The Week India – July 21, 2019

28 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019

COVER STORY

CHANDRAYAAN-2

SCIENCE,

SIMPLIFIED

I

n 1966, a 21-year-old boy turned up at the

Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ah-

medabad, desperate to meet Dr Vikram

Sarabhai. The boy, Padmanabh Joshi, had

been part of a team from Nehru Foundation, set up

by Sarabhai, that was carrying out a socioeconomic

survey around Anand, Gujarat. Just as Sarabhai’s

secretary was telling Joshi that he could not meet

him without prior appointment, Sarabhai walked

in. He enquired what was going on and invited

Joshi into his room.

“When I told him that I was part of the team that

conducted the survey, he was very happy and asked

me minute details,” Joshi told THE WEEK, adding

that he was in Sarabhai’s room for around 20 min-

utes. Sarabhai laughed when Joshi asked him how

this survey was related to space technology.

“He told me that being chairman of Indian Na-

tional Committee for Space Research (today, the

Indian Space Research Organisation), he was see-

ing whether satellites can be used for rural educa-

tion and training of farmers,” said Joshi. The word

satellite was alien to Joshi. Sarabhai was quick to

pick up the curious boy’s confusion. “He asked me

what would happen if you hold a mirror up and

project a torch towards it. I replied that the light

would come down. In a second, I understood what

a satellite is.” Such was the simplicity of the scien-

tist-visionary-industrialist.

After being named chairman of the Atomic En-

AMONG THE MANY LESSONS THAT INDIA

CAN LEARN FROM VIKRAM SARABHAI’S

LIFE, THE MOST IMPORTANT ARE HUMILITY

AND SCIENTIFIC TEMPER

BY NANDINI OZA

ergy Commission when Homi Bhabha died, Sarabhai

had his base in Bombay, but continued to travel. He

would visit Ahmedabad on weekends. Students pur-

suing PhD and MSc would line up outside his PRL of-

fice to show him their work. Sarabhai would take the

overnight train to Bombay, rather than catch a flight.

He would take a student or two along with him to check

their work and they would then get down at Baroda. His

students included the likes of Professor U.R. Rao and Dr

P.D. Bhavsar. And the team he put together included Dr

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Dr K. Kasturirangan.

“He had this ability to connect a problem with tech-

nology, bring things together to solve something and

find the right quality in persons,” said Kartikeya Sarab-

hai, Vikram’s son and director of Centre for Environ-

ment Education (CEE). “Once he had Kalam work on

the third stage of the rocket. Kalam asked how it would

be possible because the first two were not there. Sarab-

hai told him that they would fly it off from a different

place and it happened from France. He wanted some-

one to do what the person was best at doing.”

Sarabhai personally founded, or guided the setting

up of, 38 institutes or organisations. These include

IIM-Ahmedabad, ISRO, the fast breeder reactor at

Kalpakkam and the Electronics Corporation of India

Limited in Hyderabad.

According to economist Jaynarayan Vyas, Sarabhai

was a scientist par excellence who had high regard for

management capabilities. “He applied himself deep-

ly to any subject he touched. Whatever he touched