How to Win a Nobel

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, having recognised the dearth of Nobel laureates in the sciences from the state, announced a drastic remedial measure in January this year. He announced, in front of an audience of mostly children,₹100 crore as prize money for the person who becomes a Nobel laureate in the sciences from the state. In one shot he hoped to instil a sense of curiosity for scientific enquiry, thereby also fixing the dearth-of-Nobels problem.

I accidently saw this news item on the front page of Eenadu, a Telugu-language news daily, and got depressed. One way to address depression is to expose one’s self to more of the source of depression. I searched YouTube for more information on this news item and found a videotitled, “CM Chandrababu Announces ₹100 Cr Prize Money for Nobel Prize Winners in Science.” Believe me, I don’t know why, but the video of the same news evoked a completely different feeling in me. It provided some comic relief. In the video, the emphasis on ₹100 crore by Naidu is so ineffable that one has to watch the video to feel the intensity.