Karpacz
and Austin
I received an invitation from the
University of Wroclaw to attend the Winter School scheduled to be held at
Karpacz from 16 February to 1st March 1975.
Professor Cecile DeWitt was one of the principal lecturers of the School
and I was to supplement her lectures with my recent work on Feynmans
Path Integration. I looked forward to attending it as I was keen to meet
Cecile. So far my interaction with her had been through exchange of mail. I had
to wait for at least six weeks for each letter to reach her and for her
clarifications to my queries to reach me. I would leave sufficient free space
in my letters for her to write her replies to my queries. I wanted to meet her face-to-face. She was equally keen to see me.
Instead of summer breaks the Himachal
Pradesh University had long winter breaks. Usually the University was closed
for teaching in the months of January and February. I did not need leave of
absence for attending the Winter School in Poland as it fell in the winter break.
But I had to find financial support for meeting the cost of passage from India
to Poland and back. Because of financial stringencies the Vice-Chancellor was
willing to give me a partial support for meeting the travel costs. Professor
Salam offered me a lump sum grant which I could use for my visit to the ICTP
and for making some savings from it by reducing my living expenses in Trieste.
I applied to the Department of Science and Technology in New Delhi for a travel
grant. It gave financial assistance
equal to half the air fare from New Delhi to Warsaw and back.
I equipped myself with woollens for
spending two weeks in a snow covered ski resort of Poland. Karpacz is on a hill
sharing the border of Poland with Czechoslovakia. I planned to take a night
train from Warsaw to a station close to Karpacz. My scheduled flight to Rome,
which came from Bombay, did not land in Delhi because of thick fog and I left a
day later than I had planned. I reached Rome in time for my connecting flight
to Trieste. I was in for a surprise on reaching Rome. I was told that all
domestic Alitalia flights had been cancelled on account of wildcat strike by
the pilots. I had left India with eight
dollars as my out of pocket allowance for meeting incidental expenses during the
journey. I found myself in an unanticipated precarious situation because I was
counting on drawing advance from the ICTP on reaching Trieste. The airline refused to give me assistance as
there were thousands of other stranded passengers. I had no choice but to wait
at the Rome airport. By late afternoon I was told I could take a special flight
to Venice. I was not sure whether my eight dollars would cover the train fare
from Venice to Trieste but I had no other choice. I found I could buy a train
ticket to Trieste with the money I had. Instead of reaching Trieste on a
weekday I reached there late on a Friday evening way past the working hours of
the ICTP. At the Trieste Railway Station at a magazine kiosk I noticed Dr.
Hemande, the Administrative Officer of the ICTP. He had come to buy newspapers.
We exchanged greetings. He left by wishing me, See
you on Monday. I could check in a
Hotel near the Railway Station as it did not ask for deposit to be paid in
advance. Now the challenge was to spend
the weekend without any money. I contacted Mr. Carli, my former landlord. He
invited me for lunch to his home. He picked me from my hotel, fed me well, and
brought me back to my hotel. But I had to spend one more day without money. I
have written this story to share the inconvenience caused by the foreign
exchange policies of the Government of India then.
On Monday I could drawn an advance from
the ICTP. I met Professor Salam. I told him my working conditions in Simla. On
the spot he decided to give me financial assistance of US$ 200 for books and
subscription of journals, and in addition the Library of the Centre was to send
me photocopies of the articles on receiving my requests. This assistance to me
from the ICTP was given to me for five years. I am happy to recall that I received
support both from unknown and known well-wishers who were keen to help me in
settling down in my home country.
I found out while in Trieste that the
night train from Warsaw to Karpacz left
at 10 pm. This information was insufficient as I had not realised that like in
Delhi there could be several train stations in Warsaw. I was counting on getting the needed
information on my arrival in Warsaw. I had not made the train bookings in
advance and did not know the name of the Railway Station for taking the train.
It was my mistake to have decided to travel in a foreign country without proper
planning. A stranger realised my
predicament. He took me to the right Railway Station, purchased a sleeper
ticket for my journey and ensured that I occupied the allotted berth.
I am indebted to that person in going out of his way in helping a foreigner.
I was happy to meet Cecile DeWitt. We held
several fruitful discussions. I spent a pleasant two weeks in Karpacz. I made
friends with Polish participants. One participant offered to take me with him
to his home in Krakow. At the end of the Winter School I went by train to
Krakow. I saw the beautiful ancient town of Krakow. I purchased an amber resin
necklace for Asha. I reached Warsaw by train from Krakow. Another participant
who lived in Warsaw met me on my arrival at the Railway Station. He had
arranged my accommodation for the night with a landlady who took paying guests.
In Warsaw I attended a live concert performance of the Warsaw Symphony
Orchestra. After the concert I walked through Warsaws
old town. It was rebuilt after the war to look exactly like what it was before
it was razed to rubble. It had freshly laid cobblestone passages which were
made to look centuries old. Each structure
in the old town displayed its prewar picture and the picture of the rebuilt
structure.
