Free Indian Science : Present scenario

Note: A part of my article was published in letter to editor section of the revered journal Nature in May 2014.

This has reference to Mathai Joseph and Andrew Robinson’s Comment : Free Indian Science(Nature, 3 April 2014, Vol 508,pg 36-37). It was eminently readable and  after years of education in India’s premier institutes ( I am a PhD in biosciences from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,IIT Bombay and  hold degrees from  universities like Calcutta University and Jadavpur University and I teach biotechnology to postgraduates  in a premier college St Xavier’s College Mumbai in India) and teaching in a reputed college in India, I feel qualified to comment on this.

What they discussed is true. There is a distinct gap between what we achieved before and after independence in India in the scientific field. Almost independent of European school of relativity, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics Indian scientists Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha and C.V.Raman made a brilliant group of Physics in Calcutta University. Half of the subatomic particles are today termed Boson in Bose’s honor; C.V.Raman discovered Raman Effect and Saha gave a theory of thermal ionizations in stars. Sadly after independence Indians did not participate in ground breaking work in science. We lost the nationalist fervor and zeal in science. We lost many of our brilliant minds to the western world ( e.g. H.G.Khorana – Nobel 1968, Subramanyam Chandrasekhar- Nobel 1983, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – Nobel 2009 being the latest).There are two exceptions although - G.N.Ramachandran & S.N.De. Dr.G.N. Ramachandran of Madras University, India gave a triple helix structure of collagen (1) and Ramachandran plot of protein structures is now read by biochemistry graduates throughout the world (2). Dr.S.N.De of Calcutta, India discovered the nature of cholera toxin in 1959 which went unnoticed (3). This was a true discovery which was noticed so late that in his lifetime De did not get any honor (4).

In my opinion India made a mistake by weaning its universities. Countless research institutes were made all over India after independence which took away the good research students from the universities and these universities lag behind not only because of good researchers but also due to lack of funding. Paucity of good faculty and research students in universities has marred the educational spirit.  C.V. Raman saw it coming from the very beginning and famously lamented these institutes as ‘Mausoleums of Indian Science’ (5).

Apart from bureaucracy and lack of funding, lack of talent in science is another factor for the poor show. Salary of scientists and academicians is abysmally low to inspire any to make it big. A PhD student gets a salary of Rs 18000 per month which is almost half of what an entry level engineer makes. An entry level scientist or assistant professor in a college makes less than Rs 50000 after so many years of PhD and post doc abroad. In tier I cities that salary makes a hand-to-mouth existence. Whereas his counterpart in industry of same age makes twice/thrice the money. This is very true in the field of software industry where India is seeing a boom and which the authors mentioned jubilantly to stress on growth and capacity of Indian knowledge workers. If tomorrow Universities, Research Institutes and colleges pay the salary what software industry pays, I believe there will be no dearth of talent. Since professional engineering courses promise high salary, better lifestyle and promise of foreign travel Indian parents make it a beeline to make their wards enter into IITs(Indian Institute of Technology), NITs(national Institute of Technology) and engineering colleges. After the best brains of science take admissions in engineering colleges and medical colleges and other professional courses like IT, only the left overs come to undergraduate science courses. Hence a vicious cycle of poor students and later poorer teachers (these same poor or average students become scientists or lecturers !!) drive the system of science to point of no return. And this is compounded with brain drain to abroad.  Rarely one finds the teachers inspiring and motivated. And this situation in colleges breeds unhappy students who visions nothing but a bleak future in science as a career. Let’s face it. Money is a big incentive for a career and a living.

