Class 8 English Chapter 15: Bibha Chowdhuri

Where the article starts

Not with Bibha Chowdhuri at all. It starts with the present day, and with the women behind India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and Chandrayaan-3, who are known and celebrated for their work. Only then does it turn back to ask who made that possible. The order is deliberate, and it is the article’s argument in miniature.

STEM

Four subjects, gathered under one short name: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The article uses the term because all four raise the same question. For most of history, who was allowed to study them at all?

Trailblazers

A trailblazer is somebody who does a thing first, so that other people can do it afterwards. The word is chosen carefully. It says that the women leading missions today are not starting from nothing, and that somebody had to go first while it was still difficult.

Who she was

Bibha Chowdhuri was India’s first woman physicist. That one sentence contains the whole difficulty of her life, because being first in a field means there is nobody ahead of you to follow and nobody beside you to compare notes with.

Born in 1913

She was born in Kolkata, in a country that still followed older ways of arranging a woman’s life. The article is careful about this. It does not say her family stopped her. It says the country around her was arranged in a way that made what she did unusual.

Two words worth holding on to

The article says women of her generation struggled to seek knowledge and had no equitable access to education. Equitable means treating everybody fairly and in the same way. The sentence is therefore about fairness, and not at all about ability.

Defying the odds

To defy the odds is to achieve something although the difficulties are against you. The article uses the phrase of her, and it is an honest one, because the difficulties it lists are real and external rather than invented.

The first wall

Outside any laboratory stood what the article calls societal expectations. A girl born in 1913 was not expected to study physics, and nothing in the system was arranged to help her do so. She rose against that, which is the first half of her story.

The second wall

Inside the laboratory stood the field itself, which men dominated entirely. The article puts it as working amidst towering giants of science. Towering means very high or very great, so the phrase praises those men even while explaining the problem.

Celebrated, and whispered

Here is the sentence that does the most work in the first half. The men’s names were ones the world would come to celebrate, while hers was whispered only among the people who recognised her brilliance. Two verbs, celebrate and whisper, and the whole difficulty is in the gap between them.

Persistence

The word means the ability to keep doing something difficult. The article gives her credit for it before it gives her credit for anything else, which tells you what kind of story this is. Talent was never the thing in short supply.

The Bose Institute

Her persistence eventually earned her a place there. The word eventually is doing quiet work in that sentence, because it means the place did not come at once and was not offered. It was won, after a while.

Chipping away at a wall

The article says she had begun to chip away at the walls of exclusion. A wall does not come down in one blow, and the image admits as much. Exclusion means being kept out, and the plural walls matters too, because there was more than one.

First in particle physics

At the Bose Institute she became the first Indian woman to excel in high-energy particle physics. Notice the word excel. The claim is not that she was the first to enter the field, but that she was the first to be very good at it.

A new field, not an old one

This is worth knowing. High-energy particle physics was itself very new in the 1930s, so nobody anywhere had been doing it for long. Being first in India was not a matter of catching up with anybody. It was a matter of arriving early.

A beam of light

The article calls her a rare beam of light, and the image is not decoration. Her name means exactly that, and a beam of light is something that shows other people where to walk. The whole article is built on that one meaning.

Why the first half ends here

By this point the article has given us a person, a place and a problem. What it has not yet given us is the work. That comes next, and so does the stranger half of the story, in which the work turns out to be excellent and almost invisible.

Scenario:

A school ran a carpentry workshop for Classes 7 and 8. For six years every one of the forty-two pupils who joined was a boy. In the seventh year one girl signed up, finished the course and came second of fourteen. The following year nine girls signed up. The year after that, nineteen did. The teacher’s register shows that the girl who went first never won a prize, and that two of the nine who followed her did.