On my return I became actively involved
with research activities. I published a paper in the Journal of Mathematical
Physics on The
Generalized Wiener-Feynman Path Integrals.
At Karpacz Cecile had pointed out to me the linear Cameron-Martin transformations.
I used them for working out general expressions of covariances for
pro-distributions useful in quantum mechanics.
This work was published in 1976. I had also published in 1975 a paper in
the Journal of Physics titled Comment
on Exact Evaluation of a Path Integral Relating to an Electron Gas in a Random
Potential.
Asha joined St Bedes
College as a lecturer in economics. We had moved into a newly constructed, beautiful
apartment in Summer Hill. The Department of Physics also shifted from the Manse
building to the newly constructed Science Block in Summer Hill. I was the Head
of the Department of Physics of the University. Dr. Vinay Joshi joined the Department
of Physics on his return to India after his Ph.D. from the University of North
Carolina. He became a family friend.We made a trip to Kalpa in Kinnaur with
Vinay Joshi. Dr. Kayande lived in Boileaugunj not too far from where we lived.
He mentioned that with his family he was immigrating to Canada. We bid him
farewell and were happy to have known each other.
Gargi was four years old and was keen to
go to school. Her grandmother came from Calcutta.On
the first day of Gargis schooling she took her to
the Loreto Convent School, Tara Hall.
Our main entertainment in Summer Hill was
going to the Mall by the last train of the day
to Simla. After strolling on the Mall we walked home 6 km carrying shoulder
bags filled with shopping. Gargi walked
the distance listening to stories. Our tea breaks on the way made the long walk
manageable. We enjoyed our life in Simla. It was moving in rhythm.
I felt disappointed as a teacher. In spite of our teaching efforts our students
did not come up to the standards essential for joining research work. I
discovered that almost all of them were recruited by the
Directorate of Secondary Education as post-graduate physics teachers. I started
questioning the relevance of the curriculum of the M.Sc. course which was designed
principally for education of students leading to career of teaching/research in
physics. I realised that if the M.Sc. curriculum was reoriented with emphasis on
basic physics concepts rather than on advanced physics concepts students would
be better prepared for teaching in government-funded schools. I anticipated
that it might result in domino effect as good teachers will provide good
schooling which will give good students to colleges which will give good
students to the University for higher studies.
Dr. R. K. Singh,
the first Vice-Chancellor, had handpicked teachers for the University. There
were many good teachers who had joined the new university. Like me he had handpicked
Dr. Kalyan Chatterjee. He had a Ph.D. in
English from the University of Chicago.
The overall academic profile of the University was much superior to that
of similar other institutions in the country. But the high academic profile of the University
declined noticeably when many initially recruited teachers left and their
places were filled locally. I now could not foresee a long term career in this
University.
A chance encounter which changed my
professional life occurred on a train
journey from Calcutta to Delhi. At the Burdwan Railway Station I was pleasantly
surprised when Dr. Kayande entered the coach. He told me that instead of going
to Canada he had joined the National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) as a Professor in Mathematics. He was at the Regional College
of Education (RCE) Mysore of the NCERT.
This institution had recently started M.Sc. Ed courses in physics,
chemistry and mathematics for preparing postgraduate teachers in these subjects.
The RCE from its inception was running four-year integrated B.Sc.Ed course for
preparing science and mathematics secondary school teachers. Dr. A. K. Sharma,
who was earlier teaching chemistry in the Punjab University Chandigarh, had
joined the RCE Mysore as the Professor in Chemistry. Dr. Kayande mentioned that
Dr. Rais Ahmed, a physics teacher himself from the Aligarh Muslim University,
was the Director of the NCERT. He was keen to recruit a Professor in Physics
for the RCE Mysore programme. What Dr. Kayande shared with me in that fateful
train journey was akin to a similar idea I was toying with in my mind. Dr.
Kayande suggested to me to join the RCE Mysore. He pointed out that Mysore City
is on a plateau and its weather throughout the year is similar to that of
Bangalore and is pleasant. I knew that Mysore was visited by a large number of
tourists each day. Dr. Kayande said that on reaching Delhi he would send me the
application form for applying to the NCERT for the post in Mysore.
Professor Cecile DeWitt wanted me to spend
a semester at the University of Texas at Austin against a leave vacancy. She
suggested that I should come there with my wife and daughter. I met the
Vice-Chancellor of the University for granting me leave of absence for four and
a half months to go to the University of Texas at University. I was shocked and
disgusted by his response, Lock
the Department of Physics and go!
I asked Professor Cecile DeWitt to arrange my visit to
Austin for a shorter period matching my winter vacations. She managed to invite
me for seven weeks as a Visiting Professor in Mathematical Physics. Arranging a
short term appointment for me involved procedural issues and by the time the
offer was cleared I had only one week to join. As the appointment was for a
short duration it was not possible for me to take Asha and Gargi with me. I
would not have been able to meet the travel costs for three of us from the
remuneration I was going to receive from the University of Texas at Austin.
