The whole world has come to know that Venkatraman Ramkrishnan is going to receive the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. But I do not know how many know the part that my city, Baroda (officially called Vadodara) played in his becoming a scientist. He did his schooling around 40 years ago from Convent of Jesus and Mary school. That is where I completed my schooling too. At the time he studied, it was a co-ed school. It was much later that it became a Girls’ school. Presently, I am working there as a teacher. He did his graduation from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, (popularly called MSU) I too did my post graduation from there, although I had opted for Arts stream, not Science. I am very happy that Venkatraman’s (or, Venky, as he was called by his classmates) winning the Nobel Prize has given reasons for my hometown to be proud of.
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While this was the talk of town, another article which had come in the newspaper showed that, come what may, some things never change. This incident did not happen in Baroda but in a village around Surat city in Gujarat. There was a poor tribal labourer who had two sons. One was suffering from polio and the other had gastroenteritis. He and his wife used to work in agricultural field to earn their livelihood. They did not have much money. When this father took him to the clinic in the village he was told that his son would get good medical care if he took him to the government hospital in Surat. He wanted his son to be all right but he did not have money to take his son in a vehicle. His polio stricken son had a makeshift wheel chair. So the father put the other son along side and took both the sons to the hospital. What’s the big deal, did you say? Nothing much except for the fact that he had to drag that wheel chair with his two sons sitting on it for 60 kilometres. That was the distance from his village to the City hospital. When the nurses in the hospital realised that he would have to tread another 60 kilometres to reach his home, they felt pity on him and talked to a social worker who arranged for the ambulance. He said that his wife had stayed back in the village because they could not afford to lose the daily income that she would have earned by working in the field.
Remember Thomas Gray’’s poem…”“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” Unsung heroes and Known heroes…..so many of them in the world!
One true mark of the man is the fact that he did his graduation in PHYSICS from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, then did PhD in PHYSICS from Ohio Univ, then studied BIOLOGY at Univ of California, has been working at a Lab of molecular BIOLOGY in Cambridge, but has won Nobel Prize in CHEMISTRY! True mark and sign of a Scientist! Very lucky connection with you too! And I dont see these two cases as ”contrasting” to each other. This boy had a ”wheelchair”, he had access to a govt ”hospital”, his father could drag him to the city on a ”road”, while the fact is that there are numerous in India who don”t have food, dont have access to any hospitals and have no roads to their villages. Gujarat seems to be far advanced - even tribals are far away from the cities by only 60 km. This boy can also become a scientist if he studies well. Ramkrishnan had studied at MSU Baroda on a scholarship.
Wow Jissy!! That’’s something , both of you have the same Alma Mater!!!!. Yes, there are ever so many unsung heroes amongst our midst too. We have stories like that coming to our notice everyday . Life goes on as usual for them . Here in Delhi, crores are being spent for sprucing up the place and getting it ready for the Commonweatlh games. What kind of feather is that in our cap, I wonder when we haven”t been able to provide the basic amenities to most of our people.
arre- u r being noticed by the terrorist- great
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Remember Thomas Gray’’s poem…”“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” Unsung heroes and Known heroes…..so many of them in the world!
One true mark of the man is the fact that he did his graduation in PHYSICS from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, then did PhD in PHYSICS from Ohio Univ, then studied BIOLOGY at Univ of California, has been working at a Lab of molecular BIOLOGY in Cambridge, but has won Nobel Prize in CHEMISTRY! True mark and sign of a Scientist! Very lucky connection with you too! And I dont see these two cases as ”contrasting” to each other. This boy had a ”wheelchair”, he had access to a govt ”hospital”, his father could drag him to the city on a ”road”, while the fact is that there are numerous in India who don”t have food, dont have access to any hospitals and have no roads to their villages. Gujarat seems to be far advanced - even tribals are far away from the cities by only 60 km. This boy can also become a scientist if he studies well. Ramkrishnan had studied at MSU Baroda on a scholarship.
the human element of the second part has a message, loud and sombre one, life is to move and be cherished.
Wow Jissy!! That’’s something , both of you have the same Alma Mater!!!!. Yes, there are ever so many unsung heroes amongst our midst too. We have stories like that coming to our notice everyday . Life goes on as usual for them . Here in Delhi, crores are being spent for sprucing up the place and getting it ready for the Commonweatlh games. What kind of feather is that in our cap, I wonder when we haven”t been able to provide the basic amenities to most of our people.
really you can be proud of for you are being there where a nobel prize winner come up…
I have read both the articles in news paper.
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?. One is a highly intelligent man. The other, a picture of courage in adversity.