Analysis:

The register is Bibha Chowdhuri’s story in small, and the numbers do the arguing. For six years the workshop looked like a boys’ subject because it had always been one, which is what the article means by societal expectation. One person then did the difficult thing first, which is exactly what a trailblazer is: somebody who goes first so that others can follow. And the sting is in the last line. The one who went first won nothing, while two who came after her did. Chowdhuri received no awards in her lifetime either, and the article still measures her by the path she opened.

Activity:

Write four lines about somebody you know who did something first in their family or school.

Title:

Two columns, one life

Safety:

No safety concerns.

What You Notice:

The two columns hold different kinds of difficulty: one is about being let in, and the other about being noticed once you are.

Her name, Bibha, means a beam of light, which is why the article keeps returning to that image and why the star renamed after her carries the same meaning.

High-energy particle physics was a very new field in the 1930s. Nobody had been working in it for long, so being first in India was not a matter of catching up.

The Bose Institute in Kolkata was founded in 1917 by Jagadish Chandra Bose, and it was one of the first research institutes in Asia outside a university.

What STEM stands for — Science, technology, engineering, maths — Four subjects, one question about access.

The two walls she faced — Outside the lab, and inside it — Society expected her not to study; the field was full of men.

Manchester, 1945

Her academic journey took her to the University of Manchester, where she worked under Patrick M.S. Blackett. He was a Nobel Laureate, and the article mentions that for a reason. A student is taken on by somebody of that standing on the strength of the work, and nothing else.

Cosmic rays

This is the subject she returned to for the rest of her life. Cosmic rays are particles that arrive from space and strike the atmosphere at enormous speed. The article says she delved deeper into the field, and delved means examining something in detail rather than glancing at it.

A doctorate, and local recognition

Her thesis on cosmic rays earned her recognition locally, and the newspapers took notice. That phrase is carefully limited. Recognition came, and it came only locally, which is the shape of her whole career in one sentence.

The headline

The press introduced her as India’s new woman scientist, and added that she had an eye for cosmic rays. Read it twice. The achievement is real, and the way of praising it says more about the writers than about her.

What the headline reveals

Two things. A woman scientist was still unusual enough to be announced as one, which is why the article says the world remained sceptical of her capabilities. Sceptical means doubtful. And an eye for something is a phrase for natural talent, not for years of careful work.

Pi-mesons

Her most notable contribution was the discovery of pi-mesons. These are subatomic particles, which means particles smaller than an atom. Notable means remarkable, and the article is not hedging when it uses the word.

A Nobel nomination

In 1950 Erwin Schrödinger nominated her for a Nobel Prize. He had won one himself in 1933, so the nomination came from somebody who knew exactly what the prize was for. It was unsuccessful, and the article says it reflected her remarkable talent all the same.

The hardest sentence in the article

She never received any award during her lifetime, and she continued her work tirelessly. Those two halves belong together. The second half is the reason the first is worth reporting, because an absence of prizes made no difference to the amount of work she did.

TIFR, 1949

When she returned to India she became the first woman on the faculty of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and Homi J. Bhabha selected her personally. Personally is the word to notice. She was not appointed by a committee working through a list.

Where else she worked

Her contributions reached across several institutions. The Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, where Vikram Sarabhai mentored her later work, and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kolkata. In both she went on with cosmic rays and subatomic particles.

The Kolar Gold Mines

The article lists these among the places her research took her, and the reason is physics rather than geology. Experiments on cosmic rays were done deep underground, because the rock above filters out everything except the most penetrating particles.

In the periphery

Through decades of crucial research her work went on quietly, and she remained in the periphery of Indian scientific acclaim. Periphery means the boundary or edge of a thing, and acclaim means praise. She was at the edge of the praise, not at the edge of the work.

1991

She died with her story untold and her name largely forgotten. The article states it flatly, and the flatness is the point. No rescuing phrase is offered, because none would be honest at that moment in the story.

A star named Bibha

In 2019 the International Astronomical Union renamed a star in the constellation Leo after her. Its catalogue entry had been HD 86081, and a catalogue number is not a name. The union is the only body that may give a star a proper one.

