Raman and Chandrasekhar: Lighting up the Stars by Arundhati Venkatesh(Author), Priya Kuriyan(Illustrator)
My take on the book:
It was 1921, the school term has ended, and Chandrasekhar was excited for the holidays — he just started attending school this year after being home-schooled till then and based on his brilliance at studies he was directly given admission to Third Form.
The constant attention by his school mates did not excite Chadra, he was looking for options to drop off from school and go back to learning at home. Except his eldest sister Rajakka, who hated the preferential treatment given to him, everyone around him constantly hyped Chandra which annoyed him.
While Chandra and his assortment of siblings were looking for ways to entertain themselves during the school holidays, their uncle Raman Chithappa visited them. As Raman engaged the kids in his experiments around light and sound, Chandra’s Amma was frustrated, their cooks and care takers Panchu Mama and Thyagu Mama were on the verge of quitting and leaving this household, their neighbor Gopalaiyya suspected this family are a bunch of criminals and involved in executing something sinister.
How did these experiments entertain and educate the kids forms the rest of the story.
This is the story of how world-renowned Nobel prize winners C.V. Raman and S. Chandrasekhar spent time together in Chandra’s childhood and how Raman influenced Chandra’s future interests in science especially Physics. The story has equal amounts of humor and science; Chandra’s siblings and their antics, especially by his youngest siblings Sarada and Vidya will leave the reader in splits, so does Raman’s Rasam usage with all exclamations.
The science experiments are done with such ease and simplicity by Raman that young kids can also understand and follow them. These are also bound to create curiosity and interest in kids and inspire them to do their own new experiments.
The ease with which the author laces humor into the story is commendable, while also subtly highlighting societal practices of those times, like how Rajakka and Chinnakka are not allowed to travel along with the boys of the family, their marriages being fixed at a very young age, Gnanam Pati living in utter miserable state due to being a child widow and being considered a bad luck omen.
There are also other interesting facts from those times like transportation meant using cycles and jutkas, travel to a different country via sea on ships took months. A very interesting fact about this book is the author’s afterword where she explains which sequences are facts and which are fictional and how they have been conceived.
Each chapter number is the book is meant to be solved through a mathematics equation which will be good exercise for young readers. The author also added standout quotations of famous personalities of Science and Mathematics in the footer of most pages, which will intrigue young minds. For those who only knew about the science experiments done by Raman, this book introduces his fun and witty side.
Overall, this book is a must read for young kids which will help inculcate interest in Science and Maths.
My rating:
5/5.