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Mother Teresa
(1910 -)
Born Agnes Bojaxhiu to an Albanian
middle-class family, her work among the
diseased and the dying in Calcutta has caused
her to be regarded the world over as a living
saint. Left the Loreto Convent where she was
a teacher to go and work in the Motishil Slum
with nothing more than three saris and a five-
rupee note. Founded the order of the
Missionaries of Charity in 1950. Established
Nirmal Hriday, the Home for Dying Destitutes
in Kalighat, Calcutta. A beggar who died in
Nirmal Hriday said : "I was living like an
animal on the streets, I am dying as an angel".
Today there are 456 centres in more than 100
countries. Was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in
1979 and Bharat Ratna in 1980.
Subramanya Chandrasekhar
(1910 -)
Born on October 19, 1910 in Lahore, he
studied in the Presidency College, Madras
where his famous uncle, C.V. Raman, had
been a student. He obtained his M.A. in 1930.
Arthur Eddington's book
The Internal
Constitution of Stars
which he received as an
undergraduate essay prize created in him an
abiding interest in stars and galaxies. After he
obtained his M.A. scoring a record number of
marks, the Madras University offered him a
research scholarship in Cambridge, England
where he joined the company of famous
astronomers like Eddington, Milne, Fowler
and others. In 1936 he joined the Yerkes
Observatory of Chicago University as a
Research Associate. He became Associate
Professor, Chicago Univ. in 1942, Professor in
1944 and Distinguished Service Professor of
Theoretical Astrophysics in 1947. He returned
home after spending six years in the West to
marry Lalitha, a former classmate of his in the
Presidency College. He acquired American
citizenship in 1953. He was awarded the 1983
Nobel Prize for physics for his pioneering
studies of the structure and evolution of stars,
especially white dwarfs, the last stage in the
life of a star such as the sun.
Indira Gandhi
(1917-1984)
Indira Priyadarshini Nehru's first baptism
of fire in politics occurred in 1921 in an
improvised courtroom'in the Allahabad jail
where her grandfather, Motilal Nehru, was on
trial for participating in a satyagraha. Her
formal education began when she entered St.
Cecilia's School run by Roman Catholic nuns
in Allahabad in 1925. Indira's mother fell ill
and had to be taken to Switzerland for
treatment. Indira accompanied her parents
who visited several European capitals and
were away from India for one year and nine
months. After her matriculation from the
Pupil's Own School in Poona she joined in
1934 Viswa Bharati, the cultural university
Rabindranath Tagore had founded in
Santiniketan. Her mother died in 1936 at
Lausanne in Switzerland. Indira went to
Badminton School in Bristol to prepare for her
entry into Oxford. She entered Somerville
College but ill-health prevented her from
completing the course. Among the Indian
students she met in Oxford and London was
Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi, whom she later
married (in 1942). From 1947 to the time of
her father's death in May 1964, Indira played
the role of a hostess in her father's household.
In 1955 she was named a member of the
Congress Working Committee and in 1959
became president of the Indian National
Congress, the third member of the Nehru
family and the fourth woman to hold this key
position. She became Minister for Information
and Broadcasting in June 1964 in Prime
Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri's Cabinet and in
January 1966 became Prime Minister after
Shastri's death. The general elections of 1967
saw the Congress returned to power but with
its overall majority in Parliament reduced to
40 and losing control of eight of the sixteen
States. Although Indira Gandhi continued as
Prime Minister she had to contend with
opposition from the Syndicate, a group of
Congress Party leaders and managers. The
sudden death of President Zakir Husain
brought her into open conflict with the
Syndicate which chose Sanjiva Reddy as its
candidate while Indira Gandhi backed Vice-
President Giri who ultimately won. The
General Elections of 1971 which she called a
year ahead of schedule, resulted in a landslide
victory for her party and the defeat of the
Syndicate managers. The war with Pakistan
which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh,
saw her at the height of her reputation. But the
war caused inflation, stagnation of trade and
mounting unemployment. There was rising
criticism of corruption. A movement led by
Jaya Prakash Narayan gathered momentum.
An Allahabad court decision on an election
petition against Indira Gandhi went against
her. She clamped an internal emergency in the
country in June 1975 under which fundamental
rights were supended. When she lifted the
Emergency in early 1977 and called General
Elections she was defeated by the Janata Party
formed by the opposition groups coming
together. The Janata Party split as a result of
defections and Indira Gandhi
was back as Prime Minister following the
General Elections held in January 1980. In her
last years in office she had to contend with an
agitation in Punjab for an autonomous Sikh
State. This led to the storming of the Sikh holy
shrine at Amritsar by Indian army troops.
Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her Sikh
bodyguards on October 31,1984.
Satyajit Ray
(1921-1992)
His father, Sukumar Ray, was a prominent
Bengali writer, a painter and a photographer.
His grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray, was a
friend of Rabindranath Tagore who was a
frequent visitor to the Ray home. After his
father's death when Satyajit was three, the
family underwent a financial crisis. Satyajit
grew up in the home of an uncle while his
mother taught embroidery and leather work in
a home for widows. He got a B. A from the
Calcutta University at the age of 19. In 1940
he went to Santiniketan where he stayed till
1942. Satyajit concentrated on the graphic
arts. In 1943 he entered the Calcutta branch of
D.J.Keymer, a British-owned advertising
agency, as an advertising artist, became art
director four years later. At the advertising
agency Ray also illustrated books and de-
signed book jackets. He had designed a new
edition of a novel,
Pather Panchali
(Song of
the Road). The idea of filming it formed in his
mind. After obtaining the film rights, he began
shooting the film with Rs 20,000 of his
personal funds since he could not get a dis-
tributor to finance the production. Ray ap-
proached the Government of West Bengal
which put up Rs 200,000 for the completion of
the film. It was completed in 1954 and had its
world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York. It was voted "the best human
document" at the Cannes International Film
Festival. Ray had put India on the
"International film map". Its sequel Aparajito
(The Unvanquished) followed in 1957, win-
ning the Golden Laurel Award at Venice and
the Selznick Golden Laurel Trophy in the
United States.
Apu Sansar
(1959) completed
the trilogy. His subsequent films:
Jalsaghar
(The Music Room) 1958;
Nayak
(Hero) 1966;
Pratidwandi
(The Adversary) 1970;
Ashani
Sanket
(Distant Thunder) 1973;
Shatranj Ke
Khilari
(The Chess Players) 1977. etc. His
films do not fall into the traditional hero-
heroine-villain mould of the commercial Hindi
cinema. He explored the world of the zam-
indar, businessman and the movie star through
the eyes of the peasant, the job seeker, the op-
pressed, the peon. He once said, "Villains bore
me".
(M.P.Y.K)