I had gone to Delhi to make my travel
bookings for going to Austin. I went to the Indian National Science Academy in
Delhi for a physics seminar. I met there a professor from the University of
Delhi who was one of the members of the selection committee of the NCERT which
had interviewed me for the post of Professor in Physics. He knew me well as he
had been my teacher. He congratulated me and mentioned to me that the NCERT has
selected me as a Professor in Physics. In the Seminar I also met Professor E.
C. G. Sudarshan, a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin.
He was on a short visit to India. He knew of the offer made to me by his
University. Perhaps, he was instrumental in arranging it. He was concerned that
I should reach Austin in time to avail the offer. He knew a senior functionary
in the Educational Wing of the US Embassy. He spoke to that person and asked me
to take a letter from him before going to the Consular Section of the US
Embassy for my visa.
My unpleasant meeting with the Vice-Chancellor
of the Himachal Pradesh University and my general uneasiness in that
institution contributed in making up my mind that I did not want to return to
it. I was inclined to accept the NCERT offer. I left for Austin and reached in
time for my short term appointment. Cecile had arranged an apartment for me in
the Castilian Residence Hall walking distance away from the main campus of the
University. She was expecting me with my family.
Cecile told me my assignment in Austin. I
had no clue of it before leaving India. As it was a short term assignment I had no time in preparing for it after my
arrival. I gave my first seminar less prepared than a novice gladiator released
inside the colosseum filled with the Roman gentry interested in seeing action
of ferocious lions waiting to devour him. Cecile asked me to teach a short course
on Feynmans
path integrals. For my first lecture I was pushed inside the seminar hall
graced by luminaries such as Professor John Wheeler and other members of the
distinguished physics faculty! I survived the ordeal and I do not want to
remember how I had managed what was expected of me. I attended a course on
product integrals in the Mathematics Department. I used product integrals in
working out the Feynman-Kac expression for solution of the Schrodinger equation
in the form of a path integral. I worked out the Liouville measure for the
formulation of quantum mechanical
propagator as a phase space Feynman path integral. Cecile DeWitt, B. Nelson and I wrote a paper Path
Integration in Phase Space.
This work was published in the journal General Relativity and Gravitation in
1977.
It was a pleasure meeting Yavuz Nutku
after eight years. He had married again. He and his wife took me out in their
open convertible car to an interior place in Texas about 100 miles from Austin.
It had the look of John Waynes wild-west cowboy
westerns with a saloon, bar and sheriffs
office.
Professor Sudarshan invited me to his home
for dinner to join his distinguished guest Professor Hans Bethe. Professor
Bethe was the first person who understood the burning process inside stars. The
legend is that while strolling with his wife in the campus of the Cornell
University he told her that he was the only person in the world who knew how energy
was produced by our own Sun which sustained life on earth. He was an
outstanding teacher. I met Professor
Bethe informally at Professor Sudarshans
home and not in a physics seminar. I am happy
to recall that I ate a South
Indian meal served in thalis with a Nobel Laureate.I have so
far restrained myself from mentioning that some of the physicists who played crucial role in my life were Nobel
Laureates.
In
Austin I mentioned to some of my friends that I may shift to the RCE Mysore.
The physicists there discouraged me from making a radical shift in my career. One
of them pointed out, What
do you know of teacher education? It is a discipline like physics. You will
make a mess of your life. You will
neither be able to retain your identity as a physicist nor be able to acquire
one of a teacher educator.
Professor Sudarshan said, Let
Amar try what he wants to do.
But he gave me one year to indulge in my act of madness. He
said, If
in a year you are unable to adjust in Mysore we will pull you out from there.
He was also the Chairman of the Centre for Theoretical
Studies (CTS) in the Indian Institute of Science. He suggested to Cecile to
spend three weeks in June-July of 1977 in Bangalore and asked me to spend three
weeks in the CTS during Ceciles
visit.
I am happy that on
returning to India I spent my first five years in Simla. When I look back at those five years I find
those were the happiest period in my personal life and were also the crucial
years in my professional life. The Simla experience made me well adjusted with
the working conditions in India. I
realised that should I decide now to shift to some other institution in India I
would not face problems of adjustment because working conditions there could
not be worse than those I had worked with in Simla.
Once Gargi asked me what I did. She was
disappointed when I told her I taught physics to students. She suggested, Bapu,
why dont
you sell candies and chocolates like the Uncle who sits outside my school?
I was firm in my mind that I would prefer following Gargis
suggestion to continuing any longer with the Himachal Pradesh University. I
neither maintained my lien with the Himachal Pradesh University nor applied for
professors
post in it. I joined the RCE Mysore on June 15, 1977.