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The life of India’s great nuclear scientist Homi Jahangir Bhabha was steeped in science and publicly glittering, but equally mysterious. There was a love story in his personal life also. Never came openly about it. He was in love with a European woman. Felt deeply connected to him. Perhaps he wanted to marry her but it could not happen.
Bhabha was also personally shy. Nothing was ever openly revealed about his “love story”, but from some hints, letters and statements of contemporaries, it has been estimated that there was definitely a woman in his life, with whom he felt deeply connected.
Bhabha never married. He lived alone in his luxurious bungalow “Mehrangir” located in Malabar Hill, Mumbai. He was very fond of art, music and European culture. There were often gatherings of artists, musicians and social workers in his house. He listened to European opera, painted, and often said that “science and art are both paths of creation.”
had a european woman in his life
R. Books by biographers such as Govindarajan and Luke Sloven indicate that Bhabha had a European woman in his life. Perhaps she met him in Paris or she was a Paris-based artist or musician whom Bhabha met during his Cambridge days in the 1930s or during his later trips to Europe. His friends said that Bhabha was a man who had romantic inclinations, but he never made his feelings public.
she was his close friend
According to some sources, the woman was a close friend of his. The correspondence between the two continued for a long time. He never made that relationship public and it was not made public until later, although he wrote many letters to her, she wrote to him. These letters were always kept secret. The reason for this could be social or religious or even Bhabha being the top nuclear scientist of the country.
The identity of this woman was never made clear. No certified document or photo found. Many believe that Bhabha decided not to marry him because he wanted to return to India and devote his life to science. Through some of his letters, there is indirect evidence of the presence of a “European woman” in his life, not her name, but a glimpse of intimacy is definitely visible.
M.S. Narasimhan showing the first Indian digital computer to Jawaharlal Nehru and Homi Bhabha (left) at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
you have both beauty and intelligence
Bhabha wrote one from Geneva or Paris in 1937, titled To a Friend in Europe. The full letter is not available, but Indira Chaudhary has quoted some excerpts from it in her book The TIFR Story.
“Sometimes I am amazed that beauty and intelligence can live together so peacefully. You have both. I always think of you constantly and when I do, I become restless.”
This sentence shows Bhabha’s deep emotional attachment. He used to write continuously in his personal diary. He wrote some in Geneva in 1935. This was part of his personal diary. There is a line in it,
“He played the cello tonight and those notes stayed with me for a long time. There was something about that music that I will never forget.” Historians believe that this was the same European woman – perhaps a Swiss or French musician – with whom Bhabha became deeply attached. Cello is a musical instrument of the violin family.
India looks different without that laughter
In 1941, she wrote a letter from Bombay to her friend in Europe. Bhabha had returned to India during the Second World War. This letter of his is partially quoted in Raja Ramanna’s book. “India seems different without the blue skies of Geneva and the laughter that mingles in the evenings there. Tell me, do you still play the cello?” This sentence clearly shows that the woman lived in Geneva and was associated with music. This relationship was not only deep but also survived for many years.
Bhabha (far right) at the “Atomic Energy in Australia” seminar in Sydney, Australia in 1954. (Wiki Commons)
drew my friend’s painting
Bhabha himself was a talented painter. He made a painting named “Blue Lady” in the 1940s, which is now preserved in TIFR. The painting looks like the face of a European woman – light blue eyes, a European nose and a smile on half-parted lips. The curator of TIFR later said, this woman’s picture was not just an imagination but was real.
why didn’t you get married
In one of his letters in the 1960s, Bhabha again hinted at a special woman in his life. This letter written by Bhabha to one of his colleagues is quoted in the biography of Gopal Raj.
“There was a time when I thought I could share my life with someone. But life had its own plans. Perhaps my truest companionship has been with ideas.” Her confession almost makes it clear that there was someone once, but that relationship could not be consummated.
So many things are said about why he did not marry. He was so busy building the Indian nuclear program that he left his personal life behind. It is also possible that he was a Parsi, hence his family did not accept his marriage with a European woman.
She was associated with music and was very close to Bhabha.
History does not tell us the name of that woman, but it is clear from these letters and lines that that woman was European, perhaps Swiss or French, was associated with music and was the center of Bhabha’s emotional world.
His close associate and friend Vikram Sarabhai once said, Homi had a heart for art but was trapped by a disciplined scientist – he always loved perfection.
When he died in a plane crash in 1966, a large part of his personal papers and letters were in the possession of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and his family, which he never made public. It is said that some of them also contained personal letters, which were never released.
Where did you meet this woman?
It can be said that Homi Bhabha’s love story was perhaps one of the “quietest” but “deepest” love stories in Indian history. Homi Bhabha went to England in 1927. To study engineering at Cambridge University. There he turned towards physics. He lived in Europe from 1928–1939 – in cities such as Cambridge, Geneva, Zurich and Paris. This was the same period when Europe was the center of art, music and intellectual discussion.
Bhabha was completely engrossed in this environment – he loved going to concerts, art galleries and intellectual circles there. During these years he met a European woman. Many biographers believe that this woman was the “only true love” of his life.
Friend told that he had come close to a European woman
Bhabha’s close associate Dr. H. Govindarajan wrote in his memoirs, “During his Cambridge years, Homi became close to a highly cultured European woman. They both loved art and music. But Homi knew that he belonged to India and science. He chose India and science over their friendship.
“Another friend of his, a professor at the University of Geneva, said in the 1950s that he was deeply involved with a woman from Europe but that his goals were greater than his personal happiness.”
Both of these indications indicate that Bhabha’s relationship was serious but she did not marry in order to return to India and dedicate her life to the country’s nuclear programme. However, the paintings hung in his house in Mehrangir often featured lone female figures. In 1966, when Bhabha was traveling on Air India Flight 101, his plane crashed on Mont Blanc mountain in France, resulting in his death. Then his age was only 56 years. He was born on 30 October 1909 in Mumbai.
…and the one shown in Rocket Boys
The woman named “Parveen” who is shown as Bhabha’s love in the Sony Liv OTT series Rocket Boys, is a symbolic form inspired by this European woman, who represents the romantic, sensitive and incomplete love within Bhabha. Deep affection and attraction is shown between the two, but this relationship never reaches marriage in the story. The character is believed to be based on a real person, but not completely.
Many biographers believe that this character is symbolic of the European woman or music-loving woman with whom Bhabha had a relationship in real life.
source
1. Bhabha and his brilliant observations (Raja Ramanna, 1997)
2. TIFR Story (Indira Chaudhary, 2011)
3. Homi J. Bhabha: A Life (Gopal Raj & Srinivasan, 2010)
and some unpublished papers referenced in TIFR’s archives (but not public).
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