SF Needs Rejuvenation in India

It is a welcome sign for India that SF has appeared in a non - SF magazine ( Jan. 2012), with impressive circulation, in a big way, full 27 pages; the magazine is 'the science and environment fortnightly' - 'Down To Earth'.

It augurs well not only for SF but also for science and environment and economics and technology, and life in general. Interest in science and SF help mutually, interested in one gets interested in another, and what is more, maintains a balanced view on science, rather than becoming a one-sided devotee of an addict; SF helps in such a development.

Asimov dealt with almost all subjects of human interest, even not of interest to 95% of people, highly philosophical and mathematical subject like Godel's Theorem of Incompleteness – “No Theorem is 100 % true.” Or 'No theorem is complete.' He had proved it logically. And look at the irony, it proved that logic cannot lead to complete truth ! One of my most favourite novel is Asimov's 'Robots and Empire', in which this concept plays a side role.

Looking at the Hindi SF field, we find that Rajiv Ranjan Upadhyaya attempts to have large breadth and depth, like that of Asimov. Harish Goel, Devendra Mewaree, Arvind Mishra, Arvind Dubey, ShukDev Prasad, Swapnil, Zeshan Hyder Zaidee, Zakir Rajneesh, Irfan Human, Rajesh jain, Abhishek Mishra, M. Mubeen, Amit Kumar, Vishwa Mohan Tiwari etc. etc. ( the list is not comprehensive) when taken together, they cover from epics, mythology to Post Modernism, pin to gun, the earth's center to edge of Cosmos, from bacteria to dianosaures and birds and primates, from dictatorship to liberal democracies, devils to angels, the entire spectrum of life. It is therefore surprising that in India Hindi ( as well as English) readers are not as much into SF as one might expect them to.

What can we do to rejuvenate SF in India? Read science, not necessarily as a subject, just as a hobby, whatever catches our fancy, like philosophers study science and scientists study philosophy. Erwin Shrodinger, Robert Openheimer, Heisenberg, Paul Dirac etc. studied Vedaant. They produced greater and grander physics – Quantum Physics - as a result of study of Vedant with the help of which they understood quantum Mechanics! Asimov read science, philosophy, religions, literature and technology etc.. He created such SF that had enormous credibility as far his characters were concerned and therefore also in what he wanted to say. So read and then just write. One learns how to
write by writing.