Made in India

Finally, my dear Venky won Nobel Prize in Chemistry. You know how wonderful he was when he used to study in IISc. My sister was telling me he was such a studious fellow when he was there. My sister, who lives just next to IISc for some 15 years now. She met Mrs Ranga in the Malleswaram market yesterday who told her that her husband, a professor in IISc had once saw a guy in library who looked juuust like Venky. So studious, indeed.

I even read Venky was born in Chidambaram... apna Tamilnadu, the place I used to think of as Madras when I was little, but that was when I was really very little, in school. Though Sharma uncle still thinks the same. Because his daughter did her engineering in Noida only, and now she's working in Gurgaon. But I studied in Vellore, same, Tamilnadu. And I am proud of my college and Tamilnadu. And so, of Venky.

Well, that's my direct connection with Venky. But then, there is a bigger, broader connection. Of India. I know Venky is proud of India, his country, our country. I read in the newspaper today only. My mother told me he will come back to India one day, just like Shahrukh Khan did in Swades. But I said I didn't think he would, because that happened in movies. People rarely came back to India in real life. And then mom thought and said I was probably right. But she was happy to read that Venky was proud of being an Indian, even while staying in America. He told the newspaper people he was making his country proud there.

Indeed he was. He is. The best part is that his name is Indian. And wherever he goes, whatever he does, he will remain Indian. He cannot be an American. Because he loves India. Because he is proud of India, of being Indian. Because we won't let him become American. Not after he has won that Nobel. For us. For India. Our land. His land.