But recently due to economic growth Indian science is getting well-funded and doing better. Due to reverse brain drain many good scientists are returning to India ( Recession in the West is also driving many good scientists back!!). Please see a recent JCB paper where a couple of high impact Nature and Science papers published from India are quoted to show the changing face of biological sciences in India (6). Five of our journals have crossed the impact factor of 1.0 (7). Two of them are near to 2.0.  With a lot of research happening in Ayurveda (ancient Hindu medicinal practice) pertaining to medicinal plants we hope a turn around in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors. DBT (Department of Biotechnology) is now flush with funds and with modernizing of infrastructure nobody can and should complain of lack of opportunity in big labs in biological sciences at least. Recently DBT and DST have introduced attractive scholarships to allow young post docs come back and settle. India Bioscience is another grand effort funded jointly by DBT, Wellcome trust in that line. The present UPA government in India led by Congress party , though mired in corruption and facing a possible routing out in next general elections, has done enough to increase the opportunities in higher education by setting up of 7 new IITs(The famed Indian Institute of Technology), several IISERs(Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) and NISERs(National Institute of Science Education and Research), almost one NIPER (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research) and AIIMS ( All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences) in  every state. They have upgraded many NITs and created places of national interest. Hence in recent past India has seen a significant increase in jobs in education sector and R&D.

If the present policy makers of India are allowed to do the good work that they have put in the past decade definitely we will see a sea change in Indian science. If we emulate the success of software or IT story by matching the salary of budding scientists with them, we can hope to retain and recruit enough talents to promote a scientific revolution. In fact the present government has been prudent enough to put us in a cusp of revolution in science by promoting institution building and flushing of funds. As of now at least in biology nobody can cry hoarse of lack of money or infrastructure as they did three or four decades ago. Things are changing and changing fast. Now the onus is on the scientists who have to think of original problems and match up to the international standard in publishing. Lack of originality in the realm of thought is endemic in Indian research which has to be rectified soon. If the post docs returning from abroad no longer rides on the idea of their mentors and rather start on their own extending collaboration to their foreign counterparts then the future is definitely bright. If Saha, Bose and Raman could make it independently in the 1920s and 1930s ,why can’t we today ?

Doing international level science is like a race. We fell behind, but thankfully we are catching up.

Reference:

1. Bhattachajee A & Bansal M. (2005) Collagen Structure: The Madras Triple Helix and the Current Scenario. IUBMB Life, 57(3): 161 – 172.

2. Stryer L. (1995). Biochemistry. 4^th edition, W.H.Freeman & Company, New York, USA

3. S.N.De. (1959) Enterotoxicity of Bacteria-free culture-filtrate of Vibrio cholerae, , Nature, 183: 1533-1534

4. Joshua Lederberg (1990). ‘S.N.De- regicide of reigning dogma’ Current Science,  59(13 and 14): 628-629

5. P.Balaram.(1998). The Raman Legacy. Current Science. 75(10): 977

6. Vale R D and Dell K. (2009) The biological sciences in India Aiming high for the future. Journal of Cell Biology, 184(3): 342-353.

7. Jain N C. (2009) Five Indian journals cross impact factor 1.000 in 2008. Current Science. 97(9):1273.

Taking Sides

Taking Sides is a film made by Istvan Szabo. It is about a controversial orchsetra conductor Wilhelm Furtwrangler. He was a German and he was accused of not taking sides/taking sides during the Nazi oppression. He was a musician par excellence. When inquired by a tribunal after WWII he maintained a musician's duty is to entertain, not to take sides. Internet is rife with controversy about him but one thing is clear he was a legend in his field. His recordings are available in Youtube and people are all praises for his style of conducting. These days as I see artists and film stars taking sides in West Bengal I am reminded of this movie I watched in Nandan in 2002. Should everybody take side ?

'Poora India Thumakda' Queen - a movie review

Word of mouth is still the best form of advertisement and by all means, Queen (the movie recently released with stellar performance by Kangana Ranaut) is going to be a sleeper hit like Kaahaani and it should for all reasons.

