Khagol # 124 - Oct 2020

| KHAG L | No. 124 - OCTOBER 2020 | 02 J. V. Narlikar: The passing away of Govind Swarup removed from the scene the oldest active astronomer in India. Although ‘oldest’ indicates age, so far as Govind was concerned he was the youngest nonagenarian astronomer in India. Having observed him at work for nearly five decades I feel that he was ageless. There are several ways to look at this statement. Firstly, whenever youmet himhe would have some idea to air. The idea may be to do with some new kind of radio telescope, or some new type of institution to attract young students. The trouble was that his imagination was fast changing and if you met him even after a week, he would have changed the ideas he last talked about. Secondly, he was one of those rarities in India who are at home with instrumentation. His ideas fructified in Kalyan, Ooty, Khodad, … and also in Brazil where Hanumant Sawant learning fromGovind set up a telescope. Thirdly, he had developed contacts with radio astronomers worldwide and it was through them that he kept Indian radio astronomy on active interaction with the international community of radio astronomers. My interaction with Govind was closer when we both moved to Pune. He was setting up GMRT and its controlling institute NCRA and I was setting up IUCAA. Having Govind on our various committees was a mixed experience. But on the whole I would definitely rate it as positive. Certainly we are grateful to him for providing some office rooms in NCRAuntil IUCAA had its own buildings. This also included the shelter for IUCAA’s growing library. Hewill be greatlymissed. NareshDadhich: Govind Swarup is the greatest experimental scientist after J C Bose and C V Raman, and an extraordinarily imaginative instrument builderwith remarkable foresight. Both Ooty Radio Telescope and GMRT – Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope are the points in question. For the former he looked for and found a hill having North-South slope that matched the latitude of the location. For the latter he chose metre wavelength so wisely and timely because there was little or no radio noise in metre wavelength at that time and secondly technology available in the country was just about right. If it was not done then, one had to go to the other side ofMoon for such an instrument. This is a fine example of his deep insight and foresight as well as scientificwisdom. What struck one most was his childlike sense of wonder and curiosity, and he was ever excited about something new and interesting that he might have thought at the breakfast that morning. Thiswonderful faculty he never let it go. When he was exploring a suitable site for GMRT in mid 1980s, I was in Pune University and arranged accommodation and vehicles etc. for the field visits. This way I did a bit of midwifery job for the challenging project. There are some people who are so passionate that perhaps couldn’t have done anything else than science, he was certainly the one. It should also be said and remembered that the original proposal for creation of institute for science education analogous to IIT – IISER was due to him and late V G Bhide. It is a different matter that this fact is no longer duly acknowledged. Like this he had several other proposals for instance, Giant Equatorial Radio Telescope – GERT, a precursor toGMRT.