MS Sparsha Hemendra Mohan Bose turned the emerging technology of sound recording into an instrument of the Swadeshi movement—and helped preserve a historic voice of nationalism When Indians hear the surname Bose, several towering names immediately come to mind. Satyendra Nath Bose revolutionised quantum physics; Jagadish Chandra Bose pioneered groundbreaking work in plant science and…
MS Sparsha There are some Indians whose names are written in history books. And then there are those whose inventions quietly shape our lives every single day, even though hardly anyone knows who they are. Dr Arogyaswami Paulraj belongs firmly to the second category. Born in Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, Paulraj joined the Indian Navy as…
MS Sparsha India’s territorial unification is usually told through familiar names—Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the princely states and the monumental task of bringing hundreds of disparate territories into the Union. But hidden in that larger story is an extraordinary episode that sounds almost fictional: for seven years, a tiny territory existed as a self-governing “free” enclave…
How N. Vittal and a satellite dish helped break the barriers that kept Indian software from the world MS Sparsha There was a time when sending software from India to an overseas client was almost as difficult as writing it. In the mid-1980s, India’s software industry was still an embryonic idea. Computers were expensive, international…
Dr. Inderjit Singh Anand’s remarkable journey from PGIMER to Siachen and the frontiers of heart-failure research MS Sparsha What happens to the human heart when the body is pushed to the very limits of survival? For most doctors, the question might belong in a laboratory. For Dr. Inderjit Singh Anand, it meant carrying sophisticated cardiac…
MS Sparsha History has a peculiar habit of remembering emperors, generals and political dynasties while quietly pushing aside those who served society without seeking power or personal glory. Among the many such forgotten figures is Rani Rashmoni of Bengal—a remarkable woman whose life was an extraordinary blend of courage, philanthropy, social responsibility and devotion. Born…
MS Sparsha History often celebrates the names of great scientists like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, C.V. Raman, and Homi J. Bhabha. Yet, hidden in the shadows of scientific history are remarkable individuals whose brilliance transformed modern science but whose names rarely find a place in textbooks. One such extraordinary Indian was Piara Singh Gill—a pioneering…
MS Sparsha History often remembers kings who ruled kingdoms, generals who won wars, and emperors who built monuments. Yet, every once in a while, there emerges an extraordinary individual who changes the destiny of an entire civilization without wearing a crown or wielding a sword. One such forgotten hero is Suyya, an ordinary man whose…
M.S. Sparsha Ask any Indian who made the country’s first motion picture and the answer, almost instinctively, is Dadasaheb Phalke. And rightly so. His Raja Harishchandra (1913) occupies an honoured place in our cinematic history as India’s first full-length feature film. But history sometimes forgets its earliest dreamers. Twelve years before Phalke ever bought a…
MS Sparsha There are heroes whose names adorn monuments and history books. And then there are those whose extraordinary contributions quietly shape our understanding of the world, even as time conspires to erase them from public memory. Dr. Sunder Lal Hora belongs to the latter category—an unsung hero whose scientific brilliance earned global admiration but…
