BOOK OF THE MONTH: APRIL 2018

Title          : Indian Scientists: 
                    The Saga of Inspired Minds
Author     :  Biman Basu et al.
Pages        : 218
Publisher : Vigyan Prasar
Release     : March, 2018
ISBN        : 978-81-7480-282-8

The celebrated Indian Scientist Sir C.V. Raman was a qualified accountant. He was not encouraged to take up science as a career, as was the norm in those days in India. So after qualifying the Financial Civil Services Examination, he joined the Indian Finance Department as Assistant Accountant General at the age of eighteen-and-a-half! But science and research boiled in his belly. 

One day he saw the sign board on his way to office with the words 'Indian Association for Cultivation of Science' written on it. On his way back, he visited the Association, where he met Ashutosh Dey, who was to be Raman's assistant for 25 years. First, he started research in his spare time with limited facilities; yet he could publish his research findings in Nature, The Philosophical Magazine and Physics Review. 

Meghnad Saha was born in a poor family; his father was a petty grocery shop owner. After his primary education, there was no certainty that young Saha could continue his education. First, his parents could hardly afford his further studies, second, there was no middle school near his village. Saha's brother Jainath found a sponsor – Ananta Kumar Das. 

These defining moments in the lives of Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his ground-breaking work in the field of light scattering or Saha – the celebrated astrophysicist, best known for his development of the Saha ionization equation, used to describe chemical and physical conditions in stars are truly inspiring, as the title of the book itself. 

A new compendium- Indian Scientists: The Saga of Inspired Minds, has similar stimulating stories about the greatest scientists India has ever produced. Written by several science writers and compiled by Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous body under the Department of Science & Technology, it puts together turning points in the lives of 54 scientists whose achievements laid the foundation for robust growth and development of science and technology in the country. 

Vigyan Prasar has deliberately chosen a different style to put down the biography of these celebrated scientists, though it does not fit into the usual structure of biographies. The style and the theme have all the ingredients of a gripping fiction. The book is an inspiring read not only for aspiring scientists, but would captivate every discerning reader. In fact, it qualifies to be a text book in schools for students of science streams. 

The effort has been to catch inspirational moments in the life of eminent scientists like Smt. Janaki Ammal, JC Bose, S. Chandrasekhar, Birbal Sahni, SN Bose, Har Govind Khorana, PC Ray, Meghnad Saha, Homi J. Bhabha, SS Bhatnagar, S. Ramanujan and APJ Abdul Kalam. Unlike the present research ecosystem, these scientists lived and worked to achieve the name and fame despite adversities. 

Review Courtesy: http://www.indiansciencejournal.in