08-16-2017, 09:19 PM
February 28 is celebrated every year the "National Day of Science". Yes, there is such a day. And there has been one for some time. It is reported that on this day in 1928 a 40-year-old Tamil brahman named Chandrasekhar Venkar Raman seated in Calcutta discovered certain phenomena with respect to the scattering of light, which would come to be known as the "Raman Effect." The Nobel Prize for Physics continued in 1930. His was the first in science, where an Indian had done research in India. It was also the last one. Under the impetus of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Communication (NCSTC), the honorable government of the Union of India has designated February 28 as the "National Science Day" since 1987. In states where councils and Provincial councils of education continue to dominate, This "day" is largely unknown. Events are usually held in schools with national programs, central government offices, especially educational and research institutions, events often bring the main sarkari guests - from the dubious to the infamous to the occasional sage, the lamps are lit, they are made Speeches, warm Worn and hung, lots of tea and coffee is drunk, some samosas are consumed. And then everyone goes home. Some more things happen on this day. The awards are given for excellence is to popularize science and innovative scientific education. The Prime Minister, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of State for himself (when there is one) clarifies the faces of some newspaper owners by providing full page advertisements displaying their glittering faces and a message of a Paragraph to the nation. This is how we, the citizens of India, get our annual linkage of the scientific spirit. In some schools there will be competitions and prizes. There will be energetic children whose joy will be invariably suppressed by the bureaucratic approach with which many organizers will address the event. It will become one of that long set of state-sponsored farces that a school year in this country is splashed. A Raman, a Saha, a Bose, will encounter a premature death among those dreamy children. Again, some officials and bureaucrats will breathe lightly at the end of this day, as if their niece had married. Some decorators, suppliers and suppliers will do a small business, some will get small bribes. Such is the fate of us, mean people.
What more can we expect from such an imaginative and descending exercise so divorced from people and society? The idea is - this would create among the population an appreciation of science, among young people a dream to unravel the mysteries of this world, this universe, this human condition. On the question of declining popularity of classical music in Pakistan, Professor Arifa Sayeda Zohra of the National College of Arts, Lahore had said that contemporary ears that are attuned to the ka-ching sound of coins are blunt to complexities Of khayal. A population whose idea of success is defined by the 50 lakh wages of the IIM types, whose best mathematician-physicist-engineers end up as numerical crunches for financial market speculators, has a rather poor appreciation of basic scientific research. In the absence of this appreciation, there is no social audit of science in India - hence many teachers happily plagiarize, publish third degree research papers in the 4th grade, mostly Indian journals that are read by few and cited at least. Some of them often pass as experts, serving in subcommittees, exuding a cynical notion of serving time. In looking at these creatures, many young people can not follow science.