The Uncut Diamond: Book explores the life of pioneering physicist and meteorologist Anna Mani

Discover the inspiring journey of physicist Anna Mani in Asha Gopinathan's decade-long exploration, "Anna Mani: The Uncut Diamond."

Researcher and writer Asha Gopinathan remembers asking children to name a female scientist when working on science popularisation programmes with the Alliance Francaise in Thiruvananthapuram in March 2015. After several moments of silence, a hand went up and a voice said ‘Marie Curie’. “I realised then that something was wrong. And this wrong needed to be corrected,” she adds. 

The book cover and flap | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

She also speaks of another instance from the past, when she asked children to draw scientists. “Thiruvananthapuram is a space town, so of course, space consoles and rockets featured across the drawings. But another thing I noticed was how all the scientists the children drew were men,” she recalls. 

Asha spent the next decade working on the book, Anna Mani – The Uncut Diamond, published by the National Book Trust ( NBT), Delhi, in 2025. 

A chronicle of the life of trailblazing physicist and renowned meteorologist Anna Mani, it traces the scientist’s journey from her birth in Peeramade, Idukki, her time at Women’s Christian College, Chennai as she finished her Intermediate years, her stint at scientist CV Raman’s laboratory as one of three women, her many years and expansive work at the India Meteorological Department, Pune where she retired as the Deputy Director-General, and her continuing work in the areas of atmospheric physics, ozone, radiation, atmospheric electricity. 

“I didn’t think it would take me 10 years of my life,” says Asha, describing her work on the book. When she started a decade ago, she recalls having nothing else to go by except her scientific papers and two rare interviews that the physicist had given. “I wrote the first five chapters based on this, and it was shaping up to be a very scientifically-oriented book,” she says.