Stephen Hawking was born on 8th January,1942-which marked the 300th death anniversary of the great scientist Galileo and it is only a matter of fact that his death also coincided with the birth of the greatest genius Albert Einstein. Indeed Hawking was born in the asterism of scientists. At 21, Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, a motor neuron disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. But that didn’t stop him; he explored the mysteries of the Universe right from his wheelchair for nearly 55 years. Here, on his birthday we bring you stories of boys who did their education from the institutions of Delhi and gave voice to Hawking and the other story of the person who remembers Hawking as the person who grilled him for straight 11 hours during his PhD interview, with just two breaks.
Beginning with Hawking’s second journey to India in 2001, when he came to the capital, New Delhi to deliver the Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture in Delhi. His talk was titled, “Predicting the Future: From Astrology to Black holes”. Before coming to Delhi, he went to Mumbai where he met the two men, who practically bring the joy of voice in his life. Arun Mehta and Vickram Crishna, two young minds in divergent fields collaborated to create software that allowed him to complete sentences just with a few keystrokes, and hence they developed eLocutor.
Arun Mehta studied electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and elsewhere in the same university, Vickram Crishna, studied textile engineering and was busy running the music club in his graduation days. Both of them used to hang out off-campus and little did they know that their friendship will last more than decades and will provide the “power of voice” to the super-star scientist.
Another story is of Daksh Lohia, who now is a Particle Physicist and professor at Delhi University. He is also an alumnus of Cambridge University. Talking about him, Daksh mentions that he was a great professor, but the catchword in his talk was – “however” as if he is never contemptuous and satisfied with what is in front of him. He always shows discretion in the sense that he wants us to explore further. Although he was the most affectionate person throughout all interactions, during vivas-he used to turn into someone who haven’t met you even once in their lifetime. Another instance was related to acceptance of his dissertation, which Daksh remembers joyfully as well as in a confused state of mind when Hawking had told him that he will accept his PhD without removing the chapter.
Cover Photo: Mumbai Mirror
