Attributing his journey so far to departure from established ideas and thinking ahead of time, internationally acclaimed astrophysicist Prof Jayant Narlikar on Friday expressed concern that many of the youngsters today are taking the established bandwagon of routine career in life.
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) on Friday felicitated Narlikar on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
Mathematician RP Bambha felicitated Narlikar and his wife Mangala at the function held at Chandrashekhar auditorium at IUCAA. Noted atomic scientist Anil Kakodkar, architect of international repute Charles Correa, Narlikar’s friend since 1957 Kumar Chitre, former IUCAA director Naresh Dadhich, director Ajit Kembhavi, director of Nehru Science Centre at Worli Arvind Paranjpye, veteran member of Jyotirvidya Parisanstha Prakash Tupe narrated various facets of Narlikar’s life and their association with the great scientist.
Responding to the felicitation, Narlikar said that his wife Mangala was a pillar of strength for him. Recalling teachings of his father, Narlikar said, “My father taught me integrity, transparency of action and time management. My guru Fred Hoyle taught me that one should not be afraid while being ahead of times or thinking differently.”
He said most students are trying to catch the bandwagon of life, some miss it since they propose ideas already thought of by others and the third category of people don’t bother missing the bus. Narlikar said, “Those who think ahead of times or take a departure from established ideas don’t have the fear of missing the bandwagon.” Narlikar said that he and his guru Hoyle had the alternative theory of origin of universe in steady state theory and had no regrets for traversing the different path.
The acclaimed astrophysicist said, “As Dadhich pointed out, I have a regret and that is I failed to inspire any of my students to be ahead of the bandwagon.”
Kakodkar and Bambha admired Narlikar for establishing the IUCAA with a different work culture. Correa termed IUCAA as his first creation with the thought of cosmology imbibed in it. Chitre and Dadhich narrated some incidents with Narlikar and wondered whether he had a day of 30 hours as he is the master of multi-tasking. Samir Dhurde, the scientific staffer with science popularisation wing of IUCAA showed a glimpse of Narlikar’s journey through rare photographs.
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