The Nobels..

There was a sense of elation when an Indian born scientist won the Nobel for Chemistry, eventhough he migrated quite sometime ago and is an American now. It only showed again that Indians are quite capable..but unfortunately they can achieve something only when they are out of India. If Venky, the scientist, had lived in India working in some University he would have been struggling with his life that he would not have much time for science. Even if he had the will to survive in the Indian environment of mess he would have found the going tough. Suppose he had worked in a government laboratory - shining examples of Indian scientific advancement - he would most probably have a superior who is there not beacuse of merit, but on other considerations like seniority, influence, social justice etc. Any request for material or equipment would be caught in beaureaucratic maze that Venky would have left twiddling his thumbs most of the time. It was good that he migrated and achieved something. There was a time, when we were young, when we thought that our future lay in India and we could achieve something for this country. 30 years later one feels that it was not worth it.

If Venky's nobel gave one a great feeling, the nobel for Obama was quite a disaster. It was really a shocker....gave one the feeling that the committee was competely off its rocker. However that is the way power and influence works.