#TeachersDay : The Heart warming story of Pakistan's only Nobel laureate's Gratitude to his Bengali Hindu Teacher from Calcutta .
In 1979,Pakistani scientist Abdus Salam won the Nobel Prize for physics.His life’s work was key to defining a theory of particle physics still used today & it laid the groundwork for the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson-the particle responsible all other particles mass
Dr. Salam was from Mohalla Chain Pura, Jhang , he was born on Jan 29, 1926 & he studied in Government High School Jhang in 1934 His mathematics teacher was Professor Anilendra Ganguly. He taught Salam mathematics at Government College University at Lahore.
Salam’s skills in mathematics and physics set him apart from his classmates. He won a scholarship to attend Cambridge University, where he became one of the few South Asian faces at the time in St John’s College.
Salam’s contribution to physics was significant. He developed the theory of the neutrino, a subatomic particle first proposed by Pauli in 1930, and he worked on electroweak theory, for which he won the Nobel Prize.
Dr. Abdus Salam visited India in December 1979, soon after attending the Nobel award ceremony in Sweden. He had requested then Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, to help him trace his Professor Anilendra Ganguly who had migrated to Calcutta after partition from Lahore.
Dr. Salam visited Prof Anilendra Ganguli house , who was feeble & unable to sit up and greet him when Dr Salam visited him.
Dr Salam took his Nobel medal and said to ailing Professor - "This is your prize Sir. It’s not mine." It was the ultimate tribute to a teacher that went far beyond the parochial limits of religion and nation.
University of Calcutta decided to award Dr Salam the Debaprasad Sarbadhikary Gold Medal to honour his achievements. Instead of accepting the award, Dr Salam refused and said it was his teacher who deserved
The University later held at an award ceremony in an ailing Anilendra Ganguly's South Calcutta residence in 1981, Dr Abdus Salam was present to see his revered teacher getting his due respect at last. A contented Anil babu died shortly thereafter in 1982.
Dr.Abdus Salam died at the age of 70 in 1996 .He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and had become frail and weak towards the end of his life.
Regretfully his epitaph continues to be a ground for conflicting schools of religious political thought in Pakistan ;the word 'Muslim' is often erased from his tombstone. The land of pure was obsessed with purity of religion & not honour of its only Nobel Laureate.
Dr Abdus Salam belonged to ' ahmadiya' sect of Islam which is regularly persecuted in Pakistan. You can further refer the Netflix documentary on Pakistan's only Nobel laureate who faced discrimination even after death .netflix.com/in/title/81191…
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