I did not like the trailer of this movie when I saw it 6 months ago. This happens with quite a many films – their storyline and acting is superb; however the trailer doesn’t do any justice to the story. Thank god that I did not go by the trailer. I actually went to Inox to see it and I was bowled over by Kangana’s honest portrayal of a journey that transforms her from a demure coy clinging ivy type to a character full of spunk and spine. Journey to a foreign land after her marriage being called off which she calls her Honeymoon (without getting married) is a surprise itself and shows that the simple girl from Delhi is not going to take this uncalled for rejection lying down. Rani (Kangana) is the queen of heart of Vijay, the suave engineer who coaxed and cajoled ( Chinese ? Manchow ? Maan jao !....) Rani into a relation. Daughter of a halwai in Delhi was about to get married to the suave engineer.

However Rani gets a shock of her life when the Londoner Vijay rejects Rani or Queen two days before marriage. ‘A lot can happen over coffee’ and ironically rejection happened in a coffee shop whose tagline is ‘A lot can happen over coffee’. Reason is difference in social status. Rani obviously feels lost and betrayed and her hope of breaking the ‘Virginity ka vrat’ is dashed. But contrary to what other thinks she decided to go for the honeymoon which could have happened. From the moment she landed in Paris after being rejected by Vijay (played brilliantly by Rajkumar Rao), met voluptuous Vijayalakshmi ( the Mumbai girl Lisa Haydon is a big surprise ) who lives life on her own term and over whom Rani’s father and obese kid brother Chintu drools, the transformation of Rani begins. She drinks, dances in a disco and lets her hair loose. After Paris and a few days with Vijaylakshmi (Vijay nahi to vijaylakshmi sahi !) she is a liberated soul trying to break away from typical Indian customs that girls are tied to.

A visit to Amsterdam has even more surprise. She has to share a room with men which is unthinkable for her. However slowly she bonds with them and enjoys traveling with them. One Russian artist who wants to stop war over oil, one Japanese who lost his parents to Tsunami and one African origin Frenchman who sings with a guitar are her friends now. Enter the macho Italian chef who spurs an interest in Rani to be self reliant. She participates in a cooking competition and serves spicy Golguppas to foreigners who develop a liking for it. The Italian cajoles her to her first kiss. Just when things are looking up Vijay comes to Amsterdam and pleads for reconsideration of marriage. Rani, now a changed woman, politely refuses to give in. A brawl  between Rani’s friends and Vijay erupts which also exposes the tenderness that Alexander, the Russian harbors for rani. However, next day a transformed Rani places Vijay on the tenterhooks by offering a talk in Delhi. And leaving a surprised Vijay she goes for a rock concert with her new-found friends. The tenderest moment of this movie was when she pastes the marriage invitation card on the hotel room’s wall which is a wall full of treasured thoughts of the visitors. Taka her Japanese friend posts his parents’ photo, Alexander pastes his drawing. But I started crying when Kangana pasted her invitation card of a marriage that did not happen. It spoke a lot about her disappointment, her soul-stirring emotions, her frustrations. A marriage card is not a mere invitation card; it is an announcement of a fresh beginning, of a new phase of life.

In the end we see a bold Rani returning the ring to her fiancé and walking boldly into a new phase of life.

Queen is a movie that will make you feel good with superb storyline, brilliant comic timing and stellar acting. Kangana takes you to the path trodden by her and I identified with her feelings in many ways.And now with soaring popularity it seems that not only ‘London thumakda’ but ‘Poora India Thumakda’ with it.

Sedin Dujone by Pandit Ravi Shankar

There are some songs which I used to dislike. However with change of time and place sometimes I changed and now I like those songs immensely. One such song is “Sedin Dujone dulechinu bon e” by Tagore. I heard this many many times while in Kolkata. However I never quite liked it. I thought it was too mushy. In fact this song is an all time favorite romantic song for many. But my views changed until I heard last year Pandit Ravi Shankar playing it on sitar and singing it too in a London concert. I am thankful to the uploader of this following Youtube video. 

