." Then there is Anuradha Lohia, a biochemist at Kolkata’s Bose Institute, who is creating waves with her Kuchipudi performances. "There are science congresses in the mornings where I read my papers and dance recitals in the evening where I perform," says the 47-year-old. "Whatever be my schedule, I always take time out to practise. Dance has given me the extra drive to be focused on science as well." There are also several painters among scientists, like M.M. Chaudhari, who have comfortably balanced their two professions. Chaudhari is a physical chemist with a track record with the US Atomic Energy Commission and a teaching job with the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. "But I was always interested in
the arts," he explains. "It was in the USA that I took up
painting lessons for the first time with an Ames-Iowa based artist,
Annette Epstein. Her only brief to me was to paint something that she
cannot recognise. Those words have stayed with me." MF |
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