We had met once before, about an year back, at this hospital itself. We acknowledged each other once in a while here. Today we had a real chat for the first time. He asked me, "what do you do?" And I answered, "I am a PhD student in physics", and that just removed all hesitations.
Prof. Saxena, is now a retired physics professor. And he brightens up like a 200W bulb as he speaks about Higgs Boson, neutrino mass and many other things. He tells me about his journey, where he left his PhD mid way at BARC (Mumbai), to be in company of his ailing father. He admits 'i am a family man'.
Later, instead of taking up a teaching position in Physics, he says
'i went for another love. Guitar.'
'I am a certified All India Radio guitar player.' he adds with a glimpse of pride. "Then someone asked me to teach physics. I never thought of teaching. I never used to like it as a job." He quotes Shaw 'those who can, do; those who can't, teach'. 'But surprisingly, my students loved me. Even today they constantly remember me'. And then he adds, 'other professors, and my university management doesn't ' with a chuckle.
It's not long before he says "in our time a person with a lot of money was not considered great.. now that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Nowadays not many people opt for basic sciences. They should. Basic science comes out of curiosity. Just for the heck of doing it. Not because of grants, or objective. For what is not known, how do you know, what will you find? Nowadays people want to know what they are looking for, before pursuing it. Very few people go for basic science. Basic science is needed. In our times we had to sign a contract stating we won't move to applied sciences after our degree."
"Physics people don't want to talk to me. I speak very freely. I ask them questions. Once I met a college faculty member from Kerala, teaching physics there. He did not know about Higgs. Why was Higgs needed? What was the problem without it? Is it a particle, like any other particle? What is different if neutrinos have mass? He got embarrassed when I asked him and said 'Sir, we do very specific things..I wish I had met you earlier. I could have learnt something form from you..'. there is very little curiosity. Even in people doing science. "
"It's important to bring science to layman. It has not happened in India like in Europe. One of the reasons is that it is not understood in day to day language. The English they speak, they don't understand properly. The Hindi they read, is too difficult to be understood, and they don't speak either. It may not be necessary to go to difficult concepts, even simple things are important."
Prof. Saxena, discussed many things in that hour long discussion. "Once there was a demand by so called Hindu groups, to give indianized names to all elements. People are trying to make one single units, come to similar systems so that everyone is in same page. We are going opposite. In this context I find US people foolish, they still use English metric systems, which English themselves have rejected."
Intertwined to ask these discussion, were many physics questions, (to which I nod along)..
"Which side is friction when the cart moves forward?'
'electron is a wave. Right? So, is it like water? Does it spread of you keep it at a point?'
'if you remove fat from milk, does the density become higher or lower?'
He gave answers to all of these, with beautiful examples which could be understandable to any one. I will not expand them here.
Among many many things he said, "I wish to write a book for layman, explaining basic science examples to them. Let me get cured, I will do it then." Prof. Saxena, was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. He had surgery then. It has spread to his Lungs now. He is going to be treated for it now. There is a tinge of sadness when he speaks about his disease.
I ask him, 'So do you still play guitar?'.
"No not any more. During chemotherapy my fingers could get hurt because of the strings. Which could then later become a problem. "
He adds promptly, "I play Hawaiian guitar now though. In which there is a slider. I am quite good at it" with a twinkly eyes.
"I find it difficult to talk to music artists. They don't know anything about science of music. That's a beautiful subject, which I learnt at some point with quite some difficulty."
I ask him, "I wish to learn it myself. I have not come across a good reference"
He dictates, I hurriedly jot down,
On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music by Helmholtz.
"Not 'a', 'the'. That completely changes the meaning."
"Let me know when you read this book."
That gentlemen and ladies, was a glimpse of Prof. Amar Singh Saxena for you. Physicist. Musician. Teacher. And much more.
PS. He has his own whims - if I might add. One of the other days, I had met him on the corridor and said 'hi'. He candidly blurted out 'Oh, so you remember me? May be it's because of the shirt. I have made it point to wear this same shirt here everytime!!' I never realized that I have always seen him in that blue checkered shirt.
