Last week my grandfather’s brother visited us. Those of you who have studied statistics would definitely know him. His name is C.R.Rao. He is a famous statistician and is best known for his discoveries like Cramér-Rao bound and the Rao-Blackwell theorem.
In many ways I feel more close to him then my own grandfather who died when I was very young. In fact, I got to know him well during that time. Although I was just a kid (11 years old) he treated me like an equal. From then to now it’s always been that way, I could talk to him like an equal. He came to Chennai a few weeks back to receive an honorary doctorate from Madras University which was being conferred on him on the occasion of its 150th anniversary. He has received 31 honorary doctoral degrees from 18 countries. His name figures in the list of 35 major contributors to the field of statistics from the year 1650AD. He happens to be the only living member in the list.
When he flew down this time, he was his usual affectionate self. I reached the airport one hour late because I got the flight time wrong. He did not lose his temper. At 87 he is as sharp as he always was. Government of India has recently founded an institute in his name at Hyderabad. He is actively involved in its functioning.
He was talking about the people who are responsible for his success, the two women in his life – his mother and his wife. He claims that he owes his success to his mother. She taught him discipline and hard work. She used to wake them all up at 4:00AM and make them study. They did not have electricity so they used study in using a kerosene lantern.
He was working as a research scholar in ISI at Calcutta for a salary of Rs300. He had two children to support, it was hard. At that time he was offered a job of a lecturer for a salary of Rs1000. It was huge rise and a tempting offer. But he loved his research. He told his wife that he found this job intellectually stimulating and he would not get the same kind of gratification in being a lecturer. She herself was a Masters Degree holder. She told him, “You do what you love doing. I will take up a job and we will manage”. Thatha and Bhragavi aunty have many common interests and it is such a pleasure to watch them together. (Some how I never got round to calling his wife, grandma. She so young at heart and such a fun person that it is hard think of her as old 
)
I will do a separate post on Cramer Rao Bound and how it came to be named. For now, I will leave you with my favorite quote from one of his lectures
All knowledge is, in the final analysis, history
All sciences are, in abstract, mathematics
All judgments are, in their rationale, statistics
I am really proud of you, Thatha.
Hey archana,
Such a lovely post! Its good to know about your grand-dad. I love old people for this one quality, they are always patient. And am really so amazed by his set of accomplishments. It takes a lot to be dedicated to your research. And I loved the quote by him. Its really makes so much sense. I would be waiting for ur post on Cramer Rao Bound. I really have no knowledge of “statistics”.
And surely the women in his life have had a major role to play in his success. Btw, I had a very silly doubt. C.R. Rao name sounds so much like a Telugu name. Was he from Hyderabad?
Nice Archana. Brought back memories about my own grand father.
Just curious, when did you first recognize his coolness, how great a man he was? Did that recognition happen when you were 11 or was that later in your life?
In my situation, I need to attain a certain amount of mental maturity to realize the knowledge and life lessons that my grand parents had imparted into me, and this did not happen until I was in my 20′s.
Ganesh
Rajiv – Thank you.
Saraswathi – Thank you. Yes it is a Telugu name. Our family spread across both TN and AP. If you see, we have our village name as our surname. ( C stands for calyampundi, which is a village in TN). So it is very hard to explain which state we are from
Ganesh – Thank you. The whole family was so proud of this Thatha, so I knew he was great even then. But, only as I became older I could appreciate the presonal qualities that make him great.
Even our parents, we tend to appreciate their knowledge and wisdom only as we grow older and face the lessons of life.
Yes Archana, Dr. C.R.Rao is indeed one of the great scientists of modern India and par with the like of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Wish more of Indians were aware of this noble person.
The man’s simplicity is something that has to be seen to be believed! So humble and down to earth and an inspiration bordering on the spiritual for those whose lives he has touched professionally.
Let me recount an incident from 4 years ago. We had the honor of hosting C.R uncle and Bhargavi aunty (They happen to be my relatives too!). He was in Detroit as the keynote speaker for the American Association of Engineeers of Indian Origin.
