1. WHAT IS GOD?
My question precludes that I have any doubt that there is a God. It asks about the nature of God. Like
several billion other people, I have no doubt that God exists. Like most of the other billion people who
believe in the existence of God, I too, was introduced to Him by my parents. It was not, obviously, a
formal introduction but an introduction to the concept of God. God, I was told, was omniscient,
omnipotent, omnipresent. He knew what every one did, gave each one the choice to do the good thing
or the bad. He knew what every one was thinking of, at all times. He was the great Headmaster in the
sky who would reward us for the good we did and punish us for the bad. When we met, that is. This
subjective concept of God remained with me through my school and college days. Both my school and
college were run by Jesuits. I was impressed by their devotion and scholarship. However, in college, I
majored in physics. The study of physics taught me that all that had to be proved had to be proved
without doubt. Q.E.D. There was no getting away from that. Subjectivity had no role to play in
determining the laws of physics. Lesson learnt.
Immediately after my graduation, I started work in an advertising agency as a copy writer. My penchant
for writing overwhelmed my fascination with physics.