Books

Science made easy

George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy & Stephen Hawking; Illustrations by Gerry Parsons; Doubleday; Rs.395; 295 pp

If only teachers knew that the best way to teach is by story telling, children would look forward to school and adults would look back to their school years with pleasure rather than regret. Some of the most difficult subjects can be absorbed by students if encapsulated in narrative pedagogy. That’s what the world famous scientist-astronomer Stephen Hawking (together with daughter Lucy) successfully proves in this remarkable book written for adults and children.

Dramatically, the opening sentence introduces us neither to pre-adolescent George, nor his parents who are committed to pure, simple and healthy living, nor indeed to any human being. It begins with speculation about Freddie the pig, George’s pet. Freddie’s existence in George’s household is precarious because his parents are strict vegetarians who prefer plants to animals. In their pursuit of organic food and eco-friendly living, George’s parents abjure the use of modern inventions; they wash their clothes by hand, don’t own a car and illuminate their home with candles to avoid using electricity. "It was all designed to give George a natural and improving upbringing, free from toxins, additives, radiation and other such evil phenomena. The only problem was that in getting rid of everything that could possibly harm George, his parents had managed to do away with lots of things that would also be fun for him," write the authors.

Unsurprisingly George’s parents want him to grow up to become an organic farmer, although the boy prefers looking up at the sky and the stellar firmament to looking down to earth. "So his little patch of the planet, his vegetable garden, stayed bare and scratchy, showing nothing but stones, scrubby weeds and bare ground, while he tried to count all the stars in the sky to find out how many there were." Naturally, his parents thoroughly disapproved.

The narrative which acquaints the reader with the marvels and secrets of the universe begins unsuspectingly, with Freddie breaking out of his sty, through a "suspiciously pig-sized hole" in the fence that separates the next door garden from George’s, and escapes there. George’s problem is that Next Door is strictly forbidden territory.

The serious metaphor that runs through this delightful book is that most adults are trapped within walls they can’t see. They are prisoners of their own warped conceit — self-styled emperors of empires that don’t exist like pompous politicians whether swathed in saffron, red or green who violently declaim that they know best what’s good for all.

Luckily there are exceptions. Eric, the man who lives Next Door is one of them. George discovers this when he breaks the law and follows Freddie through the hole in the fence into Eric’s unkempt garden and his untidy home where he lives with his daughter Annie. Eric’s house is in "a bit of a mess": peeling wallpaper, worn out flooring, dripping taps, empty kitchen cupboards... George is charmed. "This house seemed so odd that George felt quite cheerful. Finally he had found some people who were even odder than his own family." While George’s parents strongly believe "technology is taking over the world and we should try and live without it because science and its discoveries are polluting the planet with its modern inventions," here’s Eric, telling him that "science is a wonderful and fascinating subject which helps us understand the world around us and all its marvels"!

At this point George enters Eric’s "beautifully, gloriously messy" study. And this is where he meets Cosmos, "the most powerful computer in the world". Super-intelligent Cosmos can whisk George and Eric off to any point in the universe. Here the Hawkings deftly weave an astronomy lesson into the narrative as Cosmos takes George and Eric on a rollercoaster ride through the vastness of space — past planets, through an asteroid storm to the very edge of our solar system and beyond. Drama is infused by accident when Eric is swallowed up by a black hole and then grippingly retrieved by Cosmos molecule by molecule, atom by atom. George picks up and pockets an asteroid rock which, alas, crumbles to dust when brought back to earth.

Hawking uses his daunting knowledge of the universe to usher the reader into space with its exploding stars and colliding galaxies via an information-packed narrative. To good effect, because back in school George wins first prize in an inter-school science competition and is awarded his very own computer.

However George has a problem: "What are my parents going to say when I come home with a computer? They’re going to be so angry." But while expressing this apprehension George wasn’t aware that his dad was present during his presentation about the utility of science and how understanding science helps to unlock the secrets of the universe.

After hearing George’s presentation, dad is converted. "You’re right, George. We shouldn’t be scared of science. We should use it to help us save the planet and not close our minds to it," he concludes. The happy ending of this marvellously instructive and engaging book is that it ends where it began: Freddie is restored safe and snug to his sty.

