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Mourning the loss

I would like to say a few words about the book, which is being released today, and the man whose memory the book is intended to honour.

Titled "A Perspective in Theoretical Computer Science", the book is a collection of papers specially contributed by eminent scholars well known in the field, who were also personal friends of Dr. Gift Siromoney either as peers, colleagues, or students.

Although I am billed as the Editor of this commemorative volume, this is true only in a notional sense. Prof. (Mrs.). Rani Siromoney, who was herself the foremost collaborator with her husband in his research in Formal Grammars and Automata Theory, actually carried out all the editorial work, corresponding with the authors, collating their contributions, dealing with the publishers, and tirelessly attending to all the details of the production of this volume.

Prof. Rani Siromoney has been a pioneer in growing an active research group in India in the area of theoretical computer science. At her initiative this subject was included as a specialization in the Master's level curriculum in mathematics of the Madras University quite some years ago.

The School in formal language theory that Professors Rani and Gift Siromoney have built up at the Madras Christian College over the last two decades is now acknowledged to be one of the best and most active. The galaxy of names listed as contributors to this commemorative volume bears ample testimony to this.

The authors have generously agreed to donate their honoraria from the publishers to the 'Gift Siromoney Endowment Fund' started by the Madras Christian College. I would like to thank the authors for this gesture and also the publishers World Scientific Publishers Co. Pte. Ltd based in Singapore for their exceptional efficiency in producing the volume.

A seminal contribution of the two Siromoneys to formal language theory is their work of array grammars, which was a concept introduced by them and developed in detail by them and their colleagues and students. One of the first applications that they made of array grammars was to the study of South Indian Kolam Patterns. They demonstrated that kolam patterns could be thought of as sentences of classes of 2-dimensional formal languages in much the same way that strings of words constitute sentences of the usual linear languages.

This urge to apply formal mathematical techniques to analyse and understand typical Indian cultural data was characteristic of Prof. Gift Siromoney. His was a truly inquiring mind, and an interdisciplinary one of a very creative and also of a very practical kind. He was always out in the field with his students and/or colleagues gathering primary cultural data epigraphical, iconometric, linguistic, musical, and craft-related. Two more commemorative volumes are being planned to cover the wide interdisciplinary ground that Prof. Gift Siromoney's intellectual curiosity ranged over.

These commemorative volumes would no doubt serve their intended purpose in honouring the memory of Dr. Gift Siromoney. But it seems to me that there is a larger lesson that we should all learn from his life and research activities. It is this. By narrowly equating 'Science' with mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, we have been systematically marginalizing in this country most other academic disciplines especially those dealing with cultural and humanistic phenomena. As a consequence we have come to believe that building up a 'Scientific temper' among the population at large consists in teaching them the facts of the physical science and biology.

In my view, the true scientific outlook is based on the ability to distinguish between myth and history at one level, and between fact and opinion at another level. The concept 'evidence' plays a crucial role in making this distinction between myths and history, and fact and opinion. Understanding the nature of 'evidence' and learning appropriate methodologies to gather, analyze, sort out, and draw inference from evidence, are at the bottom of all scientific activity. To create a true scientific outlook we must teach people how to approach their everyday aspects of living in a scientific spirit. And these aspects are precisely those that pertain to cultural and the humanistic aspects of life.

Watching 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' on the TV, no doubt, has its entertainment value. But approaching these in a scientific spirit one should want to know what, if any, are their historical underpinnings. What would constitute 'evidence' in this context? How would we gather such evidence, analyze, and draw inferences. It is highly significant that public media seldom raise and discuss such issues to keep the public informed of the vast amount of scholarly work that has been, and is being, done, both in India and outside, by specialists in this domain. As I emphasized earlier, most of the scientific practice of Prof. Gift Siromoney was concerned with addressing precisely such issues.

The most constructive homage we can pay to his memory is by cultivating and growing the kind of interdisciplinary research that he was himself so actively pursuing. I would urge the Madras Christian College and also the Madras University to take effective and imaginative steps to foster this kind of interdisciplinary research.

Narasimhan R. (peer and mentor 1971-88)
Formerly: Sr. Professor, Computer Science Group, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Currently: CMC Ltd, Bangalore.

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