A celebration of 1983 Nobel Prize winner S. Chandrasekhar at The Field Museum

Chicago IL: Indo-American Heritage Museum celebrated 1983 Nobel Prize winner S. Chandrasekhar on Saturday - September 23, 2017 at The Field Museum (Marae gallery), 1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL. Dwarf stars and family stories A celebration of 1983 Nobel Prize winner S. Chandrasekhar featuring Field Museum Curator of Meteorites, Phillip Heck, memories of Ayya Mama by Chandrasekhar’s niece, and readings of words from Chandra’s personal life

Brief selections from Chandra’s essays and reminiscences relatives in S. Chandrasekhar, Man of Science, edited by Radhika Ramanath, granddaughter of Rajalakshmi, Chandra’s brother. Like other contributors to this book, she is a Ph. D. following in the footsteps of her famous uncle who highly valued educational achievement.

The highlight of the afternoon was a heartfelt sharing of family stories by Revathy Kumar, Professor at. She grew up in Chandra Vilas with her grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. Her remarkable grandmother married at age fourteen with only a few years of elementary education. She had continued her education while bearing ten children. She learned English well enough to translate Tolstoy stories and Ibsen’s Doll’s House into Tamil, championed education of her daughters, and functioned as guardian of the family since Chandra’s father, an ICS officer traveled frequently. Chandra deeply loved his mother. Before his 1930 departure from India to study in England, she eased decion by announcing, “he was born for the world not for me.”

Among reminiscences were numerous mentions of Chandra’s love of walking on the beach in Madras, his impeccable English, his elegance, his numerous generous gifts of books to loved ones, and his love of music. Vidya Shankar, Chandra’s sister, recalled once he “exuberantly decided to have a spontaneous singing session.”

Anna [Chandra] started, “We are all talented. Here is Savitri with her sonorous voice, Vidya, a musical genius, Sarada, the guide, Balakrishnan with his soft voice, Visva with his thunderous voice, I, the conductor and of course Amma (mother) the musician-composer. Let us joyfully sing ‘Pasiyal melinda nari onru’ (The fox and the grapes), which everyone of us has learnt from Amma.’ And the Choir members aged between six and eighteen proceeded to sing with great enthusiam—singing their best at the top of their voices.

A neighbor living three houses away from us got alarmed on hearing the cacophony and thought some disaster had befallen the family. He came running to Chandra Vilas panting: ‘Any burglary?’

The band fell silent. Then Anna went forward with a welcoming smile and said, “Music, sir, music.” All of us burst out laughing. Our poor neighbour looked stupefied and went home quite disappointed.’

Professor Kumar shared a personal recollection of her renowned uncle’s response to her dismay when as a very young girl, she was left behind when her parents and older relatives accompanied her famous uncle to formal events during a trip to New Delhi. Her Periappa (uncle) invited her to join him for a walk to the Lodi Gardens where he bought her an ice cream.

Amita Banerji brought to life words of Lalitha, Chandra’s wife, who was a classmate with Chandra in the physics department at Presidency College in Madras, India. Lalitha explained, “I knew his presence, and he knew mine. In this way a friendship arose.” Chandra described it thus: “There was a girl I knew then. I left for Cambridge, England. After seven years I returned and married her; and we have lived together happily ever after.” Lalitha continued, “That ‘ever’ lasted almost sixty years. We were planning to celebrate our sixtieth wedding anniversary in 1996 by going to Lyric Opera of Chicago to see Wagner’s Ring Cycle just as we had been to Bayreuth in Germany to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. . . The tickets came, but Chandra wasn’t with me to see the operas. I took others and we remembered. “

Thus all who were present remembered. and enjoyed viewing the Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1983 displayed in a showcase in the Beyond Bollywood exhibition, which features heritage items of Indian Americans of Chicago on view in the Marae Gallery at the Field Museum until January 7.

Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation was created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The exhibition is co-presented in Chicago by The Field Museum and the Indo-American Heritage Museum. It is generously supported by The Chicago Community Trust.

A celebration of 1983 Nobel Prize winner S. Chandrasekhar at The Field Museum

Speakers of Chandrasekhar event