Death of a Scientist

"PM A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to attend AoL",
as per the ToI.
"Hema Malini, Atal Bihari Vajpai support Ramdev",
this time The Hindu.

great! If India in shining so brightly there, what am I doing here, at a research institute? Well, Hema, Vajpai are just public figures....no doubt, if they do it! Main et tu, PM? This is not expected from you. Apart from being a public personality, you are (or rather were) a scientist! The thing, I proud to be of, despite being a harmless, useless and pretty ill-paid servant of the nation. I am sorry sir, but I can't respect you for this, if I am to continue with my self-respect. (I don't mind attending such programmes with a open scientific mind. My objection is in the blind faith people are pushing into following your moves sir!)

There is a very thin line between Philosophy(PH) and Spirituality(SP), I believe. The former being a scientific study, based on a few axioms, of evolution of a culture, whereas the later has grown on personal interpretations of the experiences gathered throughout, and claim a global applicability (which has no a-priori reason for). I feel, the difference between the two lies in their being objective versus subjective respectively. Any ways, why mess up it all? Mr. ramdev has already proved his Saiyyam very recently, when a small perturbation stroke his Arkashala.

My institute spends good part of its annual budget on Science popularization programmes. I think what should be nurtured among the masses is not the science itself, but the scientific attitude. Unfortunately, many interesting fields of life such as performing arts, economy and sociology are not looked upon as a scientific subject. Nevertheless, a scientific attitude does exists in their studies. On the other hand, even one's scientific background doesn't seem to develop the scientific attitude, at least in India. Why??

What goes for PH and SP, also goes for astronomy(AN) and astrology(AL). The Saturn which doesn't know by himself which way to go and needs the Sun, the moon, the jupitor and every other celestial object to fix its trajectory, how can govern my lifestyle here on earth? What force? which interaction? The interesting thing is the planet which, according to me, affects our life the most directly, the earth, doesn't have any importance in the horoscope? Isn't it surprising?

Last night sky observation with my institute mates was great experience, until someone from my institute (and for my mishap, a grad. student from a department, for which next whole century is reserved of hopes) started asking questions like what happens if Venus goes into such and such constellation and blah blah.......

It was the death of a scientist! It was death of the science!