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

was yet another promising scientist eaten up by the bureaucratic Black Hole of New Delhi, thought Kirtikar as he glanced at the names of the committee members.
    The high powered nature of the committee was obvious from the fact that no less than the Home Minister, Bhagvati Dayal Upadhyay, a minister of cabinet rank, was chairing it. The Minister of State for Science was the next person, followed by secretaries from the Departments of Home Affairs (Probir Ganguly), Culture (Harisharan), Information and Broadcasting (Shafi Ahmed) and Science and Technology, represented by Raj Nath as the Convener. The list of official members also included Dr Ramesh Gupta, Director General of the Archaeological Survey and, curiously enough, two other names with no designation given. Of these two, the name of Major Samant seemed to ring a bell, but exactly when and where Kirtikar could not recall.
    The unofficial members included, apart from himself, Drs Arul, Laxmanan and Navin Chandra Pande. A Raj Nath touch, probably. Otherwise such junior people would never have found their way into a high-level committee of this kind. Well … there is still some fire left in the old dog after all, thought Kirtikar, as he called for his travel section to book him a ticket to Delhi.
    The date of the meeting, he noticed, was the very next day.
    Technology Bhavan is a single storeyed building standing next to the Qutub Hotel on the outskirts of Delhi. Unlike most other government departments which are in the neighbourhood of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Science and Technology Department was tucked miles away from the corridors of power. Was this symbolic, Kirtikar used to wonder?
    The building itself once belonged to the United States Information Service. Now maintained by the P.W.D. it had naturally lost the polish it had in earlier times. Kirtikar, who had visited the U.S.I.S. a couple of times in the past, could not fail to notice the decline in standards as he was conducted to the Secretary’s office.
    ‘Hallo, Raj!’ he greeted the figure barely visible behind the smoke. He was meeting Raj for the first time since he had left for this Delhi assignment. He was somewhat taken aback to see the change in his appearance.
    ‘Welcome Prashant … take a seat’, Raj Nath greeted him with the characteristic effusiveness that came so naturally to him.
    ‘You startled me, Raj. When did you grow such long hair? You look like one of those ancient sages living out in the jungle’, Kirtikar said, half jokingly. But Raj turned serious.
    ‘Whether I look like a sage or not is debatable. That New Delhi is a jungle, is not! … Come, tell us about good old Bombay, which I miss so much. But, first, tea or coffee?’ He pressed a bell fixed to the side of his table.
    His P.A. entered, duly took the order and departed. Yes! Things were different here. In earlier times they would both have trooped down to the canteen, stood in the queue and served themselves.
    ‘Good you came somewhat earlier, so I can brief you about this meeting’, Raj Nath relit his pipe.
    ‘You had better! In any case, a rustic from Bombay like me feels a little overawed by this high level committee.’
    ‘It was constituted by the P.M. himself … in fact, it went through an amusing metamorphosis. Strictly between us, I will tell you how.’
    ‘Absolutely!’ Kirtikar recalled how often he had heard that phrase from Raj back in the institute. He knew it to be a prelude to some scandal.
    ‘The P.M. wanted an expert committee to quickly assess the container and its contents; and he so instructed the Department of Culture. Naturally, the matter landed in Harisharan’s lap.’
    ‘Harisharan?’ Kirtikar asked.
    ‘Secretary, Department of Culture’, explained Raj Nath, blowing out a smoke ring. ‘Harisharan promptly constituted a list and sent it to the P.M. for consideration … you know what the P.M.’s comment was? He said it looked like a marriage party made up of caterers and bandsmen but