Encounters with Infinity

by Nilanjan P. Choudhury

English 240 pages 1 edition

‘A refreshing celebration of the actual achievements of an Indian scientist in a time when too many imaginary achievements of ancient Indian science are being propagated.’—Naseeruddin Shah Encounters with Infinity is a collection of plays, based on the lives of three pioneering physicists from the Indian sub-continent and other associated historical figures. Set against the backdrop of the epoch-making events of the 20th century—the two great world wars, the Indian freedom struggle and above all, the birth of the strange new sciences of relativity and quantum mechanics, the plays bring alive the stories of these remarkable men and women who forever changed our fundamental understanding of the infinitely vast, infinitely mysterious universe, in which we live. The Square Root of a Sonnet explores the history and science of black holes, through the lens of the intriguing and complex relationship between two giants of modern astrophysics—the brilliant Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and his guru, Sir Arthur Eddington. The Trial of Abdus Salam is a courtroom drama that examines the fascinating life of Abdus Salam, the first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize in Physics (1979), for his contributions to the unification of the fundamental forces of nature, who today lies buried in a desecrated grave, isolated and rejected by his own country. Invisible Particles reimagines the erased history of India’s first woman physicist, Bibha Chowdhuri, and her struggles against the deeply entrenched patriarchy, social prejudices, and colonial injustices of her times, as she joins the global hunt for an elusive, elementary particle—the meson.