A dance with physics

The last twenty years have been a time of immense economic vitality for India, and the debate has now conclusively shifted to the movers and shakers of the corporate world. The Nandan Nilekanis and Azim Premjis of the world jostle for space in our brief attention spans. It is pertinent, then, to pause one moment and think about that idealistic post-independence generation, which first gave us many of the institutions we are now deservedly proud of. And who better to lead this remembrance with than the father of India's space programme, Vikram Sarabhai?

Amrita Shah, a contributing editor at the Indian Express, begins her book by recalling an incident from her childhood that was to leave a deep impression on her. One winter morning in 1971, "I remember very clearly the arrival of the newspaper ... and my mother's audible gasp.

'What happened?' I asked, trying to get a peek at the headlines.

'A great scientist died,' she said, visibly moved."

So began a deep fascination for a man who, for Shah, "came to occupy a fuzzy space in my head, an idea of a progressive and romantic figure". This book is a tribute to her admiration.

Sarabhai was born into an illustrious Gujarati Jain business family that had been close to Mahatma Gandhi. He had a privileged childhood and The Retreat, a colonial style bungalow in which the Sarabhais lived, was frequented by luminaries of the time, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Bhulabhai Desai, Rukmini Arundale, J Krishnamurthi and Prithviraj Kapoor. Tagore, in fact, was to write Sarabhai's letter of recommendation to Cambridge University. Shah begins her tale by recounting Sarabhai's trip to England, his passion for physics (it was a shared interest in cosmic rays that brought Sarabhai and Homi Bhabha, doyen of Indian's atomic research programme, closer) and how he came to meet noted Bharatnatyam dancer, Mrinalini Swaminathan, who was to later become his wife.

A large part of the book is devoted to Sarabhai's contribution to the Indian space programme, and it is in these segments that Shah's research comes across as especially meticulous. Sarabhai had a penchant for indigenisation. I K Gujral, then minister of state for communications, recounts an incident when Sarabhai visited him in a state of great distress after the government of the day had decided to award an earth station building contract to the Canadians. Gujral recalls: " 'Where will the Indians experiment if not in India?' he asked me. 'Will the Canadians ask us to build it for them?' "

In 1966, the day Indira Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister, news of Homi Bhabha's death in an air crash arrived. As Shah says, "The coming together of these disparate occurrences was to decisively alter the course of Vikram's life." Indira chose Sarabhai to head the controversial atomic energy programme. Sarabhai assumed the mantle despite stiff opposition not only from his family, who rightly pointed out that he was already overworked, but also from within political circles. Morarji Desai, for one, was known to be a strong Sarabhai baiter. Since the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was a government enterprise, Sarabhai had to relinquish his old family business, Sarabhai Chemicals. For a man who had assiduously looked after his father's companies, letting go was a painful decision. Shah describes these moments with tenderness: "Sarabhai Chemicals gave him an emotional farewell...Vikram had tears in his eyes as he talked about leaving 'the garden I have nurtured'."

While Sarabhai's scientific achievements are well-documented, little is known of his personal life, his interests and demons. Shah manages to unleash the man behind the larger-than-life persona. She paints him with the precision of a physician, revealing only as much is needed to carry forth her tale. So we learn that Sarabhai had grown close to his associate at IIM-Ahmedabad, Kamla, during Mrinalini's long absences from the country. He encouraged Mrinalini Sarabhai to undertake foreign jaunts with her dance troupe and welcomed the new opportunities that her talent afforded her. Little would he have imagined that this would be the genesis of a relationship that would shake his marital life. The chairmanship of the AEC took him to Bombay, while Mrinalini Sarabhai chose to stay back in Ahmedabad, and in light of what the book discloses, for reasons other than running her dance school, Darpan.

The book also relates delightful vignettes of Sarabhai's camaraderie with his subordinates, giving special mention to his equation with one such, the young and precocious A P J Abdul Kalam. Another charming attribute of the book is its approachability, drawing the reader effortlessly into the life and times of one of India's greatest sons. For that reason alone, it must not be missed.

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VIKRAM SARABHAI
A LIFE

Amrita Shah
Penguin
Price: Rs 425; Pages: 248