End of an epoch

There are moments – few, but definitive – when the intellectual landscape of a nation seems to visibly alter, when the departure of certain figures leaves not just a void but a palpable sense of the end of an era. The recent deaths, in swift and sombre succession, of K. Kasturirangan (aged 84) on April 25, followed by M.R. Srinivasan (95) and Jayant V. Narlikar (86), both on May 20, represent such a moment for India. These were not merely men of science; they were foundational architects of India's post-colonial assertion in some of the most demanding arenas of human endeavour: the harnessing of the atom, the exploration of the cosmos, and the charting of the universe's grand, often bewildering, narrative. Their lives, intertwined with the story of a modernising India, were testaments to intellectual rigour and a profound, often understated, patriotism.