This is written by another top Goan, Nitant Manguesh Kenkre, who is also a top physicist, currently professor at University of New Mexico. The man has done some top level work in relativity theory and other things. He and Vivek, easily Goas best, were friends in their teens. This essay written 5 years back, describes what he thinks of Vivek. Incidently Manguesh kenkre, Nitants father was one of Goas foremost artists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAPPY SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY, VIVEK! Because of the unfortunate legacy of democracy, it is sometimes said that all people are equally remarkable. I happen to think�Orwell is my inspiration�that some are more remarkable than others. I am delighted to share a few memories about one of the most such remarkable persons whose life trajectory crossed mine. Short of stature but strong and rugged, with an intelligent face always carrying a captivating smile, such was the young man, Vivek Monteiro, who was introduced to me by our mutual friend Frank Braganza. The introduction was accompanied with the information that Vivek had been ranked in a National Talent Search in India among *all* student participants and had been judged to be, not among the top thousand, or the top hundred, or the top ten, but the top person in all of India! Although I was three years older than he (at that age one thinks of such differences as enormous), we took to each other famously, and spent time together discussing science, philosophy, spirituality and a variety of other topics. Our exchanges started soon after we got to know each other and continued for about 6 years. After that, divergence of life trajectories resulted in almost all contact disappearing. I consider that a hugely unfortunate loss in my life. Vivek studied physics and was enrolled in 1966-68 in St. Xaviers college in Bombay. I wanted to study something other than engineering but felt myself trapped in IIT Powai. Finding electrical engineering the most theoretical of the technological branches, I parked myself in that field, keeping as much contact as I could manage with physics. The fact that it was physics that I thought provided the most effective blend of what I wanted to do, which prominently included activities involving both mathematics and philosophy, lent another reason to spend time with Vivek. Viveks two years at St. Xaviers coincided with my last two years at IIT. We visited each other frequently, spending weekends at each others dorms and attempting, as young men will, the solution of all the deep problems of the universe. Perhaps we convinced ourselves that we did solve most of them. I recall I used to call our conversations talking to the wall which meant that we thought aloud most of the time, each of us throwing out ideas, not necessarily to dispute the others. Of creativity and intelligence we might not have displayed too much during those discussions but of enthusiasm and energy we certainly did. Our physics preparation continued poorly (I so think having now spent many years practicing the field professionally), mainly because we confused physics with philosophy, and problem solving with day dreaming. I suspect that Vivek and I were partners in being enchanted with being enchanted with physics rather than in simply being enchanted with physics. The difference is rather deep. We did not know that at the time and did not care. Vivek was brilliant in those discussions. But a little subdued I seem to recall. I think that making irresponsible remarks, or not checking his calculations as one might say in physics, was never to his taste. I also remember that when, of the three qualities that I have always told myself (and my friends who would listen) one should cultivate�goodness, smartness, and strength�I complimented Vivek on having plenty of the first, he would say that he wished it was the second rather than the first that he excelled in. To me that was striking as I thought I was paying him the greatest compliment I could. Vivek was honest to a fault in his thoughts, his aspirations and his conduct. And always concerned with the human condition, a tremendous quality that I have always found wanting in my own make-up. Years later this became manifest in his socio-political activities ranging from his going on a hunger strike Vietnam time in Washington DC, and his work during the emergency in India. I was totally outside his sphere at those times. Problems we tackled in our discussions were scientific, aesthetic, and spiritual. Vivek came across to me, at that time at least, as being deeply religious in the Christian tradition. He gave me as a present on my birthday Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis, a favorite author of his. I picked the book up the other day from my shelves and saw that the inscription written in Viveks fine characteristic handwriting, carried in the signature place not Vivek Monteiro but Forio Sdliich. That brought a memory and a