I recently watched a movie by R Madhavan called ‘Rocketry- The Nambi Effect’. The movie is about the ambitions and the hardships of an Indian Aerospace Engineer to put his nation in the front-seat of rocket competition and the struggles faced by him due the false accusation of espionage and defamation caused after that. The movie has made a successful attempt to develop the feeling of proud for Nambi Narayanan in the first half and the feeling of real sorrow in the second half in the heart of every Indian. I think, this magic of creating a roller coaster of emotions, the magic of touching people’s heart is what movies and storytelling is all about. One can see R Madhavan’s sincere efforts, his dedication and the respect for the character in every frame of the movie.
The first half of the movie tells us about the scholastic levels of Mr. Nambi Narayanan, the smart decisions, the boldness of his character which developed the foundations of the ISRO in an aggressive and cost-effective ways. Right from the idea of visionary thinking of Cryogenic rocket engines, to the pointing out an error in the famous author’s books, to completing time-consuming full fledged research work in mere 10 month, to getting hands on French technology, solving the flaws in it, to getting the technology from Russians knowing the high levels of risks associated with it are the highlighted events which show the greatness of Nambi Narayanan’s love for the nation and his genius.
The second half is about the false charges put on Nambi Narayanan on selling secrets to other country for personal gains. Then the mental and physical torture he and his family went through will break your heart. One can only imagine what could have happened in reality with the person and his family. The second half is about the attitude of Mr. Nambi Narayanan’s persistence, the attitude of not giving up, the belief in truth and his unending love for the nation.
The conclusion of the movie is an apology to Nambi Narayanan which is such a smart and humble execution by R Madhavan for which he deserves very special recognition. We are really sorry for failing such ‘heroes of the nation and the society’.
While watching the scene of the interrogation of Nambi, there is this moment where the government officer asks Nambi that why nobody of his acquaintances from ISRO came to visit him when everybody is now aware of the accusations against him. They would have definitely tried to meet him if he was really innocent. Here, Nambi explains one common behavior of scientists- such behavior can be expected from majority of people but not scientists. Majority of people would have had thought of visiting their loved ones or their colleagues when jailed but scientists are somewhat eccentric when it comes to such “social-ideas”. This thing is effectively depicted in mere few seconds of the movie, which struck me.
One important thing that hit me during watching the movie ‘Rocketry’ was that history has similar examples of hardships faced by the flag bearers of science, knowledge and truth. Some notable examples are the Socrates, Alan Turing, Galileo Galilei, Rhazes and even Albert Einstein.
Socrates
One of the greatest philosophers the history has ever known, the founder of western philosophy was also victim of a trial which finally led to a death penalty for him. The trial of Socrates was one of the notable events in the ancient Greek history. The charges laid on Socrates were: corrupting the youth, worshiping false Gods and not worshiping the state religion. Socrates tries to defend himself but was unsuccessful. This was the time when the Athens was strongly under the influence of Sparta which was trying to take down the ancient Greece and taking down the greatest mind in Greece was pivotal move.
Anyways, despite having the chance to flee from Athens, Socrates accepted the death by consuming a poisonous liquid called “Hemlock”, knowing that what was done against him was wrong. Many people think that there were two different intentions – one political and one religious, which caused to this irreparable loss to Greek society then. The only hopeful thing is that his learnings lived forever through his disciples Plato and Xenophon. The ideas of Socrates corrupted (please mind the sarcasm!) great philosophers Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and today’s youth till date. The famous painting called The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David in 1787 tries to display the emotions at the final moments of Socrates which is a world-famous art.
Galileo Galilei
The famous astronomer, engineer, physicist who invented the refracting telescopes which are practically in use still today, the ideas of projectile motion, the motions of pendulums, the inventor of an ancestor to the thermometer called thermoscope was also victim of the wrong charges from Catholic Church.
The sad thing about Galileo was he was accused for believing in the right idea which was against the ideas of the church of his time. The idea of “Heliocentrism”- the idea of Sun being the in the center and not the Earth disturbed the Catholic Church at that time. The ideas of Galileo were backed up by his telescope observations of cosmological bodies like The moon, Jupiter and its moons, Venus, Milky Way and The Sun.
