A genius, Bose lived life blasting through cliches: Sudipto Das, author of ‘The Reluctant Physicist’

Bengaluru: Despite the genius that Jagdish Chandra Bose was, he lived a life that was so far removed from the cliched, tied-to-the-lab image of scientists, that writing his biography often felt like I was writing a fiction, said author Sudipto Das about his latest book.

“He was into hunting, for instance. At the age of 19, he often went on hunting trips to the Himalayas. He’s a proficient horse rider, he has been riding since he was five years old. Hiking, trekking, rowing… he did them all. In fact, he participated in an international rowing competition in England, besides rowing regularly in the Ganges. I mean, these are not the things that you generally hear about a scientist, right?” Das told PTI.

Bengaluru-based Das, an engineer and a veteran in the semiconductor industry, has written three novels – thrillers that dig into the mythical and historical events of the sub-continent – before ‘Jagdish Chandra Bose: The Reluctant Physist’. He said his obsession with Bose started when he realised he hardly knew anything about the man.

“It is not that I didn’t know about him. I grew up in Kolkata, we have the Bose Institute and we have named one of our main arterial roads after him. But I realised that even as a man of science there was so much about Bose that I had no idea of,” Das added.

Das said this epiphany struck him while he was researching the history of 5G. “I came across this piece of data that the frequency that 5G uses was used by Bose in the 1890s. I had no idea and this was so embarrassing because I am a communication engineer and I was making a living out of electronics and communication. So, I started looking around for more information on Bose,” said Das.

If Bose the scientist impressed the engineer in him, Bose the man intrigued the writer in him, said Das. “He had such interesting women in his life too. Like Sister Nivedita, born Margaret Elizabeth Noble, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. I could immediately tell I have all the drama required to write an engaging book,” said Das.

Das’s book on Bose pieces together information that he dug out – of little known scientific achievements of Bose like the fact that he was the first man to file a patent on an electronic device. And when placed within the context of the time that he lived in – science was off limits to Indians in British India – the genius of Bose shone like a beacon, said Das.

“He had such an impressive life. He not only thrived as a scientist in such an hostile atmosphere, but he also often stood up for the rights of Indians. But we hardly know that Bose, much before Gandhi, had his own moment of ‘Satyagraha’. He protested against the disparity of income between the same grade British and Indian professors by not taking any salary for his work for two and half years until the British finally gave in,” said Das, adding that he started researching for the book time researching in 2019.

Das said Bose also realised much before anyone that it is science that will lead India to self-reliance. “I mean, when India was not even independent, and everybody was thinking only of political freedom, Bose was concentrating on making India self-reliant through technology. I think he was always one step ahead of most people,” added Das.

An IIT graduate, Das said at one point he thought about becoming a professional musician – he is a trained western classical violinist – but had to give that up to pursue a career in science, as his family wanted him to.

“Eventually, around 2008, when I was 35 years old, I guess you can say the mid-life crisis caught up with me. I realised just science was not enough and I started exploring the creative side in me. First with music and then I started to write,” said Das.

In 2014, he made his debut as music composer when he recreated Eastern European melodies of the 1940s for the war musical ‘Schweyk in the Second World War’ by Bertolt Brecht. Then in 2017, he debuted as an author with ‘The Aryabhata Clan’.

“So, it is not really surprising that I would find Bose – who lived life exploring its many facets, instead of containing himself just as a scientist – inspiring enough to make him the subject of my very first biography,” added Das.