The Scientific Indian

The Albert Einstein Memorial in Washington DC. Light played on the puckered bronze figure that seemed to be at the cusp of another enlightening idea. A majestic triumph for Robert Berks, the sculptor who created this work of art. The posture is relaxed, mellow and exudes subdued happiness that comes from seeing truth with a clear mind. The notebook has three simple equations. Simple and profound. They carry the essence of a man who showed us how to explore the universe.

I took a picture. Just after I took the picture, a school bus stopped on the side road and more than a dozen children poured out. Within a minute Einstein had children sitting on his laps, arms and shoulders. The children laughed and waved to their teachers. The teachers, a young man and a motherly lady, were rapidly and unconsciously drawn into the infectious enthusiasm of the children. They moved closer to the children and tentatively touched the bronze arm. The moment was sublime. I should have taken another picture with the children on Einstein's arms. I didn't. I walked away. I am not half as sublime as the occasion. Such is life.

The quotes engraved on the bench on which Einstein sits:

As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.

Joy and amazement of the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion ...

The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.

About the Memorial.