Here is an account of the life of one of the legendary scientific figures of the 20th century. Chandra has often been compared with Lord Rayleigh and Poincare, emphasizing not just the manner in which he conducted research but also that he was a part of the same classical tradition. However, he was a person so private that very little of his life or his work is known outside of the scientific community. The book serves to remedy this. It is also worth reading because of Chandra's connection with names that have now passed into history: Hardy, Rutherford, Dirac, Bohr, Eddington, Raman, Heisenberg, Sommerfield, and even Ramanujan. The tales and connections are a fascinating read. I specially recommend the chapter on his wife Lalitha, a remarkable woman from a remarkable family. Wali's portrayal is both sensitive and revealing. His aim is clear, namely to bring to the public eye a man noted for his reticence and extreme privacy. Don't miss reading this book.

The book is an excellent document of Chandra's personal and professional life. It is the only such work available on the Astrophysicist. It could have been made a very interesting read, if it included a technical exposition(At least a Layman's version) of Chandra's work on White dwarf's, Black Holes, Chandra's own analysis of Newton's Principia and more. I mean a book on the lines of Robert Kanigel's "The Man who knew Infinity" which is about the Mathematician S. Ramanujan. I thought the author(who is a physics educator himself) who took so much of pains wandering in the undergrowth of Chandra's Lifestyle did not plough enough into his scientific theories, which would have made the book a great hit. But it does reveal a lot about Chandra's interaction with heavyweights such as Paul Dirac, Eddington, Pauli, Bohr, Born, Russel, John Von Neumann, Novikov, Stromgren and a host of others. I thought the research done in these parts were first rate. On the whole I enjoyed reading the book very much

A must read for any aspiring scientist in any branch of the sciences -- not just astronomy or physics. The book starts with a detailed account of his childhood and sheds light on Chandra's ancestry. Wali reveals the scientist in himself by paying great attention to every detail, and reveals to us the foundations of a genius in the making. An enlightening tale with very little scientific mumbo-jumbo but oodles of history. The book provides insight into the young Chandra's brilliance, and recounts a wizened Chandra navigating the high seas of politics in academia. As a countryman, I am enlightened and inspired.

The same stories are repeated again and again in the lectures. Lots of nice details, lots of questions, no answers. I read the last chapter of Shakespeare, Beethoven, Newton, Shelley (or so) thrice without being able to understand what the author wanted to say. I do not know much about Indian discourse and discussion style. Maybe I am just too stupid? When you are interested in Milne and Eddington the book is great, nevertheless. But it misses the subject of its title.

Let me admit at the outset that I read the collection of lectures quite some time back. However, I remember with amazing clarity how much the lectures moved me. Chandrasekhar is not a man who draws superficial parallels between artstic endeavour and the scientific process.

What the essays reveal are something incredibly personal. They reflect what one of the most prominent Astrophysicists of our time feel about aesthetics - from the perspective of C.P Snow's "Two cultures".

And Art, seen from this scientist's point of view, seems to be all the richer for it, contrary to popular belief that rationality strips Art of its elemental passion. The essays go to show that the world we think we live in is not so fragmented after all, and keen perception, augmented with a desire to express, can smoothen the shards that have been left behind in the wake of reductionist thinking.

If you have ever dreamed about the creative cogwheels in scientific history, the essays go to show that they the burning need for an aesthetic whole need not be fundamentally different in the Arts. But there is a interesting and debatable point - which is linked with the unproductive geriatric scientist, and his equally productive counterpart.

But for the last chapter, based on the Karl Schwarzchild lectures on general relativity, most of the essays are at the "scientifically educated" level. One of the most remarkable chapters is about Arthur Eddington, and the Chandrasekhar's open-mindedness is assesing the acutely "conservative" giant of Stellar Physics for his contributions and his drawbacks. One cannot be overwhelmed by history at such moments.

What M.C. Escher's offered the world of mathematical paradoxies and oddities with his lithographs is somewhat symbiotic to Chandrasekhar's lectures. One can only hope that these subtle threads between the "two cultures" will remain.