Our kid was in the 10th grade at that time and had Advanced Placement Statistics as an elective course. During the banquet the kid happened to be seated with Dr. Rao and were in some deep discussion. Apparently our son had known about an international statistical competition hosted by the American Statistical Society which he had ignored, but mentioned it to his grandpa. There was just a couple of months to prepare and people had been dedicated to the projects for many more months. Whatever Dr. Rao had told our son we do not know, but from the next day he plunged into this competition with a zeal that we had not seen in him. Collecting data, reading up on titrations, advanced statistics etc., And he spent a lot of time with Dr.Rao over the phone very regularly.
He got the third place in the competition! Not just that his love for statistics has remained with him ever since. Even though medicine was his chosen line of study, statistics has enabled him in myriad ways in medical research. He even got a few publications which were a result of statistical approaches in Radiation Oncology.
Amazing person Archana. I’m sure you are very proud of him. The decision he made to stick to the research while rejecting a job that paid 3 times as much is amazing. Ultimately, being passionate about your craft is what counts. I can’t wait to see your post on the Cramer Rao bound and the Rao Blackwell theorem.
Thank you Sukumar. I have asked thatha to give a simple explanation because i could not understand much. He has promised to mail me at liesure. I will surely write about it.
Chetha1 – Thank you. I am taking a guess. Are you Sathya Anna. Just now, I spoke to Prathap bava and he mentioned you are in India. Your son is doing medicine too.
Yes Archana, your guess is right on the mark! Hope to meet with you and Arun soon!
Thank you for visiting, Anna. I hope you are doing good. Will meet you today.
Nice post!!!…You know what, I am at Penn State university, and he is a Professor emirates here. He is so much respected here in all the departments. When I joined last year, I was so inspired to hear about him here!!
Thanks Archana. Hopefully i can understand the stuff. I am really eager to read the post.
Gaurav – Thank you very much. I am sure he will be very happy to hear that.
Sukumar- Thank you. Will definitely do.
Very interesting post,Archana!I loved it a lot!And your thatha seems to be an amazing person.Hailing from a math family myself,I know how proud you must be.
This post indeed brings back the nostalgic moments i had with my own grand father Sri LVS Mani.He too,was a great man and a renowned one.We people need to learn a lot from life and that’s possible only with the help of these selfless souls who expect nothing in return from us except love.
Amazing post archana. I’m so glad that you have such a wonderful grandfather (but at the same time I also envy you a lot
). Ofcourse for any human being to be successful, he must have the complete support of his wife (mom’s support is there for any person in 99% of the cases) failing which he can never succeed in the thing which he aspires to do.
I’m also extremely eager looking forward for your post on Cramer Rao Bound. I would be so happy if I could get a chance to meet that living genius
Ranjhani – Thank you very much. I tried visiting your blog and writing a note. After several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up. It takes ages to load and just could not get the comments box to open. Could you let me know how to sort out this problem.
Janakiraman – Thank you very much. I will write about Cramer Rao bound as soon as possible.
OMG!I will try to do something about it!You had earlier told me to look into the same and i did,but i guess i need to uninstall the new commenting system.Thanks anyway,archana
Hi Archana,
What a wonderful story. You make the point so well. Sometimes when we do the things we love they may at first seem like sacrifices, but in the end, they are more than reward enough. Following your heart leads to happiness.
Thank You.
Nick
Thank you Nick. I loved the phrase “Following your heart leads to happiness”
Really Inspiring …I guess ur accolades to ur thata is not going to end…as he was in news today ..too he has got Nano award from Karntaka govt…..:)
Thank you Karthik. I will look it up.
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An amazing informative post! I do not have much knowledge about statistics though dad has a bachelors in it. I was not aware of him till I read here and more on wikipedia.
Thanks a lot Maverick.
This was the first time I read your blogs. Very impressed. By accident thru Wise and otherwise, i Happened to come to your website. Really fantzstic.
quite an intellectual one.
Thank you very much Padma. I am truly gratified that you liked my blog. Do keep reading.
[...] Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. My thatha (Grandfather’s brother), about whom I have written in this blog was awarded the Indian Science Prize, the highest and most prestigious national recognition given [...]
I don’t understand what’s going on her !!!