Anna Mani - A student remembers

摘要

'What are you waiting for? Go ahead, here are the keys of the laboratories' this was what Anna Mani told me when, as a new member of her group in the Instruments Division of the Meteorological Office at Pune, I hesitatingly suggested to her one evening, that I felt confident of designing an ozonesonde that works. Developing an Indian ozonesonde was her pet project, assigned to her by K. R. Ramanathan, as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The year-old project had run into many hurdles. Our group succeeded in developing a viable ozonesonde within six months. 1 still vividly remember the first balloon launch of our ozonesonde on a September night from the spacious lawns of the met office at Pune. My colleagues G. P. Srivastava, V. Srinivasan and B. B. Huddar were assisting me that night. As the balloon ascended into stratosphere, the ozone levels dramatically started increasing and continued until the balloon burst. We were all excited and telephoned Mani at 2 a.m., something which nobody dared do those days. She was thrilled at our success. After many more soundings and successful international inter-comparisons at Germany the instrument became operational at the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Anna Mani was then the Director of the Instruments Division at Pune. My association with her continued ever since.