It Truly is a Small World

Dr. Barot's second installment from India.

I do not speak the local language, so traveling around and using local public transportation is always challenging. I got invited to a one day conference at MG University in Kottayam, Kerala, which is about 100 miles away from here. I had to change two buses, asking strangers to help me, but I was able to reach it in time.

The conference was organized to honor the young chemistry professor who died suddenly. He was only 49 years old. I met his widow. She is around 45. She felt good, assuming I had come all the way from the USA for that purpose. I did not want to hurt her, so I just comforted her. I met a retired chemistry professor, Dr. Madhavan. He has spent a few years at Wayne State in Michigan. It was nice to listen about old glory of Detroit.

Here everyone uses only one name: the first name. This way they avoid caste bases discrimination. The main invited speaker was a young chemistry professor, Radha Krishanan (RK) from the Kerala state capitol. He summarized the work of Suzuki, Negishi and Heck, the three Noble Prize winners of chemistry for 2010, before presenting his own work. I found it very interesting.

During lunch, I asked Prof. RK about one slide of X-ray crystals. He told me that the data measurement was provided by Dr. Nigam Rath from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. What a small world! Dr. Nigam Rath and I did our Ph.D.s together at Oklahoma State. We were study group partners.

Next week, I am planning to visit a town with a famous temple.