Free The Return of Vaman - A Scientific Novel by Jayant V. Narlikar

to Arul, we qualify.’ Navin’s reasoning appealed to everyone present.
    Raghavan procured precise measuring instruments to determine the exact common focal point on the box. This was the point where the evacuation would have been done. However, electrical drills failed to puncture the surface. Arul himself was nonplussed. Was his inspired reasoning to prove a red herring after all?
    ‘I think the drills we are using are too thick … I will try a very thin needle’, Raghavan spoke as if suddenly inspired.
    ‘Well done, Raghavan!’ Arul slapped him on the back and sent him to fetch the finest needle available.
    And to everybody’s delight the finest of all needles pierced the metal as easily as it would a piece of cork. There was the hissing sound of air entering the container as the needle was withdrawn. The entire top of the container automatically came up by two inches and turned on a hinge.
    The contents were covered by a fine cambric-like material. As it was pulled aside, everyone present had the feeling that he was looking at something out of this world.
    9 The Committee
    A letter in an envelope marked ‘secret’ and closed with sealing wax, contained within another sealed manila cover, and that too delivered by special courier … Professor Kirtikar as a rule was not a frequent receiver of such mail. He read the contents with some misgivings for he never looked forward to committee meetings in the nation’s capital. The letterhead carried the address of the Department of Science and Technology in red letters to indicate that it was an official communication from a department of the government.
    A top level committee has been constituted to look into the findings of the Gauribidnur container and you have been appointed a non-official member of this committee. The committee’s first meeting has been arranged in Technology Bhavan at 11 a.m. on 2 February and you are requested to kindly make it convenient to attend the meeting.
    An office order specifying the TA/DA rules for non-official members attending the meetings of this committee is attached for your information.
    Professor Kirtikar smiled as he read through the letter. The contents were all phrased in the passive mode so cherished by bureaucrats. The addressee must never know who was to be held responsible for all the plans reported in the letter—certainly the sender could not be held accountable for the statements in it. The only thing that could not be avoided by the sender was providing his own name (albeit slightly obscured by an illegible signature) at the end of the letter.
    Raj Nath! Kirtikar mused sadly as he read that name. Raj Nath, a one-time colleague on the institute’s faculty, was a close friend of his. And of so many others, young and old. A lively person with liberal views, Raj Nath had been affectionately called ‘Smoke Chimney’ by his colleagures, for his habit of incessantly smoking through a pipe. Indeed, it was often difficult to see Raj Nath clearly through the smoke screen around him. But those who had discussed science with him knew that beneath all that smoke there was a highly perceptive brain. A molecular biologist by profession, Raj Nath had views on fundamental physics ranging from superconductivity to cosmology and would often be found animatedly expressing them in the institute’s canteen.
    But, alas, not any more! Just over two years ago, a short while before Kirtikar himself became the director, the long arm of the government, always on the look-out for distinguished scientists to run the science administration from New Delhi, had taken Raj Nath away to head the D.S.T. His colleagues were sorry to see him go, but had hoped that a man of his freshness and liberal outlook was just what the bureaucracy in Delhi needed.
    As Kirtikar looked at Raj Nath’s letter he realized how misplaced those hopes were. The same Raj who used to be infuriated by officialdom, now excelled in writing DO’s in the best officialese. Here