Mr Harry Miller

          "Harry Miller"   

        M.B.E., A.I.B.P.P., A.R.P.S., F.Z.S.

          Panchajanyam 

         Prakruti Palaka

            A Friendship that lasted till the End - Cosmos was our Passion !

          This Fascinating Astronomy & the World of Cosmic Connections.

1923 – 5 October 1998

        I am No Ordinary Man  

               

One of the deepest emotions which has kind of sculpted my psyche, into the person that I am, enriching and bringing confidence into myself and my inner workings, (I mean my mind and its esoteric connections), improving my English language from what it was, giving expression to my thoughts, was my relationship with the legendary late Mr Harry Miller of Indian Express. When I first met him, he was already in the middle of his sixties. We greatly enjoyed life in doing what we did! I imagined him taller and when I first met him, I was surprised to see him shorter than me, sporting a french beard and goggles pointing downwards, and his eyes glancing at me upwards with an air of peering benevolence.

He was a multifaceted personality who spoke on all manner of things, even posing from open man holes in the roads to explaining the most extraordinary objects in the Universe which puzzled scientists. He constantly kept creating public awareness, through his photographs (he was a photo journalist too) writings in the newspapers particularly Indian Express. He had worked in his formative days in the Hindu and later joined in the Indian Express, where he continued to remain till his last days.

I am no ordinary man, he so often said, (probably to evoke respect from me - that I should not take him slightly) which I took in the right perspective, since I knew what he actually meant. Yes, he was an extraordinary man. Mundane problems of life did not stop him from wondering, contemplating and propagating through his writings in newspapers of the fascinating and stunning phenomenon that he learnt about the Cosmos. No religious fanaticism and bigotry in the language of science possible. No superstition, faith or belief possible in science. The language of science has the same color, consistency and flavour all over the world, indeed the cosmos. Science is ever open and self-correcting otherwise, it cannot be science. The problem lies with man as he abuses science. Fan, Tube light, this Computer and the Internet are the products of science. The problem is man. Its an art to live and let live.

We Indians, fail to appreciate another persons worth, simply we are too cold, divided, biased and weak internally. It requires mind and courage to appreciate another, and let alone help him. No doubt they have their faults, but generally the white men are quite appreciative and encouraging and outgoing. That's one of the reason why we look to the west. No surprise, many high thinking Indians and noble laureates escaped from our country in their quest for recognition and appreciation to the USA, Europe and other places. Politicization of science, and too much competition are the threats, not science in itself.

Having said this, its a surprise Harry Miller, an English man, looked to the east for his living. He settled in Madras long before  it became Chennai ! And his friend the world famous author, science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke, settled in Colombo, Sri Lanka !

Harry Miller was famous for his 'Sky at Night' monthly articles, that he wrote in the beginning of every month, in the Indian Express newspapers. He had a lot of admiration from the common man, academicians, and top scientists alike. I have attached the letter of Prof. Govind Swarup, who worked in radio astrophysics, rightly pointing out in his letter to him admiring his science popularization activity through his writings.

He wrote many articles in newspapers, some of them covering an entire page, half a page or mostly quarter of a page, in the Science Supplement paper. He also published books by the title, "A frog in my soup," and "Climb boy climb," which he presented with his autograph. He was fire mouthed eccentric old man who had tremendous lot of passion for the things that he loved to do, which he did.
I will write and update about all the lighter moments of fun that I had with him, in the days to come in the same post.

He had a son Robin Miller, and a daughter Nisha, who I only happened to meet in her daddy's funeral in 1998. Later, she corresponded with me and wrote a nice good letter in which I saw her daddy's style and so is with me. He was infact the reason why I started getting Indian Express news paper, in addition to the Hindu, says my father. So, he had two generations of people admiring his writings.

His letters are an interesting piece of writing, with so much love and care as we can see, meticulous and with serious intent and much fun. All packed into one. Hope its interesting to the readers. It is indeed, so good for anybody, any aspiring young man or women who is inclined to learn and live rightly that I paste them in this blog. It would have been better, and I would feel much happier, if I could get them published as a small book, with many other things that are not mentioned here, which of course would take much more time, energy and money. This itself took me twenty long years from his last letter, (due to family, economic reasons and college education) to get it out of my old lot of papers before my enemies burn them out !

Each letter is self-explanatory. In fact, Harry warns me of many dangers in life. He says, never ever lend your books. Simply, people don't care. And also do not introduce your best girl friend !!

He use to do the writings for Prof N Rangabashyam, FRCS, for publication in the Royal College of Surgeons. He reviewed books. He use to offer me beer and he found me comfortable with lime juice. I started  getting my quota of lemon juice whenever I visited him. Oh, what a voice, he had. In a high tone with a pooja mani / bell, he use to call his young assistant for our help. His name was 'Narayan.' So, it was all Narayan, Narayan...a calling that still rings in my ears !  Once he introduced me to Dr Arun Chitaranjan the Orthodontist who turned up in his house when I was there. I remember Harry saying, Dentist but Astronomer !!

One day my good old friend Swami Rakal Chandra Maharaj (I called him, Swamiji), telephoned me in the morning, and said, hi anand, yea...your friend is gone...
who...what...where...i fumbled...with a chill in my heart...
your man Miller...i said, he returned from London...
no no he is dead...i saw in the newspapers...
oh oh...who would ever encourage me for astronomy...it brought tears...there was uninvited silence....
I lost my mind....
Swami always wanted to meet him...and I had already told Harry and we were all about to meet together....
But, alas, i took Swamiji with me...on the way we purchased a rose garland and went to Boat Club Road house to honor and pay our last respects to the good old man that Harry was....
Narayan, his young assistant, was the only man who knew me in that gathering...
He, looking at me and crying...said...in Tamil...poitar sir....gone sir...all over.

I remembered, Swami Rakal telling me the other day, when we were in our room, a dragonfly that entered into our room got knocked down by the fan blade and lay dead on our table, for which he said, "Life is just a candle light." He was here doing some work. Now, he is gone...so would we...one day...Swami is gone too...only myself pending ! And hope to live long !

I publish provisionally, in our blog here. Hopefully, I will be updating and filling the gaps with many more in the days to come.

Thanking You All

With Regards

Dr V Anand

Venkatakrishnan Anand