Sir C. V. Raman delivers his address at the third convocation

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Institute Events , Convocations

On the dais, from the right: Prof. S. Sampath (Head of the Electrical Engineering department), Dr. K. S. G. Doss (Director of Central Electro-Chemical Research Institute), Mr. P. M. Reddy (General Manager of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.), Mr. G. K. Chandiramani (Member of the Indian Institute of Technology Council), Dr. A. L. Mudaliar (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras, Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Madras) and Sir C. V. Raman (Indian physicist, Nobel laureate).

The speech delivered by Sir C. V. Raman had nuances of nostalgia to it as he recalled his own college days. He said, “Fully sixty years ago, I came out of college in this very city. I find to my astonishment, that my experiences of those four years have left an indelible impression on my mind and what is more remarkable is that all that I have done in the last sixty years was determined for me with mathematical precision by what I did in those four years”. His speech took an interesting turn when he revealed that he had been at the very birth of IIT Madras, 10 years back, when he happened to be in Bonn and by coincidence so was the first Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. He recalled the lunch they shared with the President of the German Republic: “It was on this occasion that the German Government promised their gift of this Institute to India. And in a short span of 10 years, a veritable jungle has been translated into a place of learning with its fine buildings and equipment and bright, young people from all over India, and here such a magnificent assembly has been presented for my delectation”.

An identical photograph can be found in the Gourishankar Collection in Album 0241 under the ID: 001/0241/IMG_80

Collection:

Central Photographic Section Collection

Album Name:

Third Convocation, 1966

Photograph ID:

001/0024/IMG_0747_1

Album ID:

0024

Date:

1966-07-30

Place:

Open Air Theatre

Photographer:

C. Gourishankar (1936-2002). A geologist by qualification, Gourishankar started his career as a photographer after working for many years with the Geological Survey of India. In everything that he did, Gourishankar strove to achieve flawlessness and impeccable quality. Thus his photography too was characterised by this drive for perfection. Every photograph that Gourishankar took was meticulously planned and shot and printed with diligence and patience. Gourishankar carried out most of the official photography at IIT Madras in the 1960s.

Event:

Convocation