The Apple Tree Lecture Series 2011

Brig.V.A.Subramanyam, 1955-59, Dept.of.Physics, M.C.C., Tambaram.

I frequently send myself encrypted messages, but I can never decode them so I don’t know what I’m talking about. ~ Arthur Norman

Madras Christian College (MCC) celebrated its 175th year anniversary during 2011. The Department of Physics planned an intercollegiate Physics seminar “Apple Tree Lecture Series” for two days on 29 and 30 Sep 2011 at Madras Christian College. For this lecture series, Research Scientists and Professors from esteemed institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM), Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) and SRM University were invited.

Prof. E.C.G. Sudarshan, an alumnus of MCC and a world-renowned scientist inaugurated the lecture series with an inaugural talk.

Three of us, Shri K Mahadevan, Dr Sekar Raghavan (both of 1967 batch) and I (1959 batch), who stay at Kalakshetra Colony, decided to attend the Seminar. Shri Mahadevan, after completing his graduation specialized in Electronics and Communications from the famed Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, (MIT). Thereafter he set up a unit to manufacture power plants, which he markets to the Indian Railways. Dr Sekar Raghavan obtained his doctorate and is now one of the foremost advocates of Rain Water Harvesting (RWH). He has set up a Rain Centre and creates awareness of the advantages of RWH. Thanks to his initiative, the State Government made it compulsory for all buildings to incorporate RWH when new constructions took place. Due to his untiring efforts, the water table in Chennai has risen considerably.

On the morning of Thursday the 29 Sep, we decided to start off of 8.00 am, so as to be on time for the Seminar. The morning was quite overcast and cloudy. As the clock ticked away, clouds got blacker by the minute and it commenced to rain and within a short while started to pour heavily. Nevertheless, as the seminar was to be inaugurated by Dr ECG Sudarshan, we did feel, that he would by his talk dispel the darkness caused by the rain gods. A point worth mentioning is that though Mahadevan has a deformity in his left leg due to polio, he continues to be extremely active and drives his own car. When he arrived at my house to pick me up, there was a steady drizzle, and it was dank and damp. In view of the weather conditions, we altered the route that we would take to reach Tambaram. Initially we had planned to go over Pallikarani, on the Selaiyur road. But due to the wet conditions, it was far more prudent to take the GST road, which had much less puddles than the Velachery route.

The roads in Chennai are a nightmare for any motorist. This is more so during rains when water stagnates throughout the length and breadth of the road. Unfortunately, the roads are made/repaired/maintained by authorities without any involvement of the users. The civic body and the contractor are apparently hand in glove in this matter. Repairs are not carried out to last any length of time. A hasty patchwork is done, which may last a few days or weeks at the most. A slight drizzle is normally more than enough to reduce the road to its previous state or make it even worse! This is mainly due to the attitude of the powers-that-be who believe in just “chalta hai” – meaning “who cares”. Unfortunately, there is no audit carried out by the users who use the road. Corruption today is all-pervasive that roads seldom last more than a few days after they are ‘repaired’.

The continuous slight drizzle made visibility poor. Hence the drive was slower than anticipated. Further large tracts of water stagnating on the roads involved tricky navigation so that we did not fall into a pothole or ditch. Nevertheless, due to Mahadevan’s dexterity and navigation we were able to reach the seminar site by about 9:40 am, which was well in time.

The seminar was scheduled to commence at 10 o’clock. The proceedings were to commence with a special talk by Dr ECG Sudarshan, which was to be for an hour from 10.00 am. There was to be a short break of 15 minutes for tea. Dr TR Govindarajan of IMSc was then to talk for one hour on Einstein and Gravity. We were then to have lunch and then Dr Ganashyam Date also of IMSc was to talk on Relativity in Everyday Life for another hour and the sessions for the day were to be over by 2.15 pm.

The introductory talks included a welcome address by Dr Alexander the Principal of the College, and Dr Philomena Raj, HoD Physics Department and introduction of the Guest by Dr Lakshminarayanan of the Department of Physics. Dr Alexander being a busy man, left soon after he made his introductory remarks.

In honour of having crossed the 80th birthday, Dr ECG preferred to be more comfortable and spoke seated. He spoke extremely well and covered a vast range of topics, including his stint with Homi Bhabha and his visits to MCC and his work at Rochester and other universities in the US. When one is young, one tends to be far more care free and at times may even be considered brash. One does not suffer from any ego and thus is generally not in awe of erudite and senior scientists.

This reminds me of an anecdote about Charles F Kettering the famous American inventor. He was in the habit of preferring to recruit raw hands rather than experienced people. When queried why he preferred people without experience, he was reported to have said, that the experienced hands would generally tend to give excuses, in view of their previous experience; whereas those without experience would be unbiased and not know that it could not be done, and hence normally successfully complete the task!