smile. Forio was Viveks alter ego, assigned by him great skill at throwing knives accurately. Sdliich I think represented the sound of the thrown knife. That brings back to me another remarkable quality of his, a fantastic sense of humor. It certainly was one of the reasons I appreciated him so much. It was a kind of humor that I like very much. Many years later another very close friend (and in this case a student) of mine, Srikanth Raghavan, used to call such humor looney humor. Once when we were having a profound discussion during a walk to Marine Lines in Bombay, Vivek and I found it excruciatingly important to kick a small block of ice all the way through the streets without letting it melt completely or get lost on the street. On reaching Viveks dorms we dissolved what was left of the ice piece in a way that unfortunately I am not at liberty to disclose in an article of this kind. A strange story perhaps, with little import to some of the readers, but it describes Viveks practical humor and brings to me what the Portuguese call saudades. Vivek, I mentioned, was a deep theist in the Christian, particularly Catholic, tradition. I, on the other hand, claimed to espouse Vedantic principles with all the ebullience of shallow understanding. The difference never stopped us from blending our ways, discussing our conflicts of view, and having a great time doing so. It was a wonderful time in my life. He impressed his friends academically one more time in that period by turning up fabulous results in his GRE exam which was the gate to graduate studies in the USA. I shifted fields and flew to Stony Brook to do my Ph. D. in theoretical physics, leaving engineering behind. On the basis of his GRE results, Vivek got in not only in Stony Brook but in Princeton and Caltech as well and joined the physics department considered the best of them, Caltech. When Vivek and I left our separate ways to our universities in the USA is when our close interaction ceased. It had a chance to be resumed a couple of years later, when, disillusioned by the cut-throat competitive atmosphere in Caltech, Vivek moved to Stony Brook where I studied. However, such resumption did not happen and our mutual contact in Stony Brook was minimal. The reason was primarily that his interests became sharply different from mine. I still wanted to discuss science, aesthetics and spirituality. Viveks passion on the other hand had shifted strongly to political matters. We shared a common Ph. D. thesis advisor, Max Dresden, who often bemoaned to me the fact that Vivek whom he knew to be potentially a brilliant scientist seemed less interested in physics than in politics. Vivek made great strides in the latter even while he chose a tough topic for his thesis, one related to ergodic theory in statistical mechanics. I obtained my Ph. D., taught at Stony Brook for a year and then left the university for other places in the USA to continue my research. Vivek continued, finished his Ph. D. work a few years later, and returned to India. We met very little during my infrequent visits to India in the ensuing decades. Already during the Stony Brook days I had sensed he had begun to consider me as belonging to the bourgeoisie and therefore distanced himself from me. That has changed little over the years, I am afraid, as I have attempted often unsuccessfully to reestablish contact with him. I believe that it was during our common time in Stony Brook that Vivek formed his views on socio-political matters, which later led him to a lot of his work in life, significant work for which he is known to most people. For me however, memories of Vivek are about his honesty, steadfastness, goodness, intelligence, and most clearly kindness, walks on the Powai campus and the Dhobi Talao area, talking to the wall, and crazy doings like the ice block walk. Through Vivek I came to know his noteworthy family. Of them all one of his sisters, Priti, became quite a close friend of mine. A remarkable lady with a fantastic laughter, and vast intelligence and kind disposition, she was friends with my wife Shaila as well as me, our occasional contact being first over the mail when she was studying at IIT Delhi and I at IIT Powai, and then in person when she was at Maryland and Shaila and I at Stony Brook. Priti and I have maintained contact over the years and hope to for many more. Apropos Viveks family I must mention that I had heard of Bar�o Monteiro, Viveks grandfather, as also a truly remarkable person who was energetic enough to climb trees in his eighties. I do not know the context of the arboreal exploits but it fits in with the picture I have of Vivek. At the present time, at 60 (the occasion we are celebrating), I know Vivek can scale mountains if he wishes. In the 80s I see no reason he will not be able to do the same. Many happy returns, Vivek! Nitant Kenkre, Albuquerque, USA, 2009.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:49:51 +0000
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