Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

15
the happenings of Nature! Is Nature a
Cosmos, in which the human mind is some
day to realise the uniform march of
sequence, order and law? India through her
habit of mind is peculiarly fitted to realise
the idea of unity, and to see in the
phenomenal world an orderly universe.”
His anti-Patent stance
Bose was not interested in patenting his
invention. He declined an offer from a millionaire
proprietor of a reputed telegraph company in
England, who promised to arrange a patent and
50% of the profits. It was not that Sir Jagadish
was unaware of patents and their advantages.
He did not want to be entangled in the murky
eddies of lucre, for his love of science was pure
and unalloyed. There were some European
scientists like Bose who valued morals and
bowed not to Mammon.
Yet, the first Indian to own a US patent
After a lot of persuasion by Sara
Chapman Bull, one of his American friends, Bose
agreed to apply for a patent, as a one time
exception. The application for patenting
“Detector for electrical disturbances” was filed
on 30
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna
th September 1901 and it was granted on
29th at his patriotic facet.
When he was offered a
lucrative and prestigious Chair at the University
of Cambridge, he declined it, for “My mind and
life cannot snap the attraction from my poor
motherland.”
Bose was a self-made man, having
March 1904, as US patent 755840.
designed and made his laboratory equipment
himself. This art of improvisation he owed to the
workshops his father set up as a means to solve
the unemployment of the local youth and where
he got his first experiences as a young boy.
Bose stands out as a man of self-respect
also. He joined as the Professor of Physics at
the Presidency College, Kolkata. The authorities
admitted him rather grudgingly. After joining,
Bose came to know that Indians were paid only
2/3
A seer that he was, Bose felt the global
competition, and saw clearly what India had to do:
“India is drawn into the vortex of
international competition. She has to
become efficient in every way…through the
spread of education, through performance
of civic duties and responsibilities, through
activities both industrial and commercial.”
A self-made man - self-respect & self
confidence
Bose had a profound personality which
was rich in rectitude and fortitude. Let us look
rd of what the Europeans were getting at the
same college. However, Bose was offered even
less, for his appointment was ‘temporary’. Thus
he would get only half of the 2/3rd 150th Birth Year
Tribute
. Bose didn’t
flinch a whit nor he made any protest. Stoically
resolving to go ahead and give his best, he went
on teaching and researching, but without
accepting any salary. He became the most
popular and successful professor. After Three
years, the management realised its folly and paid
him full salary on a par with the Europeans right
from day one. Bose learnt that “the best method
of facing Englishmen was to stand before
them with courage and indomitable willpower.”
First science fictionist in Bengali
Bose was the first science fiction writer
in Bengali, with his Niruddesher Kahini (1896).
Bose so endeared himself in literary circles that
he became the President of Bangiya Sahitya
Sammilan and Bangiya Sahitya Parishad. Here
the importance of learning one’s mother tongue
at the right age can be appreciated.