Galileo remained under house arrest for the rest of his life for going against the wrong beliefs. His ground-breaking book called “The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” was banned, the publication, future writing was banned. Galileo had to take back his idea and remain in imprisonment for the rest of his life due to the pressure of the catholic church of those times.
On a bittersweet note, after the life of Galileo, the Vatican apologized Galileo for the wrong they had done. On 31st October, 1992 Pope John Paul (II) formally apologized for the case of Galileo and it took 359 years for an apology to such a scholar.
Alan Turing
One of the greatest mathematicians, the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence also had a painful story which should not remain unmentioned here. The Enigma machine – a sophisticated message scrambler- ciphering device’s code was successfully broke by Alan Turing which gave Britain the competitive edge in the second world war. Though his contributions remained unknown to the world during his lifetime due to the “Official Secrets Act”, the works of Alan Turing is influencing our modern lives in almost every possible way.
Alan Turing was prosecuted for being a homosexual which was illegal during those times and has to undergo a hormone treatment to lower his sexual desires which is also known as “Chemical Castration”. This treatment had great impact on Alan Turing. Alan Turing died by cyanide poisoning at the age of 42.
61 years after the prosecution of the homosexual act on Alan Turing, Queen Elizabeth II gave posthumous pardon to Alan Turing in 2013. It took 61 years for an apology to Alan Turing. This too has bittersweet ending like Galileo.
Rhazes
One lesser-known event and a person from history is the person called Abū Bakr al-Rāzī also known as “Rhazes”. Al-Rāzī from Baghdad, Persia is considered as one of the world’s first great medical experts; he is known for the very first diagnosis of Smallpox and Measles where he identified the epidemic nature of the diseases. He is also known for the introduction of psychology and psychotherapy in medical sciences.
Al-Rāzī introduced the ideas of Hippocrates- known as the father of Medicine to the Arab world which led to his arrest on the orders of local Priest. His ‘western’ teachings, his books were abandoned under the claims of heresy. One day, the torturers hit his head with his own manuscript which eventually led to permanent blindness. He couldn’t continue his practice due to blindness and died in poverty.
Today, al-Rāzī is considered as the greatest and the most original of all Muslim physicians by famous historians. He is recognized as the father of pediatrics. Iran celebrates 27 August as ‘Pharmacy Day’ – ‘Razi Day’ in the honor of al-Rāzī as his birthday.
Conclusion
In the movie ‘Rocketry- The Nambi Effect’ the director gives us the idea of the moment when the Nambi Narayanan is officially declared as innocent by the Supreme Court of India. One can see the immediate behavioral changes in people around him. At this moment, Nambi Narayanan tells his wife about how he will be dedicating his whole life only to his family especially her, which is chilling enough to highlight the dedication he had for his nation which had taken his priorities on nation over family. This is the moment when audiences also realize that scientists though eccentric, different in a way are still humans and have families, are father, are husband, are friend to someone.
One cannot compensate for the amount of mental and physical loss such scholars go through when they are charged with such bottomless accusations. This needs specific awareness amongst us as a conscious crowd. It becomes our responsibility as a society to treat the great minds, special minds with the respect and dignity they deserve.
Humans are flawed, people make mistakes. Mistakes can be corrected too. At this point it is also important to weigh out the mistakes, all mistakes cannot be weighed equal in such extremely sensitive cases because there is no turning back once cascade of events starts happening. This requires simple habit of stopping for a moment, responding to the rumors, events rather than reacting to them.
One important thing to highlight is that, “It is only sheer luck of Indians to be able to apologize, to get a chance to say sorry to such a great personality called Nambi Narayanan who sacrificed so much for the nation, personally and professionally”. His belief in the greater good for the nation’s development even after such mistreatment is the proof of his humble, honest and great character. We have R Madhavan to thank for giving every Indian this opportunity. The granter of opportunity to correct the mistake in some way also becomes important in this sense. The movie really proves its point as “Sometimes a man wronged is a nation wronged.” Indians rather every society should be thoughtful about such ill-treatments to their scholars and consider themselves lucky enough to have this chance within time (which is not comparable to the loss happened to them) to apologize such great minds.
I think, an apology is not an event or a moment which separates and erases the ill-happenings from the conditions today and hereon; an apology is an attitude, a process which should get reflected in the behavior of a person, a society for the present and the coming future.
The best apology is changed behavior
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