Cadambi Minakshi

Hey! This photo looks familiar!...looks like my mother.. rather like her in those college photographs. The same expression!! I looked intently at it ...tears clouding my eyes. As I read further the similarity continued, my mother's subject also being history. The mention of Prof. Nilakanta Sastri in the article brought back the memories of my mother talking about the eminent scholar with great reverence.

"Minakshi was an authority on Pallava history, a respected archaeologist and the first woman to get a doctorate from the University of Madras in 1936. Her scholarship was profound and her accomplishments astonishing. If only death had not come cruelly quick, when she was just 34 years old, Minakshi would have uncovered more of the precious past and be as well remembered as her teacher Prof. Nilakanta Sastri, the doyen of South Indian history" - excerpt from a tribute by A. Srivathsan.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/article571477.ece

I thought that I should send this news clipping to her, but was wondering if the idea was foolish. And then the next paragraph in the article cleared by doubt. It says:
Minakshi maintained a calico covered scrapbook with ‘made in England' inscribed on it. “Mother and daughter collected every piece of paper that had anything to do with the latter; newspaper clippings, letters, manuscripts and invitations,” explained Mahalakshmi Gourishankar, a 75-year-old relative of Minakshi, who generously shared the book.

Just then my husband called saying that he was with my mother and if I had to say something. I asked him to buy and give that day's Hindu to my mother. He did and returned with an article on Stevia in Eenadu Sunday magazine! My mother warning me indirectly to cut down on my sugar intake...?!!