Book Review: Super 30

Super 30 is a famous program run by Anand Kumar in Patna for students from economically backward sections of the society to help them clear IIT-JEE examinations. The book is about Anand's life and how the idea of Super 30 emerged, contribution of his family members and the student testimonials. It is very inspiring to see how Anand Kumar has managed to positively impact the lives of so many people. The people whom he helped by coaching for engineering entrance examinations are the ones who otherwise would have found it difficult to clear these exams on their own given their financial background and exposure. Anand Kumar's teaching proves to be like providing them an escape velocity that helps them to escape the restraining force of poverty.

The book also touches upon how Anand Kumar conceived this idea of providing free education, boarding and lodging to 30 students in an year. Having not been able to pursue higher education in Cambridge University because of the lack of financial support, he took the challenge of tackling the problem by founding Super 30. There is a saying in English as; Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. The poor students could have been helped in many ways by donations or scholarships, but what Anand Kumar does by teaching them is exactly what the quote says. 

By transforming one student from a village, he manages to change the fortunes of that student's family. Not only the student's family stand benefited by way of jobs that the student gets after graduating from these elite institutions, that student becomes a role model for many others in his or her village too. That student becomes a beacon for others to follow and this is a tremendous impact to the society. One of the quote of Anand Kumar mentioned in the book is something like that One's willpower is only a propellant required to succeed (paraphrased). A very inspiring quote from a very inspiring man who instead of enriching himself monetarily by way of running coaching classes has felt the need to do something for students from the economically backward sections of the society.

Book Review - When breath becomes air

I stumbled upon this book when I was searching for something else, and I was kind of intrigued by its title. This is an autobiographical memoir of a neurosurgeon of Indian origin Paul Kalanithi in Stanford who was diagnosed with lung cancer at the close of his residency. Paul died before the completion of this book and the epilogue was written by his wife Lucy. Though the theme is a memoir of a person who was suffering from terminal illness and how the disease changed his life; but there are deep questions to cogitate. It leaves the readers with questions to think upon, to ponder on the meaning of life. It is not that there will be a sense of revelation on reading this book, but I believe there will be few questions lingering on after reading this book.

Death is the certainty of life. What makes this certainty mysterious is that one does not know when it will happen. That is why, when Paul was diagnosed with cancer, he was not sure of how much time he had. His predicament was whether to go for his long pursued career of being a neuroscientist or to pursue writing that was his interest.  As he said in one of the lines, coming face to face with mortality changed nothing and everything in my life (paraphrased). It is interesting to read how Paul in his search for the question about what makes a life meaningful took to literature and when he did not get his answers there turned to the field of medicine and neurosurgery in particular. In the last part of the book, the last few months of his life and his final words to his new born daughter to whom the book is dedicated is saddening.

The book is in two parts. The first half is his journey to the residency that was where he wanted to reach in his professional career. The second half is about his remaining life after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Death as a subject is dealt differently in Hindu philosophy and the western philosophy, but the question that is common to all is; what makes the life meaningful, is the life means or is it an end in itself? Everyone has to search for the answers to these questions on their own, but the quest for answers begins with thinking about questions itself.

Book Review: C.V. Raman - A biography

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (C. V. Raman, Nov 1888 - Nov 1970), Nobel laureate from India and recipient of Bharat Ratna in the year 1954 is one of luminaries in the space of scientific research in India. He was the one who demonstrated to the world that one can reach the pinnacle in the chosen field of endeavor by determination and perseverance. He was educated in then British colonial India, carried out his research in this country and was widely regarded by scientists around the world for his contribution to the science. He was a nationalist by heart and his actions matched that belief. A biography of such an eminent personality is always fascinating to read and my interest in biographies and autobiographies brought me to this book.

The author of this book Uma Parameswaran is a distant relative of Sir Raman. This book is well researched and unlike many biographies that deal more with the field of endeavor of the personality, this book also describes a lot about Ramans’ personal lives. The book gives a good insight of Raman’s early life, the influence of his father on him by introducing him to the field of science. It is very difficult to separate physics from his life and the book does a very good job in giving the details of his work to such an extent so as to interest people who do not have the background in physics. At a very young age, he read the treatises on many of the treatises by eminent scientists. People interested in details of scientific discoveries have to refer other biographies (one of the reference that I can highlight is G. Venkataraman’s vignettes in Physics that deal with the physics of Raman effect.)

Biographies of such persons should be included in curriculum of school children as it will help them understand the personalities better; how they were brought up in this country and how they went on to excel in their field. Such education should be a part of value based education in schools and colleges. The commitment and perseverance of Sir Raman towards science is very inspiring. The book takes the readers through his life at Calcutta where he was able to so effectively pursue his experiments in physics along with a job in Revenue department. Another very inspiring aspect of Sir Raman’s life was his belief that nature holds the secrets and it is only through the correct questioning and the pursuit along those lines that nature reveals its secrets.   Most of his research was on acoustics and optics that is a testimony to his belief.

Sir Raman’s vision of scientific research was different from his peers of his time and he had to resign from the directorship of Indian Institute of Science in 1930s. While many of his contemporaries were on the government initiatives of development of science and technology in India, Raman believed in complete autonomy for the science research with no strings attached. The book also mentions the turn of events where he did not support any bureaucracy in science and he started an institute of his own (Raman Research Institute in Bangalore) with the help of donations from Maharaja of Mysore after his retirement in the year 1949.

Overall, the book is very well written. It makes the life of Sir Raman come alive to the readers. This book has become one of my favorites in biographies.

Book Review: Wings of Fire

Of all the genres of books, I like autobiographies the most. The reason is that they give an insight into the belief systems of the individual and what made that person achieve and make the name for himself in his chosen field of endeavor.  The latest autobiography that I read was "Wings of Fire" by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. It is the story of a man who started his life in Rameswaram and his passion of science and technology took him to Trichy, Chennai and then to Bangalore, Trivandrum and Hyderabad.

This was the second time I read this book, the first was when I was an Engineering student. The book gives a glimpse of his early life in Rameswaram and then his education in Trichy and Chennai. The book is organized in four sections namely, Orientation, Creation, Propitiation and Contemplation. Each section deals with a different stage of his life. The book covers the events till early 1990s. So, the book does not cover his experiences in the highest office of the country and the life thereafter.

The book has two major themes; first is the life history of Dr. Kalam and his experiences at ISRO and DRDO. This theme mentions about his mentors and other luminaries of that time in the fields of science and technology like Professor Vikram Sarabhai, Professor Satish Dhawan, former president Dr. R. Venkatraman and how they inspired Dr. Kalam in his achievements. The book beautifully captures the events where visionaries dreamt and worked towards self-reliance in the fields of space and defense. The book describes how the missions were done indigenously and the importance of such missions in a country like India that had then acquired independence recently. It is a very inspiring story about how few people positively shape the destiny of a country through their vision, belief and actions.

The second theme in the book is the technology management of the projects that Dr. Kalam with his team worked on. Dr. Kalam has shared his experience of handling teams of the SLV-3 project at ISRO and then Integrated Guided Missile Development programme at DRDO. The projects were huge and involved many laboratories, academic institutions and many sub-contracts and Dr. Kalam shared his experiences of managing such large projects to success overcoming failures in between.

The book is interspersed with lines that Dr. Kalam found fit for the context and those lines are inspiring. Our education system should include autobiographies and biographies of people from different walks of life (sports, science, art, politics) who can be an inspiration for the generation to follow. The book attempts to revive the latent fire in the hearts of Indians and give wings to that latent fire. Overall, a very inspiring read.