Science, Engineering, Medicine, TV and India (whew!)

Ever since I was a child, I've had this instinctive liking for Science and machinery of all kinds.

I think a large part of this liking had to do with those amazing books of Childcraft, Young Scientist, The World Book........ you get the drift right? All of them were American books.It was because of these books that I was aware of - and amazed with the many things we have been able to achieve by understanding (and applying :-) many "engineers" don't seem to get that part right) science.

Anyway, point is that I was always more aware of the achievements which the Americans, Europeans, Japanese and the whole world had made, except for India (and :-) U.S.S.R. - so it's not too difficult to guess why is it? - for those who don't - it's the cold war bonehead! )Naturally, I became attracted with the West (the pro US world) and disillusioned with India. "So haven't we achieved anything?" I questioned myself. I came to believe that all US products were naturally superior with respect to their quality of engineering (well most, but not all of it was true).

Some people told me I was getting carried away with those 'angrezi' books, and that I should quit them, and opt for well written (as claimed by those who detested the angrezi books... but may be true ), but badly illustrated, horribly presented books. They were very unsavoury (yeah even more unsavoury than that title for this blog ;-) ) to look at, leave alone read and understand.
Indeed there were those books written by the greats like the ones (I forget their names) written Dr. Jayant Narlikar. But on the whole, there were very few books which came even close to what Childcraft or Young Scientist et al offered.

It's easy to blame it on parents by saying that they only buy them angrezi books. But the fact is that given a choice, any child would choose to use Childcraft et al simply because they are easy to understand, highly and well illustrated and on the whole, far more attractive.

Cut to present.

The average TV show sucks....period. And that's being really kind. I mean what the #$!@, why are people obessed with that saas-bahu(SB) thing, with their recursively convoluted plots and evil minded characters whose only objective in life is collusion?! In all of that garbage,The Discovery Channel is the only channel I find interesting (and sensible - well at least most of the time, unless its a show on the mating of honey bees or something -but then at least it's better than SB :-) ).

Somehow though, I feel a sense of deja vu whenever I watch those shows. It's the same thing all over again. The U.S., or europe (occasionally), and about their achievements. This time round though, I've grown up enough to realise, that many good things exist in India too, but they are simply not shown (and I mean in terms of science and engineering or medicine, not the snake charmers stuff).
What worries me though is that children today are watching it, and possibly feeling the same stuff I felt when I read those angrezi books. That apart, these shows are even broadcasted in Hindi, meaning more coverage (even more that angrezi 'cos more audience). Why don't we see some of the cool stuff (like GMRT, the simputer, or the BrahMos for example) which is Made In India?

The solution isn't easy.

To be continued.....(but comments would be appreciated :-) )