The music, the description by Pandit ji, the ambience….something influenced me heavily to like this song. Maybe the idea of “Forget me not” behind this song made me like it because every mortal like me want to be remembered by others. The melancholic strains urging to remind one of good times gone by appealed to me. There are 'n' number of versions of this song in Youtube now. However other than Pandit ji’s version, no version of this song made me sit and appreciate like this.

Anecdotes from Indian History

I recollect and pen down some anecdotes of Indian history from different sources.

When Shivaji maharaj got to know that the venerable Sinhagad fort has fallen but his favourite chieftain Tanaji Malsure died in the bloody battle he commented languidly “ Gad ala pan simha gela”. That means “We won the fort of Sinhagad but my lion is gone”. Simha translated to English is Lion. Shivaji maharaj lovingly called Tanaji as Simha or Lion.

When Warren Hastings attacked Awadh, the locals started to flee in fear. In hurried manner they were taking all they could with them and as it happens they made several mistakes in the flurry of activities. This is elaborated in a Hindi couplet by anonymous nicely.

“ Ghode par Hawda, Haathi par Jinn,

Jaldi bhago Jaldi Bhago Warren Hastin…”

This means that when they saw Warren Hasting they hurriedly put Hawda ( used on Elephant or Haathi) on a Ghoda (Horse) and a Jinn( usually put on a Ghoda,Horse) they put on back of Haathi (Elephant). These are mistakes made while they were busy fleeing.

When Birbal died Akbar lamented

“ Kanhai Brija Chor Giya, rahe Giya sab Ahir

  Sab shobha darbar ka har liya Bal ka bir”

This means as Lord Krishna left Brajadham, everyone was sad and desolate. Similarly Birbal’s demise took away all the joy and glory of his (Akbar’s) Navratna sabha/darbar.

When the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Jaffar II was deported to Rangoon, Burma by the British, he was imprisoned in a small cell where he wrote on the wall with charcoal the following couplet.

“Na kissi ke Ankhon ke Noor hun

Na Kissi ka dil ka karaar hun

Koi Aa ke shaama jalaye kyun

Koi aa ke char phool chadaye kyun

Main woh bekaasi ka majaar hun”

Translated this means neither am I light of anybody’s eye, nor am I desire of anybody’s heart. Who will come to my grave with flower wreath? Who will light a lamp in my honour after I am gone? Because mine is the grave of despair.

This was in 1857. Many years down the lane I read in Indian Express that President of India, Dr Abdul Kalaam visited Rangoon and Bahadur Shah Jaffar’s grave. He spread a chaddar and offered flowers and lit a lamp. And he wrote in the visitor’s book: “Sir, at last somebody from your country remembered you and came to light a lamp in your grave. At last one of your countrymen remembered you.”

When Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar helped in formulating and promulgation of Widow remarriage Act and spreading women’s education, textile designers from Shantipur presented him a Dhoti with inscription like this .

“ Benche thako Bidyasagar chirojibi hoye,

   Stri shikkha korecho prosar, diyecho bidhobar biye”

Rajkahini by Abanindranath Tagore is a shadow of Todd’s Annals and Antiquities of rajasthan replete with anecdotes from Rajasthan royals. However since it is well known I abstain from quoting many stories.

When Sri Chaitanya spread the bhakti rasa and swept people of Bengal by Vaisnava sect, a phrase indictaed his popularity - 'Shantipur dubu dubu Node bhese jai' . This means Shantipur is already submered with bhakti rasa, Nodia is also going down.

Some historical evens etch a mark on collective human memory by being part of songs or poems. When Marathas used to  invade Bengal and demand tax, the following poem was born which is still sung as a lullaby. 'Chele ghumalo para juralo, borgi elo deshe, bulbulite dhan kheyeche , khajna debo kise ?'. This means as the young child falls to sleep, the Maraha (borgi) arrives and demands tax. However the landowner pleads since the birds ate the paddy seeds how will I pay tax ?

Nice examples.