Silly Nationalism

So, here is the story of another Indian (by birth) winning a world acclaim and the media and a section of the Indian masses trying to latch on to any iota of 'Indianess' that might exist in Venki Ramakrishnan, to be part of that hard-earned accomplishment of the noble prize winner. Are we in such a drought of an Indian exploit, which makes us cling on to any Indianess in individual achievers across the globe?

Other than the scientific fraternity, who has had the privilege to work with the professor, how many on earth would have really known this individual till the day he won this accolade? Even by the scientist’s own claim, he had visited India very few times in the last 3 decades and that is how much amount of Indianess left in him, after having relocated to the lands of opportunity in pursuit of his dream.

May be as an individual who knows the professor or who has been associated with him or his work in some way, I would celebrate his success. How can the country take credit and be part of the success?

As the scientist himself has said it many times, let us not judge accomplishments by mere awards, for there are hundreds of other scientists who toil under the limited infrastructure at our disposal in our country and who every day wrack their brains to fight the bureaucratic and political tangles within our scientific establishments.

Given that, let us celebrate the individual's Nobel on the merits of his accomplishment as a member of the scientific fraternity and not as an 'Indian'. May be India provided the genes or the few fortunate teachers sowed the seeds of wisdom on Venki Ramakrishnan in his early school days. But, we lost that and continue to lose that privilege with the brain drain of so many individuals who migrated to greener pastures – more rightly so.

For a nation of more than a billion, there is no dearth of silly controversies and I cannot but admire the scientist’s response on nationalistic jingoism - one of the Best I have read to reinforce simple common sense!