Why that honour fits so well

Because the name they gave it means a beam of light, which is what her own name means. A woman described all through the article as a beam of light became, in the plainest sense available, a star in the sky.

And a chair in 2020

The following year the Government of India declared a chair professorship in her name. A chair is a senior teaching post, so this honour works differently from the star. It puts her name on work that is still being done.

The women who came after

The article then moves to the present. Dr. Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, called the Rocket Woman of India, had a central part in the Mars Orbiter Mission and later led work on Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3. More than fifty women worked on Chandrayaan-3 alone.

The argument of the second half

That the journey has been long and arduous, and is not finished. Arduous means difficult and needing a great deal of effort. The article says her struggles are a stark reminder of how far things have come and how much further they have to go, and stark means clear.

Scenario:

A science department kept two documents for thirty years. One was a prize list, naming the eleven pupils who had won the annual physics medal. The other was a laboratory register, recording who had actually built and repaired the equipment everybody used. One name appeared fourteen times in the register and never once on the prize list. When the department was rebuilt in its thirtieth year, the new laboratory was named after that pupil, who had left the school twenty-two years earlier.

Analysis:

Two documents, two different measures, and the article has both. The prize list is acclaim, which means praise, and Bibha Chowdhuri received no award at all in her lifetime, so her name would be missing from it. The register is the work, and hers runs through decades of it: cosmic rays at Manchester, pi-mesons, TIFR, the Physical Research Laboratory, the Saha Institute and the Kolar mines. The article’s phrase for the gap between the two documents is the periphery of acclaim. And the ending is the same ending. The laboratory was named twenty-two years late, as a star was renamed twenty-eight years late.

Activity:

Write four lines about work done in your school that no prize is given for.

Title:

A timeline with two colours

Safety:

No safety concerns.

What You Notice:

The first colour stops in 1991 and the second barely starts before it, which is the shape of the whole article.

Cosmic-ray experiments were carried out deep inside the Kolar Gold Mines because the rock above filters out everything except the most penetrating particles.

A star catalogue number is not a name. HD 86081 was the star’s catalogue entry, and the International Astronomical Union is the only body that may give a star a proper name.

Erwin Schrödinger, who put her name forward for the Nobel Prize, had won one himself in 1933, so the nomination came from somebody who knew exactly what the prize was for.

The institutions, in order — Bose, Manchester, TIFR, PRL, Saha — And the Kolar Gold Mines for the cosmic-ray work.

The two honours after her death — A star in 2019, a chair in 2020 — Twenty-eight and twenty-nine years afterwards.

Four kinds of language work

This part of the chapter takes four things from the way the article is written. The strong words it reaches for, and their opposites. The single words that replace whole phrases. Three suffixes that build nouns. And the short names, such as ISRO and STEM, that are read aloud as words.

Antonyms

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. The article is a good hunting ground for them, because it never settles for a weak word where a strong one exists. Periphery, arduous, tenacity and acclaim are all worth collecting.

Four pairs from the article

The core of something is its centre, and its periphery is its edge. Something dependent needs help, while something autonomous works on its own. To extinguish a flame is to put it out, and to ignite one is to start it. Terrestrial means of the Earth, and cosmic means of space.

Four more pairs

Effortless work takes nothing out of you, while arduous work is difficult and needs a great deal of effort. Weakness is the opposite of tenacity, which means the determination to keep going. Neglect is the opposite of acclaim, which means praise. And the opposite of trivial is notable, which means remarkable.

Why these words suit this article

Look at the four nouns in those pairs: periphery, tenacity, acclaim, and the adjective notable. Every one of them is a word the article uses about her, and together they tell her story. Remarkable work, great determination, very little praise, and a place at the edge.

One word for a whole phrase

A scientist who studies matter, energy and light is a physicist. The famous and important people at a ceremony are its luminaries. The people who started something before anybody else are its pioneers. Classmates of your own age and standing are your peers.

