The secrets of science
In the ninth grade, we had a English chapter titled ‘A sage who was a scientist’ about Albert Einstein. It focused on how incompatible he was with the society and also why he was the way he was. One particular sentence about his aversion to tying his laces, in spite of constant nagging by his wife, remains etched in my memory. He was painfully awkward (like me) but charmingly unique (unlike me). After reading this chapter, the desire to become a scientist bloomed out of nowhere. I told my best friend in school, Aamir, about it and his response was a matter-of-factly “Scientist log paagal hote hai.” (Scientists are mad people.) Undiscouraged, i started digging into the life and times of Einstein — instead of strengthening my scientific core by paying attention to math, my least favourite subject, because i was clearly fascinated by him more than science itself — by reading books on him at BARC library. I came to know so much about him; his troubled childhood, tormented youth, infidel marriage, Nobel alimony, Tagore friendship, American citizenship, etc.
While i was at it, two interesting events happened during this period — call it the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon if you like — that gave impetus to my sudden change in outlook towards my future.
I.Q. (1994) was playing on Star Movies and if that wasn’t coincidental enough, my dad brought me Richard Feynman’s What Do You Care What Other People Think?, which ended up becoming the first book i read twice. It was like the signs for science were all around me. Before this point, if anybody were to ask me what i’d like to become on growing up, waiter would be my straightforward answer. I once wrote the same in an exam essay too. As much as my parents detested it, i was keen on becoming a waiter immediately after completing school. Why waiter? Because my dad was a waiter, before getting promoted to manager, and i’d seen how beloved he was among his patrons. I wanted to be like that: hardworking, sincere, at least great at one thing and most importantly, admired.
Needless to add, i was extremely naive.
These memories rushed back recently after watching the first episode of Nat Geo’s Genius (2017), followed by BBC’s The Fantastic Mr Feynman (2013). Although Einstein shall remain my all-time favourite scientist, Feynman is more endearing thanks to his books. Since it’s stupid to compare the two, if you microscope on their lives, you’ll notice that it’s impossible to extricate their personalities away from the social circumstances they were in. Their drive for rebooting science kept them going because we all have defense mechanism built against the hardships of life. Some people build walls around themselves while others carve out windows. Different techniques to deal with different situations but as we grow older, we learn to get going. Einstein and Feynman rested on their curiosity to understand, not just know, the universe better. That was their method of coping with the mundanity; Physics was their defense mechanism. Besides, it wasn’t like they struck gold in the first attempt itself. Genius wasn’t enough. Despite possessing all the intellectual flair, it took them ages to come up with equations that they will be always remembered for. What does that tell us? If nothing else, it highlights the undeniable connect between time and energy. We do whatever we can do in our capacity for our sake, nobody else’s. The rest of the world simply happens to react to our work.
