As the children watch him in awe, he opens his bag and out comes a piece of camphor. He sets the camphor ablaze and slowly places it on his tongue amidst the pin drop silence of the children. As he puts off the fire, the children applaud loudly. But his job is now to begin. He isn’t a magician or a supernatural man. He is not here to show any magic. He is actually a skeptic who believes that there is nothing called a miracle – someone who believes that everything that happens on this earth has a science behind it. He then calls few of the children in front and repeats the experiment with them. Somu Rao from Panjim is a man on mission, a mission to inculcate a scientific temper amongst the next generation.
The founder and president of Goa science forum, Rao has been travelling all over Goa visiting schools, colleges and several other organizations and talking to them about scientific temper and rational thinking. “I am actually propagating a fundamental duty enshrined in our constitution under article 51 that speaks about promoting the scientific temper, a duty that we have forgotten long ago,” he says. Past national secretary and present treasurer of Federation of Indian Rationalist association (FIRA), Somu Rao has been doing a commendable job in handling several situations that are often disguised as being done by spirits or ghosts. “There is nothing called ghost in this world,” he says while narrating several incidences that have been often planned and executed by human beings under the pretext of ghost. “There are several reasons to it. Suppressed feelings, attention seeking and even property matters, all lead to this phenomenon called ghost that is never really there,” he explains.
While his efforts to create an awareness amongst the people are slowly bearing fruit, it is the youth and children who reciprocate the most. “We started our activities in 2000 and till date I must have done more than 400 programs all over Goa,” he informs. At national level, Rao has been able to cover the entire India and has recently managed to set up organizations in places like Guwahati, Nepal and restart the Sri Lankan Rationalist association in Sri Lanka. While respecting the seniors in the movement, Somu Rao with his other counterparts in FIRA have managed to bring the average age of the office bearers to 35 in all the rationalist associations across India. “The elders have some staunch views and though we respect them, we believe in passing on the baton. We started with 60 organizations under FIRA, now there are 87,” he informs.
Somu Rao along with eminent rationalist Narendra Nayak has been working relentlessly to bring about a law that separates religion from politics. “In 2005 we visited the parliament but no one came forward to receive the copy of our bill. Now we are changing our strategies and you will have to wait till you see the results. Necessary reforms also need to be brought about in all major acts like Indian Penal Code, Police Act etc. They are all outdated,” he says.
“We have been trying to train a lot of youth so that they conduct programs but most of them fall short when it comes to answering the questions,” says Rao who at the end of every awareness program is stormed with several queries and doubts. “Does God exist?” Asks one of the students as Rao winds up a program in the remote village of Canacona. “I don’t know, but I haven’t seen one,” Rao answers with a smile.
