"Jagadis Chandra Bose's wireless inventions antedated those of
Marconi."

Overhearing this provocative remark, I walked closer to a sidewalk
group of professors engaged in scientific discussion. If my motive
in joining them was racial pride, I regret it. I cannot deny my
keen interest in evidence that India can play a leading part in
physics, and not metaphysics alone.

"What do you mean, sir?"

The professor obligingly explained. "Bose was the first one to invent
a wireless coherer and an instrument for indicating the refraction
of electric waves. But the Indian scientist did not exploit his
inventions commercially. He soon turned his attention from the
inorganic to the organic world. His revolutionary discoveries as a
plant physiologist are outpacing even his radical achievements as
a physicist."

I politely thanked my mentor. He added, "The great scientist is
one of my brother professors at Presidency College."

I paid a visit the next day to the sage at his home, which was close
to mine on Gurpar Road. I had long admired him from a respectful
distance. The grave and retiring botanist greeted me graciously. He
was a handsome, robust man in his fifties, with thick hair, broad
forehead, and the abstracted eyes of a dreamer. The precision in
his tones revealed the lifelong scientific habit.