My Tryst with Science

The book brings together thirty-three essays of a nostalgic cast, often touching upon some of the lesser-known facets of the seven-decade-long history of India’s home-grown nuclear energy programme, its stalwarts, and the author’s own tryst with it. Other essays turn outward to the society in which he lived, offering observations on practices that may appear almost out of this world today. The ninety-eight poems—predominantly in English, with a few in Malayalam—form the third offering in the author’s Bouquet and Garlands series. Shaped by a long engagement with science and society, they mirror the idiosyncrasies of human nature as glimpsed through decades of encounters with people from varied walks of life. Steeped in analogies drawn from scientific principles—the bedrock of the author’s professional journey—the poems pause to brood on the ultimate limits of science, especially the elusive dimension of Time, still largely tethered to the Earth.