Book Review: And in the End

Sumit Mullick's page-turner breaks down quantum physics to the uninitiated. The reader learns about wormholes, dark matter, entangled particles, gravity waves and biocentrism among other concepts.

The religious people of the world, whatever faith they belong to, seem to have a perfect idea about what happens to a person after he or she dies. They have enough faith in whatever their preachers, elders or scriptures tell them about the afterlife. Those with a scientific temper demand irrefutable proof before accepting anything. The protagonist in Sumit Mullick’s latest novel, quantum physics professor Ajit Singh is absolutely obsessed with death.

Mullick, the Chief Information Commissioner of Maharashtra (and disclaimer: my personal friend), creates the kind of man in Ajit that many aspire to be like. He’s suave, intelligent, successful and a wrestling champion to boot! This makes him popular with the ladies, but there’s one woman he wins over by just being himself, the lovely Supriya Mani, who is 24 years his junior and a sincere student of his class.

Ajit misses his dead parents and believes he is communicating with them. This brief passage provides a glimpse into the workings of the professor’s mind

“And the dead…his parents…they had to go somewhere. They couldn’t just disappear just like that. The universe doesn’t allow for the loss of energy or the loss of information. The quantum of energy and information remain constant. They just get transformed. The universe doesn’t like death. The universe needs life to observe it, so that matter can be created, so that matter could fulfil its potential, and create the planets, stars, galaxies, and life itself. Nothing would exist, unless there was life to observe. And the universe liked the idea of existence. It had got used to it. And, so had life. For life and matter, it was a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship, that did not want to end.”

Since Ajit is convinced that human beings do not cease to exist after they die, he desperately tries to scientifically prove this even it means that he establishes contact with the living from the other side.

This page-turner breaks down quantum physics to the uninitiated. The reader learns about wormholes, dark matter, entangled particles, gravity waves and biocentrism among other concepts. The book is no boring university science lesson, but rather an exploration into the world of possibilities.

Professor-student romance

Ajit and his student, who was raised by Christian evangelists, end up having a passionate relationship, but again we see the professor’s scientific outlook to even a love affair.

“Romance is about appreciating and enjoying the moment to the hilt. The moment that will, thereafter, forever disappear. The disappearing sun was, in fact, a good example of everything that is transitory. Even though, it was reasonably certain that the sun would rise again, once the Earth turned on its axis, it was never absolutely certain. Romance, again, is about accepting that no future is guaranteed, and the present is all one has, and all one is entitled to. Romance, almost be definition, had to be very temporary, very ephemeral. Permanent romance, with all the boredom of permanence, would kill romance at the definition itself.”

Despite parental and societal pressure, Supriya sticks with Ajit and joins him on his journey to uncover the mysteries of life and death.

In this novel, where humour makes it entry at just the right points, we see a great attempt at popularising the further study of science, even if just out of sheer curiosity.

After reading this book, one is left pondering over the infinite possibilities that exist in infinite multiverses. Do we ever stop existing? This passage makes me think not.

“Matter becomes life, and life, subsequently becomes matter, in a never-ending cycle. The two were interchangeable, and dependent on each other. Neither could exist without the other. Death, defined as the cessation of life, was impossible. Matter required life, for matter to exist. It had been proven without doubt in laboratory conditions. Without observation, atoms remained in a state of quantum collapse, in a state of infinite possibilities. Only when observed, did it emerge into the universe in which it had been observed. And observation, of course, required life in order to observe. If there was no life, there would be no stars, no galaxies, no planets, no universes. There would be nothing. Not even time and space. There would be truly nothing, as nothing has never been imagined. Just a vast, infinite, matterless, timeless, eventless, nothing. But luckily for life and matter, and for all the beauty and wonder that existed, universes were not like that.”