Abdus Salam - The Miracle Scientist of Pakistan

Freethinker:

Thank you for an interesting read. This was a refreshing and informative feature on Dr. Abdus Salam.

I found your remark on ``intellectual loneliness`` very pertinent and sweet.

Regards.

I want to make a correction to my last post. The name of the book is ``Ideals and Realities`` and has been edited by C.H. Lai and Azim Kidwai.

Mohammad Gill

Dear Interactors:

Salam`s speeches and papers are collected in a book called ``Ideals and Reality``. It is a very rich and comprehensive source of information on Salam.

whatever happened to Salam in Pakistan is now water under the bridge. If some (or even one) of the interactors take time to read the book and then publish article(s) on Salam and his legacy, it will be a great service and benefit to the Muslim world. It will accord due respect to Salam also. Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill

Hello,

During Benazir Bhutto`s first term as Prime Minister, PAEC Chairman Munir Khan arranged for a bouquet and a message of warmth and appreciation sent to Dr. Abdus Salam from the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Later when Munir Ahmed Khan met Dr. Salam, he asked him who had thought of sending him a message at the highest level of government, Munir replied that he ( Salam) was greatly respected and loved in his country. Munir later recalled that Salam`s eyes were filled with tears of emotion!

Yet both the heroes remain unsung in Pakistan.

Regards.

#15, AdamSmith:

You got it reversed. Salam will not be acknowledged till MUllah rule ends.

SO END THE MULLAH RULE! When will the dense Pakistanis understand/act accordingly that the religious leaders are the dumbest of all?!!

soundmeister and Rommel:

Thanks for your posts. First step towards modernising our society is to recognise our scientists, scholars and other intellectuals and use them as role models. And Salam is a great role model. We need to relinquish our stereotypes to let in some fresh air. Salam was very proud of his (our) glorious heritage and he tried to bring our past great scientists, physicians, and philosophers to the lime light. We need to revive our heritage and build on it.

Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill

``Duff (5) wrote, “I think it was Hans Bethe who said that there are two kinds of genius. The first group (to which I would say Steven Weinberg belongs) produce results of such devastating logic and clarity that they leave you feeling that you could have done that too (if only you were smart enough). The second kind are the ‘magicians’ whose sources of inspiration are completely baffling. Salam, I believe, belonged to this magic circle and there was always an element of eastern mysticism in his ideas that left you wondering how to fathom his genius.” Similar views were expressed by the world-renowned Cambridge Cosmologist, Fred Hoyle, also.``

That`s so amazingly like the line of thought expounded in Sylvia Nasar`s ``A Beautiful Mind`` that I just finished reading. John Nash apparently worked backwards, getting a flash of intuition about what an end result should be before working on mundane details like the proofs! Ramanujam was not dissimilar, apparently claiming his insights came to him via djinns!

Great piece. Have not yet the interactions though ;)))

Hello,

Great article for a great scientist!

Another great man who shared the same fate as Salam was Munir Ahmed Khan, who was the first man in the IAEA with whom Salam shared his idea of the ICTP. Munir went on to become the architect of Nuclear Pakistan and served as Chairman PAEC from 1972-91, yet he also went unrecognised and unsung, like Salam, while his detractor continues to be worshipped as the `father of the bomb`. It is a pity that genuine and dedicated scientists with impeccable honesty are unrecognized in Pakistan, while the one`s good at corruption manage to get away with what was actually performed by Munir Khan.

Regards.

..........it is really quite funny to see the chowk chapter of the jamaat-i-islami (urstruly and echo) ranting and raving against the white man even as they continue to receive their welfare checks or pay taxes to uncle sam (at least one of them does)............it is a classic case of peeing in the plate that you eat in ......... ingrates !

Not correct. Salam was recognised, and continues to be, recognized by Europeans.

In our coutnry, he never even got to deliver his nobel address!

Mr Gill,

Nice article. It is essential to remember and highlight the work of very few successful muslim scientists of the present times. there should be role models for others to look forward to.

My opinion is that europeans tend to or prefer to ignore any contribution to sciences that has been done by non-europeans.

Ref echoboom #18

[...But then you, needlessly, add:

There is no hope for the stinking Arabs. Looking up to them as role models would lead to ruination for Pakistan. If anything, the role models (from the viewpoint of education) should be Iran, Bangladesh and, if one can overcome the visceral hatred, India.

I would say that It is a part of my belief system, which originated in Arabia, that I must acquire knowledge from everywhere even from China; They exempted any stinking country rather they learned from it and spread it around.

We , all humans , to this day, are indebted to the legacy of that infrastructure.]

Oops, I meant the CURRENT crop of Arabs. They have easy money, don`t think they have to learn anything, come to the US on govt scholarships, waste their time, and go back to their oil-rich countries for ``managerial`` jobs. There is very little you can learn from these people.

I am sorry if I inadvertently gave you the feeling that I was referring to your religion or the early Arabs who had to scratch their living out of the hot unforgiving desert and so had steel in their soul.

Ref DrDr #17

[HaramiU
It wuz only a matter of time B4 U stank up this board. Whats wrong with the arabs. Didnt U read that Prof. Kalam looked up 2 the arabs? Have U heard of Ahmed Zewail?]

See my answer above.

After that, if you still want to be like today`s Saudis, you are welcome.

From Dawn today

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/science/science4.htm

The Editor of Pakistan Link has wriiten quite a bit on Dr. Salam.

It is time to change the name of Gaddafi Stadium to.....

Ras

HaramiU
It wuz only a matter of time B4 U stank up this board. Whats wrong with the arabs. Didnt U read that Prof. Kalam looked up 2 the arabs? Have U heard of Ahmed Zewail?

Harimau:14

You only confirmed and validated what I had already said. If Bose`s father had sent him to the tota-maina-bunder school he would have ended up at the most as a CEO of a multinational-zoo or as another Kalakkter saab ( like his father) or another uniformed clown.

Please do reasearch on all the achievers in ANY field. All of them had their secondary education in the vernacular OR they self-studied and excelled in those laguages. Not a single one, without exception, you`ll find to be from the tota-maina-bunder schools.

But then you, needlessly, add:

There is no hope for the stinking Arabs. Looking up to them as role models would lead to ruination for Pakistan. If anything, the role models (from the viewpoint of education) should be Iran, Bangladesh and, if one can overcome the visceral hatred, India.

I would say that It is a part of my belief system, which originated in Arabia, that I must acquire knowledge from everywhere even from China; They exempted any stinking country rather they learned from it and spread it around.

We , all humans , to this day, are indebted to the legacy of that infrastructure .

AdamSmith:

I want to clarify one thing. I was not Professor Salam`s student. I did my graduate work in engineering at the Imperial College and had the occasion to see Professor Salam a few times. I met him tete-a-tete only a couple of times as I have explained in the article.

I know it was not easy to become one of his students. Students from all parts of the world came to Imperial College hoping to become his students. Wishing you well,

Mohammad Gill