Remembering Dr Salam
By Prof Munawar Shamim Khalid
Jhang, Pakistan
The Nobel prized physicist Prof. Dr.Abdus Salam breathed his last in Oxford and was laid to rest in his birthplace district of Jhang on 26th Nov. 1996. As one of his humble students, I have the honor to recall the shining memories of the 3-day Memorial Meeting on his first death anniversary from 21st to 23rd of November 1997 held at ICTP, Trieste, Italy. On that memorable occasion, the undersigned as convener of Dr Salam Physics Memorial Society, Jhang, wrote a reminiscences/condolence letter to the bereaved family of Prof. Salam. I had the honor to receive a warm, heart-felt reply from the respected Mrs L.J.Salam in which she expressed her deeply touching feelings in the following words:
105a, Lonsdale Road
Oxford, UK
12th December 1997
Dear Prof. Khalid,
AoA,
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful letter on the anniversary of the death of Professor Abdus Salam. Your beautiful letter from his birth place of Jhang district, where he is buried beside the graves of his loved and loving, saint-like parents, means so much to me and my family and we appreciate your sincere thoughts and condolences.
There is not a day when we do not remember him. The first anniversary was especially poignant recalling vividly the last sad days. We were helped by an anniversary meeting held at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste in his memory. In addition to lectures on Physics and Mathematics, the whole of the day of November 21st was devoted to personal reminiscences from those who had known him in all his different activities.
This was a marvelous and happy occasion with so many old friends there. It seemed as if his spirit was there too. The Center has been renamed as "The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics" and we came back confident that both the ideals that he inspired for the Centre and his memory will never die. His work is going on.
Once again, we all, my son Umar Salam, daughter Sayyeda and myself, thank you for your letter. I was deeply grateful that you remembered us and him in this way. Please say a prayer for us at his grave. I hope that one day, God willing, we will visit his grave again.
With our best wishes,
Yours Sincerely,
Louise Johnson Salam
Recalling all this and many, many more results/outcome of Dr. Salam's theoretical-cum-laboratory practical experiments, like the one of 4rth July 2012, yes, the day on which his name was splashed through-out the world, when CERN office, Geneva announced that the experiment conducted in the Large HadronCollider, 27- km underground tunnel in Switzerland has proved correct the theoretical foreboding of Dr Salam, propounded by him decades before his demise in 1996.
May God bless the departed soul in his final resting abode. Ameen.
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