Hi Navin. I shared your article with a friend - Sriram Naganathan - who is a history buff. He had this to say -
"I tried my best to verify if Chandra taught them - their fields appeared different, if I recall right - but never found much evidence. I tried to check where he was living them so a travel of 150 kms (or miles) became necessary. No luck. Nice story though. I tried some more routes, and then gave up.
What is not well know is that tiff he had with his Nobel Prize winning uncle CV Raman. Chandra had no great respect for his uncle. There is a narration of how CV Raman didn’t bother to review Chandra’s work / book and sort of tossed it aside.
Chandra’s nephew or grandnephew is a guy called Shiv Vishwanathan, a prof in Delhi. Shiv was in tough with Lalitha, Chadra’s wife who passed away recently. He might be able to confirm this anecdote, if Lalitha had spoken about it. Chandra-Lalitha had no children. So no more first hand source would be possible, unless he had put it down in his own writing somewhere."
Hi Navin. I shared your article with a friend - Sriram Naganathan - who is a history buff. He had this to say -
"I tried my best to verify if Chandra taught them - their fields appeared different, if I recall right - but never found much evidence. I tried to check where he was living them so a travel of 150 kms (or miles) became necessary. No luck. Nice story though. I tried some more routes, and then gave up.
What is not well know is that tiff he had with his Nobel Prize winning uncle CV Raman. Chandra had no great respect for his uncle. There is a narration of how CV Raman didn’t bother to review Chandra’s work / book and sort of tossed it aside.
Chandra’s nephew or grandnephew is a guy called Shiv Vishwanathan, a prof in Delhi. Shiv was in tough with Lalitha, Chadra’s wife who passed away recently. He might be able to confirm this anecdote, if Lalitha had spoken about it. Chandra-Lalitha had no children. So no more first hand source would be possible, unless he had put it down in his own writing somewhere."
Very interesting, indeed Navin.
For me a story serves two purposes – 1) for the historical value of the story, about what actually happened and 2) to tell a story to make a point.
I think the story makes a good point – that a good teacher travels long distances (and takes troubles) to teach if the student is good.
Great point Mukul; it is important to not lose sight of the important part of this story!