Einstein’s Love Life

I wonder what this man is reading at the detroit public library?.The sexual life of the last Viceroy of India?.Oh no, the Mahatma hisself!!!.What else do you expect from a pak who works in the sewer department?.

#17 by tahmed32 on July 22, 2005 7:36am PT
cayenne: and you far exceeded yourself simply by coming to chowk.

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tahmed32:and you have outdone yourself by simply sticking around.Scat.

Hallo... most interesting! Yes, did not think of Einstein as a lover, husband, and such. Of course we are after all human, even super scientists.

thanks,
-zensufi-

concerned1 #14:

I don’t want to hijack Gill sahib’s board, so I’ll keep my comments brief and generic; please follow-up on Unplugged Off-The-Wall if you wish. The new agreements, if they can get past domestic opposition on both sides, look like the culmination of a paradigm shift in relations between India and US. The devil is in the details – we need to know exactly what has been promised and what the linkages are. K Subrahmanyam (doyen of India’s nuclear-strategic establishment) had a basically positive comment in ToI. The entrenched US non-proliferation fundamentalists and the Chinese are of course livid.

freethinker #18 here are some anecdotes from Einstein`s personal life that i remember coming across over the years:

1. The newly formed Israeli state offered to make him the first President of Israel. Einstein refused, preferring to persue his scientific interests. Just like Pervaiz Musharaff (who, as we all know, repeatedly turned down requests from a grateful nation to become the President of Pakistan, preferring instead to the humble title of Chief Executive - until, of course, he finally showed how much he cared for the feelings of all Pakistanis and declared himself President).

2. Einstein once took a $1,000 bank note (they used to have such a thing back then I guess), and used it as a bookmark. Then he lost the book.

This love for education over money is of course another characteristic of the Pakistani elite. The first thing Pakistanis do when they come to the west is to head for the library. Their thirst for knowledge is so much, they load PIA planes with so many books that the plane actually becomes too heavy to fly.

3. A man once wrote about how he was a guest at Einstein`s house, and admitted that he did not understand classical music. Einstein patiently spent the rest of the evening developing this appreciation in him with the help of some music.

This again is just like us Pakistanis. Every mosque plays Beethoven and Bachs on fridays to help set the mood for prayers.

Readers and Inter-actors:

Let me share the information with you how this article came into being. I didn’t know much about Einstein’s private and personal life although I knew he had divorced his first wife and married his cousin who took care of him and his household. I didn’t care much about his private life although one likes to know as much of the humanness of a person whom one adores, as possible. I also knew that Hans Einstein, who greatly impacted my own research career, was one of the two sons of the great physicist. So, Einstein held a kind of curious mystique for me. But I was not really on the track of digging into his personal life.

I was on a different track. I had accidentally come across some information that accused Einstein of plagiarism. Einstein and plagiarism! It was a big shocker for me. I googled him and found screen after screen that talked, rightly or wrongly, about his plagiarism. I was mystified. I have a couple of biographical books on Einstein, so I opened them up. The information that I had previously glossed over revealed new meanings now. I started digging deeper to satisfy my curiousity.

One day, my daughter asked me to accompany her to Borders store because she wanted to buy some dvd’s. She suggested that I could use my gift cards to buy some books from the store. In the bookstore, I started to look at the books on Einstein to see if any of them had any information about his plagiarism. I came across “Einstein in Love;” since I was not interested in his love life, I passed it. I didn’t find readily any information on his plagiarism in those books, so I opened this book halfheartedly. I started reading the sections on special and general relativity. There was a good deal of information which pertained to plagiarism (factual or otherwise); so I bought the book.

At first, I read it selectively and then I started reading it from the beginning. I didn’t know much of what I read in this book. His love life was totally unknown to me but was quite interesting. I had regarded Einstein as demigod of physics, and he still is. But my mistake was that I also regarded him as a superhuman. I was startled to find out that he was human like us (okay, not like us but like Woody Allen).

I thought I should share this information with the chowk readers; maybe many of them were also unaware of Einstein’s humanness like me. It is not out of dis-respect to the great scientist that he was.

Mohammad Gill

cayenne: and you far exceeded yourself simply by coming to chowk.

:-)

I won`t agree on one thing though..
[Probably highly creative persons need all their time and minds for their creative work and marriage and steady relationships are only a bothersome appendage; that probably was the reason that Newton remained unmarried all his life]
Not necessarily! Sir Isaac Newton was a member of UK parliament twice, and i don`t think politics is any lesser trubulent and distracting a business than marriage.
One thing that probably best distinguishes an ordinary person form a genius or a `highly creative` person, is that while an average person would be either a jack of all or a master of one, a genius or a consummator would excell in every skill he cherishes and get as close as possible to mastering in all that he engages himslef into. Marriage is a differnet business altogether, it`s more about emotions than genius/intelligence.

A `low-brow` essay by a `low-brow` person.Dr.Gill you have far exceeded yourself.

alephnull:

what is your understanding of the us-india nuclear pact?

vajapyee had this to say...``it is difficult to resist the feeling that while India has made long-term and specific commitments in the Joint Statement, the US has merely made promises``

which goes with

``What is significant about the agreement (inked on June 18 between India and the US) is that New Delhi committed itself in public, very specifically to a series of actions to which it had not previously committed itself,`` the senior US official said. ..``

on the other hand, several reports in the indian media seem to be quite upbeat.

