Kalam urges Professors to follow footsteps of C V Raman

Hyderabad, Feb 1 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today urged professors to follow in the footsteps of noted scientist C V Raman, who preferred to stay with his student instead of going to New Delhi to receive the Bharat Ratna from then President Rajendra Prasad.

Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners and the award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954.

When the then President wrote to Raman inviting him as the personal guest to Rashtrapati Bhavan to receive the highest civilian award, the latter politely declined as the thesis to be submitted by his PhD student was due by January end.

Revealing this information mentioned in the book 'The Big and the Small from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm' by Dr G Venkataraman, the Presdient during the 77th annual Convocation of the Osmania University said, ''here was a scientist who gave up a pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of the student.'' ''It is this character that truly builds academic excellence. I am sure the academic community assembled here will follow this example,'' he added.

UNI