Two more of them

The things that block your way are barriers, which is the word the article uses when it says young women are inspired to break them. And continuous effort with determination behind it is persistence, which is the quality the article credits her with first.

Why a single word is worth having

It is not only shorter. A phrase like the first people to start something describes an action, while pioneers names a kind of person. Once you have the noun, you can say things about them, which is exactly what the article does.

Suffixes

A suffix is an ending added to a word to make a new one. Three of them build nouns in this chapter. The article itself uses professorship, mentorship and leadership, and all three are made the same way, from professor, mentor and leader.

The suffix -ship

Added to a noun, it names a position or a state of belonging. Member gives membership, partner gives partnership, and citizen gives citizenship. The article’s own professorship is the same ending doing the same job.

The suffix -ment

Added to a verb, it names the result or the act. Govern gives government, entertain gives entertainment, agree gives agreement, and achieve gives achievement. Notice that -ment goes on verbs, while -ship goes on nouns.

The suffix -hood

Added to a noun, it names a state or a time of life. Child gives childhood and brother gives brotherhood. There are fewer of these than of the other two, and they are worth learning as a short list.

How to pick the right one

Ask what kind of word you are starting from. A verb usually takes -ment. A noun naming a role takes -ship. A noun naming a person takes -hood when you want the state of being one. Govern is a verb, so government; child is a person, so childhood.

Acronyms

An acronym is a short name made from the first letters of several words and read aloud as a word. The article uses two of them. ISRO is the Indian Space Research Organisation, and STEM is science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Five more

NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. AIIMS is the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. AYUSH gathers six systems of medicine under five letters. NIPER is the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research. And WHO is the World Health Organization.

Acronym or initialism

The test is how people say it. If the letters are read aloud as a word, it is an acronym, and nobody spells out NASA letter by letter. If the letters are said one at a time, it is an initialism, and WHO is often read that way.

Fact and opinion

A statement of fact can be checked against a record. A statement of opinion reports what somebody thinks. That the International Astronomical Union renamed a star in 2019 is a fact. That her story continues to inspire young women is an opinion, and a reasonable one.

Why the difference matters here

Because this article is full of both, and it mixes them on purpose. The dates, the institutions and the discovery are all checkable. The judgements about her brilliance and her legacy are opinions the article is arguing for, and a careful reader keeps the two apart.

Scenario:

A college put up a notice with six words in it that students asked about on the first day. Four were short names: AICTE, UGC, NIRF and NEP. Two were ordinary words used precisely: autonomous, describing the college itself, and peers, describing the people who would review its courses. The office counted forty-one questions about the notice in one week. Thirty-two of them were about the four short names, and nine about the two words. On the Friday the office pinned the full titles up beside the notice, and the questions stopped.

Analysis:

The count is the interesting part, and it splits the chapter’s language work in two. Thirty-two questions were about short names, which is what happens when letters stand in for a full title that nobody has been given. Only nine were about autonomous and peers, because both are ordinary words and a reader can at least guess. Autonomous means independent, which is the opposite of dependent, and peers are people of your own standing. The lesson for a writer is the one the article follows: it expands ISRO and STEM the first time it uses them, and never leaves a short name to carry a meaning by itself.

Activity:

Write four lines using two short names, each expanded the first time you use it.

Title:

Build twelve nouns

Safety:

No safety concerns.

What You Notice:

The crossings-out cluster in one column, and that column is usually the one where you guessed at the kind of word you were starting from.

Periphery and peripheral come from a Greek word meaning to carry round, which is why the edge of anything is its periphery.

The word acronym was itself coined only in the 1940s, at about the time organisations began giving themselves names designed to be read aloud.

AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, which is six systems of medicine gathered under five letters.

The three noun suffixes — Ship, ment, hood — Membership, government, childhood.

Acronym or initialism — Say it as a word, or spell it out — NASA is said as a word; nobody spells it out.