There was Einstein who was born
on Pi day, and now, quite sadly, there is Hawking who went “flying like
a superman in microgravity” (to quote NASA). This blogger had stopped writing
obituaries, and despite some amazing people passing away in recent times I have
stopped expressing my condolences for the reason that, I realize, these are
quite personal moments, as also that there are some disgraceful cringeworthy people
who even use condolences for self-promotions, indeed they are waiting for any
opportunity to grab on to. It’s very sad being an Indian you end up confronting
the worst kind of humans, almost on daily basis.
But this time around I cannot
resist. Stephen Hawking is a big loss in more than many ways. He really was
stupendous. I recall when he came to India, in 2001, I was so very excited for
the opportunity to listen to him in person, and stood in the queue for more
than four hours but unfortunately was not allowed in, couldn’t even get a
glimpse of the great man. And so ended up listening to him onscreen outside the
hall. I was totally devastated for not able to meet him, or listen to him live.
If ever there was someone I would have really loved to meet it was Stephen Hawking. Syzmborska writes about enigmatic Pi, that could be very
well be now true for Hawking “…nudging, always nudging a sluggish eternity to
continue”.
