The Genius of Jhang
By Khalid A.
London, UK
I refer to Dr Ahmad Faruqi's excellent and poignant article in your issue of October 11. His was an admirable attempt to make Pakistanis aware of Dr Salam’s eminence who brought glory to Pakistan.
Reluctantly, I would like to make a small factual correction about Dr Salam's matriculation record. I will also explain why I am raising this trivial matter.
I got my admission to the Government College, Lahore, in 1952, after being interviewed by a panel that included Dr (then Assistant Professor) Salam. During the interview, he took note of the fact that I had scored more than 700 marks. In those days, as young students, we were all aware of Professor Salam's scoring of 765 marks out of 850 in his matriculation exam. The correction I want to make is that there was an earlier record of 782 marks achieved by one Mukerjee. Trivial, it may be, but I am sure that Prof Salam would have disliked to rob someone else of his record. I must repeat that this is a factual correction I am making reluctantly. Prof Salam's great achievements in the world of science are well known and cannot be measured in terms of marks scored in an exam.
I always had fond memories of that interview in 1952 when I was facing the great man across the table. Some forty years later, as I attended the convocation of my two daughters at the Imperial College, London, lo and behold, Professor Salam, now retired and very ill, was there, receiving a special award for his lifetime achievements. In the presentation speech, they narrated his life story starting with his childhood in Jhang and declaring that Imperial College was very grateful to Abdus Salam for choosing to work in that institution. There was a standing ovation.
With the memories of my days at the Govt. College, Lahore in the 1950's and the coincidence of Prof. Salam and my own daughters receiving awards in the Royal Albert Hall, it was indeed a very emotional moment for me.
Will our nation wake up and recognize its own son of the soil, who rose to dizzy heights of glory in pursuit and propagation of knowledge, using the universal language of science and maths? Indeed he was on a mission to dissect the heart of the subatomic particles in order to discover the mysteries of the universe. To put it poetically, one may quote Allama Iqbal's immortal words:
Lahu khurshid ka tapkay agar zarray ka dil cheerain.
Meaning: If you dissect the heart of an atom, you will see the structural pattern of the sun and stars.
The dissection is now taking place in Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. The world is awaiting breathlessly. It is a pity that most of the Pakistani nation is blissfully unaware of the worldwide excitement!
