Sir C. V. Raman
Chandra Sekara Venkatraman belonged to Tanjore district, ‘Tamil Nadu. Young Raman was proficient in English and Science. He read every book on science. he could find. Even in his young days, he wondered why the sea was blue and made up his mind to find the truth one day.
As his family was not rich enough to send him for higher studies to England, he entered service in the Indian finance department. He proved to be a good officer and was very much liked in the department. While he was working in Culcutta, he heard of an association for the cultivation of science and obtained permission to carry on his experiment as the laboratory during his leisure hours.
He was conducting experiments with other young scientists and their discoveries were published in a science magazine. Scientists all over the world came to notice that Indian scientists were making important discoveries.
Though C. V. Raman was transferred from Calcutta to Rangoon and then to Nagpur he kept on with his scientific researches and carried out experiments in his laboratory at home.
When Raman returned to Calcutta he was offered the post of professor of Physics. Though the salary was lower than what he got from the finance department, his love of science made him to take up the job. He became-the professor of physics in the Culcutta University.
His chief interest was in light, After years of hard work, he discovered some facts about light which were not known before. Scientists all over the world were happy and about his discoveries which helped thorn, in learning more about x-rays, radio activity, the atom and how some rays travel.
These discoveries came to be acknowledged as ‘Raman Effect’. This laid the foundation for further researches into many of the fields of science.
The British Government honoured C. V. Raman with the title of ‘sir’ and he was also awarded the world’s highest honour viz, the Nobel Prize for Physics.
He worked alone. He gave up fame and wealth to study science. He wanted no rewards because all he wanted was to work at science which he very much loved in his life.
‘Raman Effect’ brought great honour to India.
