American scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received, in a single week, a Nobel Prize from Sweden after merely looking at his work in chemistry, whereas India gave him a caste tag, regional badge, tried to involve him in jingoist celebrations in honour of the Swedish honour and created an entire alternate identity for him, but entirely ignored his work.
Hundreds of spam load of jingoist mails, post the announcement that American scientist Dr Ramakrishnan won the Nobel for studies of structure and function of ribosome, the body’s protein factories, an honour the Swedes also gave to Thomas A Steitz of Yale University and Ada E Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, without considering age, gender, nationality, place of birth, social hierarchy… nothing save the brilliance of their work, declared to the scientist their pride at the winning of a prize by a Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu)-born Tamil Brahmin.
“We are proud of you, Venky, you have won some Novel prize for biology or maths or whatever… we love you, fellow son of Tamil soil,” proud fans of Rajnikant, Khusbhoo, and animated Tamil-lovers of both DMK and AIADMK camps declared.
In retaliation, equally proud Gujaratis claimed their counter pride in Venky, a person who had moved to Baroda in 1955 at the age of three, for having won the Noel prize in kemistry. “As a fellow Gujarati, we love you Venky,” said several of the accused of the Godhra riots.
US scientist Dr Ramakrishnan, 57, who was born in 1952, who received professional and personal congratulations from people close to him from across the world, looking back at his efforts, passion and discussing his actual work; while absolute strangers and people who ignored him for decades in India, claimed him as their own, giving a damn for his work itself.
While the media ignored his American citizenship and hyped him as an “Indian-born”, getting nostaligic about his childhood National Science Talent Scholarship won as a school boy, declaring it the reason for being his being spurred into a career in science.
“Did you live in Tamil Nadu as a child? Do you still have any personal or family connections in Tamil Nadu? How closely have you kept your ties alive with Baroda? Do you plan to return to IISc? Did you see Shah Rukh Khan in Swades? Are you proud of being an Indian? Do you plan your next holiday to Mumbai? What is your favourite Bollywood or Tamil film? Do you listen to A R Rahman?” were some of the sample questions Indians mailed, which Sedition and Perdition found aired to the Nobel Laureate.
Speaking exclusively to SedPerd in an interview which never happened, the scientist refused to be working next on the reason why only Tamil Brahmins win Novel prize in sciences from India. “Free India has won no Nobel prize in science… repeat… zero… yes, the original Indian scientific contribution. I am not going to establish a scientific link between caste and Nobel prize,” American scientist Dr Ramakrishnan screamed to SedPerd, admonishing him for calling him by his nickname.
“Stop sending me spam emails and calling me Venky, and no, for the last time I am telling you I am not your classmate in college in Bhopal and I do not recall having gone for picnics in Delhi with you,” he yelled.
Unperturbed, celebrations erupted in any place which could with least credibility claim a link to the scientist, based on any criteria ranging from same initials, same year of birth, people of same astrological sign, among others across the country.
In Gujarat, ignoring the fact that his father, C V Ramakrishnan had had a bitter exit from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, despite being an accomplished academic, having founded the department of biochemistry in the varsity with his wife Rajalakshmi, owing to politicians, the varsity plans to create a statue for him, SedPerd’s fake investigations found out.
“However, Dr Ramakrishnan shocked all proud Indians by declaring that ‘it is a mistake to judge science by Nobel Prizes’, when he should know that we Indians measure everything by international awards like Novel,” said an Indian politician.
Ignoring his suggestions that it is important to give young people the freedom to follow ideas and pursue their interests, the country has decided to continue to claim him as ours, ignoring his work and his ideas, and in his honour, the state government will soon sponsor research if there is a link between exemplary scientific research and being Brahmin.