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The essence of this remarkable volume is the sublime, aesthetic feeling it evokes. It is not because it has any great craftsmanship or any usually recognised literary merits of a biography; in fact, the author’s artlessness and his avoidance of literary pretension turn out to be its strengths. What more should you need when the subject of the book is the union of two great lives rooted in the fusion of science and spiritualism! Boshi Sen, one of India’s leading plant physiologists of the time, was a student and close associate of the world famous scientist Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, the man who "measured the pulse of plants" and established that plants had a reaction similar to muscular reaction of human beings. In the words of Rabindra Nath Tagore, Bose detected "in the behaviour of the non-living, some hidden impulses of life" and he "magnified the inaudible whisperings of vegetable life which seemed to him somewhat similar in language to the message of our nerves." The young Sen could also gain enormously from interactions with Bose’s admiring friends, great scientists and intellectual giants like Graham Bell, Sir Francis Darwin, and George Bernard Shaw. Bose’s experiments done with the delicate, sensitive instruments developed by him showed "a universal reaction" which appeared to bring together "metal, plant and animal under a common law." On the long "stairway of the ascent of life," the distinction between "life and death became meaningless," sketchily echoing the Sufi poet Rumi: I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. The young scientist Sen had no difficulty comprehending the gray zones and nuances of such a baffling, broad vision of life. Initiated into the teachings of Sri Rama Krishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivekananda by the later’s first disciple Swami Sadananda, Sen had already been introduced to this concept at the spiritual level. Interestingly, it was Sister Nivedita who had sent him to Bose. No wonder, Sen went on to become an ideal convergence of the influences from the worlds of both science and religion. And when he fell in love with and married the charming American Gertrude Emerson for a lifelong celebration, it was indeed the convergence of the best of the oriental and the occidental. Boshi Sen set up his own laboratory in a small kitchen in Calcutta and moved out to the cool climes of the Almora hills in 1926. The fame of his Vivekananda Laboratory spread far and wide beyond the country, as his experiments helped many aspects of agriculture—hybrid seeds, better crop varieties, improved cultivation techniques, higher yields. He declined invitations and lucrative offers from the US, UK, Soviet Union, etc., desiring to be "at the service of my country," since all those countries, unlike India, had "plenty of scientists to help." Gertrude, the gentle, warm-hearted lady from a distinguished American family, had come to India on behalf of Asia Magazine, New York. She was in close contact with many stalwarts like Gandhi and Nehru. She was considered "a remarkable person" by many luminaries of the time like Tagore who stayed at Kundan House, the couple’s Almora home. Gertrude was very close to the Nehru family, especially Indira Gandhi who visited or wrote fondly to "Gertrude Aunty" regularly. Indira’s many letters reproduced in the volume give us a peep into the human side of the political leader. In fact, the celebrated couple’s close interaction and correspondence with many intellectual giants like Einstein, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Romain Rolland, Pearl S. Buck, etc., make interesting reading. The many well-chosen photographs enhance the flavour of the period significantly. Girish Mehra, an IAS officer who was part of Boshi Sen and Gertrude’s extended family, has done his homework meticulously. His respect and adulation for the Boshi couple does at times make the narrative sound pungent, and may also raise academic questions concerning subjectivity and biographies. Even so, I would like the narrative to stay that way, for it gives you an unfiltered feel of the times. Its ambience itself is a refreshing experience missing in our workaday existence. Most importantly, the book adds to our understanding of life processes through what we usually perceive as separate route-maps of science and religion.
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