Laureates can walk too - Tamil Nadu varsity discovers an unusual VIP

G.C. SHEKHAR

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Chennai, Thankfully, there were no welcoming arches or roadside banners for “Tamil Nadu’s third science Nobel laureate”, or Venkatraman Ramakrishnan might have turned back and returned to England. In a land used to hype and sycophancy, Venki, during his first visit to his state of birth after winning the Chemistry Nobel, turned out to be so down-to-earth and bluntly honest that the fawning officials of the University of Madras took time to adjust to his straightforward nature. After arriving at vice-chancellor G. Thiruvasagam’s office, Venki spurned a car ride to the nearby auditorium. He chose to walk down, striding past the waiting Toyota Innova with his backpack slung over his shoulders even as the varsity officials hurriedly fell in step. As he entered, a loud cheer went up from the 3,000-odd school and college students and there was a rush to shake his hands, which Venki did enthusiastically but with a noticeable blush on his face. Then he rigged up his Apple Mac and waited patiently till the homepage displaying the photos of three writers and two musicians (from Europe) and India’s mathematics genius Srinivasa Ramanujan was properly displayed on the two screens. Later, when a schoolgirl asked him how he could master three subjects —– physics, molecular biology and chemistry — Venki was quick to clarify he was no expert in chemistry. “I probably would fail a UG (undergraduate) exam in chemistry. Since molecular biology is a lot about chemistry inside a molecule, my research got me this award in chemistry. I wish I knew more chemistry,” he said. The vice-chancellor revealed that Venki had declined to attend the university’s annual convocation and turned down an honorary doctorate (he already has two real ones) but offered to come if the function included students and a chance to interact with them. So the varsity got him to inaugurate a centre for the development of basic sciences. Venki arrived in khakis and a half-sleeve green shirt while the VC wore a suit. “Your branches have spread far and wide to distant continents, where you had worked, but your roots belong to Tamil Nadu and we are proud that you are the third Tamil from India to win a science Nobel,” Thiruvasagam gushed. But Venki looked more embarrassed than thrilled. Reason: he had left Tamil Nadu when he was just three years old. “So my Tamil is not very good,” he said apologetically in broken Tamil when a schoolgirl asked him to speak a few lines in his mother tongue. In his speech, Venki said the six geniuses whose pictures he had displayed —all of whom had died young from infections — would easily have been cured by antibiotics today. “My research is in ribosome proteins and the way they react to antibiotics,” he said. He spoke about the evolution of antibiotics: “When penicillin was first used in the ’30s, it was so precious that doctors used to extract the excess penicillin from the patient’s urine.” During those early days, once the penicillin had brought the temperature down, signifying that the antibiotic had begun to work, the doctors would stop the medicine. The patient would often have a relapse and die. That is how the phrase “treatment successful but patient died” came into vogue, he said, lending a touch of humour to an otherwise business-like speech. Once the questions started coming from the students, Venki seemed to perk up. To the standard question how one should aim to work for a Nobel Prize, he replied point-blank: “You cannot; and you must not.” He added: “You should be in research only if it interests you. If the Nobel alone is your aim, you will be disappointed since there are a hundred others in the same field who deserve it every year. What you need essentially are interest and patience, especially during those times when things don’t seem to work, which is most of the time.” When a girl asked how he coped with sudden fame, Venki was more than happy to answer, having been the shy and withdrawn scientist all his life. “It is difficult, since most of these TV camera guys you see today were not there when I came here during the past two years. Just because you are a Nobel winner, people expect words of wisdom from you, not realising that you are an expert only in a small, focused area of science.” Later, at a brief interaction with the media, he dwelt on this stating that a Nobel could actually be a distraction. “My two fellow winners had retired from research, so it is fine for them. But for someone like me who is in the middle of his work, this can take away a lot of time. But hopefully, the excitement would die down and I can resume my normal work,” he said. When a Tamil reporter cajoled him to say if he did not feel responsible to his country of birth to return and help in its development, Venki shot back: “When I was here last year you were not around. So if you try to thrust a new responsibility now, I refuse to accept it.” He said more scientists could return to India if there was less red tape, corruption and politics. “If China can do it, I think India too can get its scientists to return from the West.” Venki made sure that he and the university officials had the same packed lunch served to the students.