NFP please collect your shit.It`s falling on my head.

I’ve always wondered why I can’t seem to have enough of women, but now I know. Maybe there’s a genius lurking inside me too ;-)

An interesting article for a change Dr Gill, thumbs up. Good to know two of the most significant historical figures of the 20th century, associated particualrly with the WW2, a la Hitler and Einstein, had an almost equally disrupted and inconsistant love life, a coincidence?
regards

Alephnull:

I stand corrected on both counts. Thanks,
Mohammad Gill

Also, your column would be better off being titled ``Science and Sensibility``. The double pun attempt does NOT come off (n)

So I take it the film IQ is a work of fiction? ;))))

**For the uninitiated, IQ is a Hollywood chick- flick-if-I-ever-saw- one in which a retired, elderly Einstein (that dude who played Mr. Wilson in Dennis the menace) fondly facilitates the romance of his niece (Meg Sugaryan) with a local mechanic (Tim-what am I doing in this movie- Robbins). He is shown as happily single in the flick, with only a handful of jovial old scientists for company.

Anyway, to come to this piece, like someone says, looks hastily written, but a nice read nevertheless. I qalso feel Dr. Gill is a little harsh on Poor Albert :)))

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all he did was date someone at sixteen, marry someone else and have kids when he slightly older and divorced and remarried in middle-age. That seems par for the course in American at least these days! So the most you can say is that Einstein was ahead of his time, and not just specking scientifically!

Would have liked some more elaboration on the alleged affairs, with or without the juicy details kaura seeks, for that might have given some more insight into the kind of man he REALLY was!!

PS>> ``Mundane`` and ``lacklustre`` are not typically words you use to describe a love life, unless it were virtully non-existent, and old Al seems to have led quite a merry one!

Good.

That`s nice to know about Einstein`s love life. :)

Mohammad Gill
I work in the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Detroit, and hold the position of Assistant General Superintendent of Engineering.

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Methinks someone is spending too much time down there, kaura`s kind remarks about me not withstanding.Sure enough, he has to write about the love life of a brilliant JEW!!.This is what Albert Einstein said about India,``
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made``.

I`m on Einstein`s side on this one and i don`t speak ill or rake up `dirt` of the dead.

This article seems to have been written in haste, perhaps appropriate given its gossipy and salacious subject. I found at least two errors on a quick first scan: Hans Albert Einstein was a Professor at UC Berkeley (not Caltech); and Einstein’s secretary in Princeton was Helen Dukas (not Dukakis) – so there are probably several more, in addition to obvious typos.

This was your most interesting topic to date.

``.....This is a real change in pace for you and also a very interesting article....``

It is due to Cayenne and to some extent my constant ribbing.........we give Mr Gill...........it had the desired effect.........and the credit goes to Cayenne for putting Mr Gill in the right direction........though the manzil is yet at a distance......


The language used to describe Einstein`s Love life is pretty scientific/dry.........juicy details.....and some flowery and sexy lingo..........a la those `romance novels`........would`ve been better.........

Dr. Gill:

This is a real change in pace for you and also a very interesting article, of course, because you discuss the personal side of Einstein – something that most people hardly know! Similar insights into other scientific (as well as other historical) figures will be welcome.

Obviously, for Einstein, Physics was the first (and for all practical purposes, the only real) love of his life. The same is probably true of many geniuses, not just scientists, who really accomplish in their chosen field but sometimes come up desperately short in their personal ones, perhaps thinking that the rules for simple folks do not apply to them. For example, Gandhi neglected his children. Ben Franklin and his son became bitter enemies, etc. There is always a lot of “chiraag tale andhera” with some of these geniuses.

To sum it all up in janitorial terms:

This dude may have been rude and crude – but he was no prude – and for sure not a dud as a stud!!

Notes:
[“A genius but you wouldn’t want to marry him.”]
I knew there IS a space for simple janitors – not just geniuses – in the scheme of things!

[Einstein’s mother wanted him to marry Marie although she hadn’t seen her yet.]
Just a little matter of cosmetic details, of course!

[Marie did his laundry and other little things as token of her love for him.]
Just a bit of his dirty laundry, I guess!

[He took his women for granted because even after dumping Marie, he continued sending his laundry to her, which she did willingly.]
Either he took his women for granted, or his laundry VERY seriously – or perhaps he made no distinction between his women and used dirty laundry!

[In Berlin, he grew friendly with his cousin Elsa with whom he slept while he was still married to Maleva.]
(More than) kissing cousins, I suppose!

[Before marrying Elsa, he had considered marrying her daughter, Ilse, instead.]
A true do-gooder who never discriminated based on age!

[Elsa permitted Albert to see his mistress twice a week in exchange for keeping a low profile. He grew bored with her within a year and looked elsewhere for sex.]
Ah the good old days when wives were SO very understanding! Those creative juices needed a lot of stimulation to flow. (It perhaps gives a new and literal meaning to the popular phrase – “behind every successful man, there is a woman!” Einstein was of course more than just “successful”, so he would need a suitably extrapolated higher number of women. (I knew there was an explanation! (I wonder if it would work in reverse?)))