From-here-there-everywhere

CHANDRA It was a great experience to read   'Chandra-A biography of   S Chandrashekhar'. This book was for long on my list of "to read". I did not have any great expectations from a biography as compared to a work of fiction which is likely to be more engaging.   But then, what an experience it was! I do not claim to have read many biographies, but I found this to be a class in itself. Well, I am not going to review it but instead, narrate how it was a revelation to me about many things such as :- 1. The social fabric of the society in the pre independence era in Madras, especially in the traditional Brahmin families. 2.Although bound by such rigid customs, how Chandra's family rose above them.....Even Lalita's (Chandra's wife) grandparents broke all social taboo associated with a child widow in their family.Just remarkable. 3. Psychological influence of Mathematician Ramanujam on the educated youth of that time. 4. How Chandra, in

A book to inform, enrich and entertain every science educated reader. This is a fascinating and enjoyable popular science book on gravity and black holes. It offers an absorbing account on the history of research on the universe and gravity from Aristotle via Copernicus and Newton to Einstein. The author possesses high literary qualities and is a celebrated relativist. The physics of black holes constitutes one of the most fascinating chapters in modern science but at  the same time, there is a fanciful quality associated with this strange and beautiful entity. The black hole story is undoubtedly an adventure through physics, philosophy, history, fiction and fantasy. This book is an attempt to blend all these elements together.Along with the prose, one also gets to enjoy poetry and cartoons by the author. "The author blends fiction, fantasy, physics and philosophy to tell the story of gravitation theory...and the astrophysics of black holes. He not only succeeds at