Although recounted as a journey through the cosmos, the subliminal message of George’s Secret Key is directed at adults. That they should be open, flexible and look at the world through constantly changing perspectives, discard so-called rigid principles, listen to differing points of view, and let a hundred flowers bloom. This book — illustrated generously throughout with ingenious pencil and charcoal sketches by Gerry Parsons — ought to be a compulsory text prescribed by the ICSE, CBSE and all other school boards in India to enable students to learn the secrets of the universe and the place of our endangered planet within it. Teachers too, can learn how to package lessons as absorbing narratives which awaken the minds and imagination of their students.

India for America

Planet India by Mira Kamdar; Scribbner; Price: Rs.350; 320 pp

Having leaped out of the so-called Hindu rate of economic growth (3.5 percent per year), which was the dominant characteristic of India for over three decades (1960-90), post liberalisation India’s annual 8 percent-plus GDP growth has been unexpected, rapid and exponential. Almost overnight this great leap forward has transformed the hitherto basket case Indian economy which (together with China) has become the driving force of the newly crystallised global economy of the 21st century.

But is India, a country of visible contradictions transforming into an economic superpower or is this just shining fools gold? Can this country where "800 million live on $2 per day" survive as a democracy? Can it cope with the pressure of numbers, i.e its 1.2 billion population which food apart, requires healthcare and education even as it fights several insurgencies and Islamic terrorism? Such questions bewilder people, especially observers abroad. The confusion is understandable.

There’s no shortage of scholarly tomes written to explain India to the West, and indeed to itself. To the impressive bibliography add Planet India by Mira Kamdar, a US-based journalist of Indian origin. The selling proposition of this book is its broad canvas, a plethora of interviews with the top people, and accurate statistical information, through which Kamdar attempts to explain the unique society that is India — Planet India — to westerners.

"No other country matters more to the future of our planet than India. There is no challenge we face, no opportunity we cover where India does not have critical relevance. From combating global terror to finding cures for dangerous pandemics, from dealing with the energy crisis to averting the worst scenarios of global warming, from rebalancing stark global inequalities to spurring the vital innovation needed to create jobs and improve lives — India is now a pivotal player," writes Kamdar.

To put this volume together, Kamdar travelled to every nook and corner of the country, remarkably obtaining access to the country’s top businessmen including Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Nandan Nilekani among others, and a wide cross-section of society including taxi drivers, families of indebted suicide-prone cotton farmers, tea merchants, American software engineers working in India, NGO activists and social workers. Through their insights and observations she attempts to explain the remarkable resurgence of post-liberalisation India, and the pains and rough-edges of almost double-digit rates of economic growth.

Kamdar is scathing in her criticism of the establishment’s inept management of India’s high-potential population. "An astonishing 40 percent of the world’s poor live in India, including one third of the world’s malnourished children," writes the author, castigating successive governments in New Delhi who have done little to address the problems of food, education and healthcare of the vast majority of the population. She cites a 2006 United Nations report which states that hunger and malnutrition have widened the gap between the rich and poor, many of whom barely manage a square meal a day.

Planet India makes a spirited attempt to address both the tremendous optimism and potential of contemporary India as well as the huge challenges the country faces — pollution; ethnic, caste, religious tensions; lack of basic education and healthcare for hundreds of millions; corruption; crumbling infrastructure; global warming; the looming threat of HIV/AIDS; and hostile neighbours.

Yet despite its wide canvas, Planet India is a book intended to impact India on the insular American consciousness. The plethora of facts sourced from newspapers and magazines and glib quotes from movers and shakers of business and leaders caught up in India’s economic revolution, have little to offer Indian readers. Insights and analyses from genuine intellectuals and scholars to explain the huge inequalities and all-too-patent social injustices are conspicuous by their absence in this ambitious work, written in breathless journalese which skims the surface of this country’s multiplying problems.

In the final analysis Planet India is a book invested with considerable effort to impress the importance of India on the middle class American psyche. Perhaps because of her own Indo-American ethnicity, Kamdar believes that India’s future is of great importance to the US and the world. In the last chapter of the book titled ‘As goes India, so goes the world’ she expresses the belief that a "new ethos" and/or "a renaissance" in India is critical to the survival of planet Earth.

This is wishful thinking. If 21st century India is unable to solve its huge and deep-rooted problems — and collapses into chaos and anarchy — the world will carry on unperturbed, perhaps relieved.