Prof Jayant Narlikar, My Barber And An Unusual Friendship

The internationally acclaimed astrophysicist, Prof Jayant Narlikar, whom I had known as a journalist for the past 35 years, was one of the favourite topics of discussion with my barber, Moinuddin Shaikh.

I live in the vicinity of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), which was established inside the Pune University campus on the Aundh-Khadki Road by Prof Narlikar in 1988. The IUCAA campus had accompanying residential quarters, and many IUCAA scientists, including Prof. Narlikar, would regularly visit Shalimar Hair Dresser—the only average salon on that road in those days.

Shalimar was convenient for me too, and during conversations with Moin in recent years, I picked up, much to my disbelief, that Prof Narlikar was one of his clients. Moin, who could speak only Hindi, had picked up the craft from his father, Abdul Hamid Wajid Ali Shaikh, who was now retired. When Prof Narlikar stopped visiting IUCAA from his Panchavati, Pashan residence, Moin said, his father made a few visits there to attend to him.

Prof. Narlikar’s gentle demeanour, his simplicity and his complete unmindfulness of the aura and eminence he carried on his shoulders were often discussed by us. Moin would surprise me with his many anecdotes. He spoke of how Prof Narlikar brought some hair-cutting electric devices from one of his trips abroad as a gift for his father in the days when anything imported made heads turn.

Once we were discussing the nuisance of unwanted phone calls, phone hacking and scams when Moin told me that he had seen Prof Narlikar use a simple keypad phone, which, in all probability, was not smart. The phone would be switched on only when Prof. Narlikar wanted to make a call. This actually happened once when he wanted to leave the saloon and his driver was not in the car. Prof. Narlikar switched on the phone, called his driver, and switched it off again.

I thought that was a smart way of becoming a master of your phone rather than a slave, like most of us are. But what if a family member wanted to get in touch urgently with Prof Narlikar? “They would contact his driver or his PA at his office. He was bound to be near one of them,” Moin said.

This sounded eminently plausible because Prof Narlikar, by nature, was reserved and reticent and preferred to be left alone to immerse himself into his cutting-edge research. Besides this, he was a prolific science writer in the popular Marathi language for children and the lay public. He scrupulously avoided the public limelight and rarely gave media interviews.

I interacted with Prof Narlikar closely in 2009 when he co-authored an exclusive series of essays on astronomy with Prof T. Padmanabhan for the newspaper where I was Resident Editor.

On one occasion, our senior civic reporter was all excited and said, with his eyes popping out, that Prof Narlikar was seen sitting on a bench outside the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) City Engineer’s office waiting to be called in. It had so happened that the IUCCA complex was under construction, and Prof Narlikar was required to visit the PMC to do some paperwork and expedite permissions. He had sent in his card and was waiting patiently outside to be called in. This was till some senior civic officer passing by noticed him and quickly, and apologetically, ushered him inside.

My last meeting with Prof. Narlikar was at his residence in January this year, enabled graciously by his daughter, Leelavati. I had put in a request for Prof Narlikar’s autograph on a special private First Day Cover (FDC) on him prepared by Pune Philatelist, Vinayak Awate. This FDC was displayed at the Mahapex 2025 State Philately Exhibition in Mumbai in January as a part of a thematic presentation on ‘The Inspiring History of India’s Space Missions Through Postage Stamps’. Prof Narlikar graciously agreed, and I had the occasion to present him with India Post’s special collection of postage stamps on the Solar System. Prof. Narlikar had a smile on his face and had a few questions to ask.

It was a pleasant, heartwarming meeting with a ‘Maharishi’, a great soul, which will remain etched in my memory for ever.

The author is a journalist and works for a policy research think tank. He tweets at @abhay_vaidya