Angela Saini at the launch. (Pradip Sanyal)

Why does India seem to produce more science and engineering graduates than anywhere else in world? Is there a scientific revolution silently taking place? Angela Saini, a science journalist based in London, was curious to know what India’s scientific prowess meant to the country and the world. So she quit her BBC job to learn more about the fascinating landscape of modern Indian science, during which she met a cast of lively and passionate characters who feature in her debut book Geek Nation.

Saini was in the city on Wednesday to launch her book at a fittingly scientific location — the MP Birla Planetarium. After the book was unveiled by British deputy high commissioner Sanjay Wadvani and Debiprosad Duari, director (research and academic), MP Birla Planetarium, the author was in conversation with academician-turned-author Rimi B. Chatterjee.

Saini spoke about the rapidly changing world of Indian science, what it means to be a geek, and the “drone culture” that has been endemic to the Indian education system. “I think why the film 3 Idiots resonated so much is because people could see their own lives in it,” she said.

Saini spoke of a need for parents and teachers to understand the importance of all-round development rather than just swotting. “Nuttiness often makes good science,” she said, adding that “daring to think differently is what makes science so exciting and creative. In Geek Nation, you get a little picture of just how weird and wonderful that world can be.”

“What are students supposed to do when teachers and parents don’t encourage critical thinking?” asked a student from Don Bosco, Liluah. They must continue to question, insisted Saini and gave him a signed copy as his question was “from the heart”.

A man asked if our emphasis on learning by rote comes from a preference for thinking rather than doing. “Maybe in Bengal!” she quipped, saying that in her experience that wasn’t true. “India produces 600,000 engineering graduates every year — engineering is all about fixing things, tinkering and building things. I do all the DIY at home — and luckily my husband isn’t here to hear that!”

For the non-believer

He seems to bristle at the mention of Baba Ramdev and reiterates that yog (not yoga) isn’t just about asanas. The launch of Sanatan Kriya: 51 Miracles And A Haunting (picture right) at Oxford Bookstore by Yogi Aswini recently saw the Delhi-based yogi drop in for a book reading and discussion on the spiritual.

Yog is not just “acrobatics. It’s a practice that transcends physicality,” he says. So it’s all in the mind, asked a young man in the audience. Swamiji (or Yogiji or Guruji as the audience addressed him by turns) smiles. The book, he said, was “for non-believers”.

His students, all rational people you meet every day, have had life-changing experiences under his tutelage and write about it in the glossy, 168-page, hardbound cover. One was falling to death in an Austrian cave dotted with stalactites and stalagmites, when she saw Yogiji’s hand reach out and save her. For more, pick up the book for Rs 500.