A Peep Into Void by Durgatosh Pandey

A few months ago, after the first wave of the Covid-19 wave receded in Varanasi, India, 3 of us, Sana, Avantika, and I, in our office, decided to nurture a plant each. Perplexed by the mysteries of an unknown virus that had wreaked havoc across the world, developed, developing, and underdeveloped, suffering alike, we wondered about the nature around us, decided to grow a plant as trees grow in a jungle. One of us ate an orange, collected the seeds inside it, and planted it in a flowerpot.

We started watering the flower pot on alternate days, aiming to keep the soil in it moist. For many days, nothing happened. Around the time we were about to abandon the experiment, we saw a few thin stems and a few green leaves attached to them. Elated we were about the green leaves, the mystery of a white seed turning into fibrous roots, stems, leaves, and, hopefully, a fruit completely escaped us.

Growing up in Varanasi, my curiosity about our surroundings gradually diminished with time. A significant share of the blame goes to the format of our school education. School textbooks never attached demanded the awe a scientific inquiry deserves. We were required to remember a scientific formula. Formulas never awed or inspired. They should have, but they didn't. Perhaps, I read the wrong books.

I recently read "A Peep Into Void" by Durgatosh Pandey, a surgeon by profession. As good books do, this book also gives the reader a new set of glasses to look around us. It improves our vision, raises our consciousness about our surroundings, and encourages us to be more curious.

The book primarily revolves around the theories in physics and the origin of the universe. How matter and energy are related? How time and space are related? Is the space we see around us continuous or discreet??Is the time continuous or discreet? How are time and space are related to energy and mass? How does everything connect to the origin of the universe? Like Hiranyagarbha Sukta in Rigveda, where Hiranyagarbbha, a cosmic egg, is believed to be the originator of all beings, the author also wonders about a cosmic egg.??In the human body, an egg gets transformed into multiple tissues. They share their origin but get transformed into distinct tissues of different body parts as life takes its form. Is that how the universe may have started?

Beyond exploring the ideas of physics, the author discusses another important human discovery, the ZERO. It is fascinating to read the author's take on infinity and zero, which beyond mathematical concepts, explores the interconnectedness with the philosophy and the universe.

The underlying idea behind every discussion in the book is how all the subjects and fields are interrelated and feed one another. In the initial chapters itself, the author stresses the fact that the quest of specialization has its benefits, but it should not happen at the cost of disconnect with the holistic view of things. To become specialists at things, we must not lose a sense of broader and important questions of our existence. We must not stop being curious about our surroundings, basic things in our life, much of which remains a mystery to us, like the Covid-19 virus.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone who is studying science in Class 11th or 12th. We need to learn to appreciate the beauty of scientific discoveries. For others, it's never late to get excited about the nature surrounding us, even if it only means wondering about things. That journey of curiosity is also beautiful and worthwhile.