The birds flying home in pairs Through the soft mountain air of dusk- In these things there is deep meaning, But when we are about to express it, We suddenly forget the words. —An ancient Chinese poem Extraordinary lives demand extraordinary books to describe them. This, then, is an extraordinary book by Girish Mehra to narrate the life story of two immensely gifted individuals whose lives traversed several continents, were defined by the most unusual turning points that formed a pattern of meaning as life went on, and were less about achievement and more about what could not be grasped by conventional standards of measurement. It is not standard biography, though there are elements and structure of one, or a book of popular science to analyse and explain the work of a leading plant physiologist of India and a devotee of Vivekananda, nor an account of the doings of an intrepid American explorer
December 2007, volume 31, No 12