Felicitation of Mrs. Maya Natarajan who donated Rupees Twenty five lakhs to ISNA

摘要

Mrs. Maya Natarajan of Chennai was felicitated in a solemn event organized by the Indian Science News Association (ISNA) which was held in the seminar room of Bose Institute on 16th of November. Prof. P.K. Ray, President of ISNA, presided over the ceremony. A cheque of Rupees Twentyfive lakhs (Rs. 25,00,000) was handed over by Mrs. Natarajan to Prof. P.K. Ray, President of ISNA with the following citation " These funds have been donated to theIndian Science News Association by N Meenakshi of Nemam village to be placed in a corpus fund to be used for publication of Science and Culture". Prof. S.C. Roy, Editor-in-Chief, Science and Culture narrated how a series of events made Mrs. Maya Natarajan decide on donating the sum to ISNA. Incidentally, Maya Natarajan is the grand-daughter of the sister of N. Meenakshi in whose name the donation has been made. In a freak accident Meenakshi lost her husband and the then British Government compensated her monetarily. While the money was wisely invested by Mrs. Meenakshi for the family, it was her desire that a portion of it should go to charitable organizations. It was Vasant Natarajan, Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, also a Life Member of ISNA,who convinced Maya Natarajan (Vasant's mother) to donate a part of the sum to ISNA for publication of Science and Culture. Prof. P.K. Ray presented a silver plaque to Mrs. Maya Natarajan in appreciation of her generous donation for the cause of science and culture which, he hoped, will inspire many others to follow suit. Mrs. Maya Natarajan in her speech expressed her satisfaction in donating to an organization which is selflessly devoted to public understanding of science. Prof. P.C. Sen, Honorary Secretary of ISNA welcomed the audience and Prof. Sudhendu Mandal, another Honorary Secretary of ISNA offered the Vote of Thanks.