In the previous post I started telling something and ended telling something else. Coming back to Niz's speech, let me write here the 'other two' points that caught my attention.
During the question-answer session, a student asked whether women face any discrimination at the ISRO. Nizy paused for a moment and raising the identity tag around her neck said,"once we enter our lab with this around our neck, we forget whether we are men or women". I felt a mild shock and told myself the following. "No wonder, how or why the prestigious institutions like the ISRO or BARC can do wonders for the nation". Nizy was certainly talking about a very special work culture which I wish the students emulated. I am tempted to deviate, but I resist.
Another question on Russia's failed Lunar project which coincided with our successful Moon Mission. The questioner was elated over Russia's failure as much as over India's success. Nizy's answer was totally unexpected, particularly at a time the when the whole nation was in a self congratulatory mood with no room for any rational thinking. I really felt proud of Nizy for talking like a professional scientist. She said, "we at the ISRO are not happy over Russia's failure. As scientists, we are instead disappointed. If they had succeeded we could have compared the huge amount of data we have collected with their's. That would have given deeper insights into many things we were exploring". Nizy certainly was talking about the ways of science where repeatability and agreement between data collected by various groups, before concluding something as the final truth. I wish the students gathered there understood this very crucial aspect of scientific pursuits. Again I am tempted to deviate, but I resist.
Sir, thank you for remembering and blogging. In fact, CMS was training us in such culture.
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