Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXVI No. 24, April 1-15, 2017
Our Readers write
Remembering PKS
The remarkable museum (MM, March 16th) that commemorates Srinivasa Ramanujam is entirely due to the selfless dedication P.K. Srinivasan whose two passions were Ramanujan and making Maths interesting. He worked in Muthialpet High School, one of his students being Bose who offered his space for the museum. It is sad that the Government of Tamil Nadu had taken no interest in remembering its geniuses.
PKS’s old students helped him to bring out two volumes on Ramanujan, which continue to serve as references. PKS became a Fulbright scholar when John Kennedy wanted reform of Maths and science education in schools to match with the Soviet Union. PKS acted as a trailblazer in that movement. He was one of the founder members along with me of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India. He conducted numerous workshops in association with NCERT. He brought a whiff of fresh air to any activity he was involved in.
Taskmaster that he was, he would not accept slipshod work. He had immense faith in young students and they never failed him.
My association with PKS was six decades old and we worked together in modernising Maths curricula and textbooks.
S.S. Rajagopalan
30, Kamarajar Street
Chennai 600 093
Pilot negotiations
The office of Paranjothi Sanjivi (MM, March 16th) was in a building just opposite Christian College High School on Linghi Chetty Street, where I was a student in 1948-49. It was mostly lawyers occupying the building. My grand-father’s office was just next to Paranjothi Sanjivi’s and he was working on this collaboration with the Pilot Company of Japan at that time itself. I used to go to my grand-father’s office-cum-residence daily for lunch. There was a young woman working for Paranjothi, perhaps a relation or employee, who used to get her astrological chart examined by my grandfather!
Paranjothi’s son came and saw me years later when I was in the Ministry of Commerce. By then, both his pen and theatre were very popular.
Dr. G. Sundaram, IAS Retd
A 601, “Dugar Apartments”
Keshav Perumal Puram
Greenways Road
Chennai 600 028
Waterfowl Count
Referring to the caption accompanying the pictures from Vedanthangal last fortnight, The Madras Naturalists’ Society writes that they were taken as part of the Asian Waterfowl Count (AWC), 2017. Three teams counted waterfowl at Sholinganallur (Perumbakkam Tank), Vedanthangal, Karikkili, Siruthavur, Manampathy, Thaiyur, Adyar Estuary, Cheyyur, Kelambakkam, Katrambakkam, Manimangalam, Amarambedu, Chembarambakkam, Tenneri and Kaveripakkam.
The total count was 25,124 waterfowl, of which 5,073 were in Vedanthangal. There were 24 species sighted in Vedanthangal, the most numerous being Egrets (2,500) followed by Spoon-billed Pelicans (1,100) and Black-headed Ibis (520).
