Astrophysical Sources of Gravitational Waves

Abstract

Prolog When I was a student of the National College during the years 74–79 every year I eagerly awaited the month of November during which the Bangalore Science Forum celebrated the Science Festival by organising lectures on a variety of topics from liquid crystals to superconductivity and neurology to chromatography. It was during the 1975 Science Festival, on a gloomy evening that I attended your lecture on black holes. Though the evening was gloomy the lecture was excellent and has remained clearly in my memory. It was that lecture which focussed my otherwise topsy-turvy mind into making the crucial decision of what I wanted to do next. During your career you have motivated a large number of students and I am among those who is indebted to you for having shown the first rays of light. I wish you all the success with your untiring effort in popularising science and motivating thousands of young students. I will consider myself to be most fortunate if some day I can come and tell you that we have seen the quasi-normal modes to conclude your quest on the trail of a black hole and to begin a new era of gravitational wave astronomy.