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back. ~ Harvey Mackay

Similarly, being a new scientist, ECG had no qualms in directly interacting with Homi Bhabha himself or with other senior and reputed scientists, both in India and as well in the USA. He mentioned in his talk that he dealt with all of them more as equals, rather as somebody far junior and just starting off on the career ladder. It is also to the credit of those senior scientists that they were able to make Dr ECG so comfortable, that he could speak easily and freely with him – something that is unthinkable with the bureaucrats or politicians or anyone in power – including principals of schools and colleges during admission time. Dr ECG covered a very wide canvas of topics and the talk was so absorbing, that all thought of time was totally lost sight of. An active and participative question answer session followed, before a break for tea was announced. Only then did we realize that time had not stopped at all, and the clock truthfully maintained that it was well past a quarter after noon. Nevertheless, the organisers showed that they were quite equal to the task of re-drawing the schedule and as Sun Tzu has mentioned in his monumental work of the Art of War, they showed that they were very flexible with the programme. After the tea break Dr Govindarajan was to talk followed by lunch and the last session was re-scheduled for post lunch, but much later than what had been planned!

A word about the scenic beauty of the College and its surroundings, which is quite unique in the southern metropolis. It is more than five decades since I left the campus to start my career in the Armed Forces. In that time, as expected, a large number of changes have occurred. Many new buildings have come up, one of which houses the Miller Library, additional departments have been added, one of which is for Media Studies. On the residential accommodation side, two new hostels for the girls have come up, so that they can also stay within the campus. ‘ In the good old days!’ to use the clichéd statement, the girls stayed in a hostel located at Guindy – they came to the campus to only study.

The seminar, which was being attended by students from other colleges also, was being conducted at the newly built auditorium of the Department of Media Studies. Being new, it was comfortable. And in keeping with the trend of modernity, it is also air –conditioned – something totally unimaginable at that point of time. Am not too sure, whether the building and its associated accessories have been completed. The doubt arose, as we were unable to locate any washrooms within the complex. Later, we were served lunch in one of the rooms meant for the staff – and hence not sure, whether arrangements for catering for such large number of people who would be attending such similar events in the future has been planned or otherwise. This aspect needs to be pondered over, as the campus is on a limb and any visitors coming for such functions need to be cared for in the Indian tradition of “Atithi Dievo bhava”, as it will be difficult to go out of the large campus for refreshments of any kind.

Talking of refreshments, I am reminded of my days in the Armed Forces. Napoleon is said to have remarked that the Army marches on its belly – meaning that the men need to be fed and looked after, so that they can give off their best during the ensuing fights. For those who have an interest in history, one would be aware that the surrender of the Japanese was due in large measure to the leadership qualities of Field Marshal Slim, who took charge of the 14th Army during late 1941, when the Allied troops had suffered severe setback in this theatre. At the end of the War, he was acclaimed for turning a certain defeat into a glorious victory. After the War, he authored a book aptly titled as “Defeat Into Victory”.

At one point, he visited a unit, which was in tatters, after the beating that they had taken from the Japanese. Slim firmly believed that it was the duty of the officers to lead. It is written that:

“Then Slim relates at one critical point in the retreat in a jungle clearing he came across a unit which was in a bad way. “I took one look at them and thought “My God, they’re worse than I supposed.” then I saw why. I walked round the corner of that clearing and I saw officers making themselves a bivouac. They were just as exhausted as their men, but that isn’t my point. Officers are there to lead. I tell you, therefore, as officers, that you will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor smoke, nor even sit down until you have personally seen that your men have done those things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world. And, if you do not, I will break you.” http://www.burmastar.org.uk/slim.htm

As mentioned earlier, in such seminars, there were a number of students and others who were not from MCC. When we finished lunch and came out, I did notice many of the participants, wandering hither and thither for want of something to ward away the hunger. After all, at that age, one tends to eat far more than elderly people like us. I did feel concerned that I had eaten, before they had. I humbly suggest that the authorities may like to give serious thought to this aspect, for future programmes.

One of the novel features of the new auditorium was that everyone had to remove their footwear before entering the hallowed arena. This ritual reminded me of entering the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The difference being that there are streams of water flowing across the entrance passage into the Temple, ensuring that the feet of all devotees are also washed in the bargain. I do believe that this is in keeping with the ancient Indian custom of removing footwear before entering places of learning. In this context, I have a couple of suggestions to offer to the authorities in charge of the complex.

The capacity of the auditorium is about 200 plus an additional ten percent for the staff who have to provide support services. Thus, a rack capable of holding that quantity of footwear should be available in the near vicinity. Besides some sort of mobile seating – for elderly fogies like me who find it difficult to wear shoes standing on just one leg – should be provided, albeit on a temporary basis. And preferably, the racks and seating must be sheltered from both sun and rain. A point that may be kept in mind is that unlike in the uniformed services where footwear will be of a single variety, in this case they will be of different shapes and sizes.

The second suggestion is dependent on the first. Most of the present generation are used to wearing foot wear unlike what was prevalent during Independence, when we were economically poorer than today. Having once removed footwear, it would be in the fitness of things, if the surrounding area were a velvety green. This can be done by having a lawn of Korean or similar grass, which will not only be a joy for the eyes, but be more environment friendly and be comfortable for walking with bare feet, till the programme is completed in the adjoining auditorium. Also, good foot mats may be placed, to ensure do not enter with muddy feet.

Finally, my grateful thanks to the Department of Physics and all those who were involved directly as well as indirectly, with organizing such a good programme. I am also indebted to Dr Sekar Raghavan and Shri Mahadevan, who not only motivated me to participate in the programme but also tied up the administrative arrangements to come to venue. A special word of appreciation to all the students who were extremely courteous and helpful to the elderly alumni to make us more comfortable and at ease in the new environment.