After winning the Nobel Prize in 1979, Dr. Abdus Salam had requested the Indian government to find Professor Anilendra Ganguly, who had taught him mathematics in the pre-partition era at the Sanatan Dharma College in Lahore.
He had to wait for two years to meet his teacher and finally came to India on 19 January 1981 to pay his respects to Prof. Ganguly who had shifted to Kolkata after the independence.
Prof. Ganguly was feeble and unable to even sit up and greet him when Dr Salam visited him at his house. Dr. Salam took his Nobel medal and said that ‘Sir, this medal is a result of your teaching and love of mathematics that you instilled in me."
He then put the medal around his teachers’ neck and said "This is your prize Sir. It’s not mine.”
The gesture for his teacher by the Pakistani scientist was truly defying to the barriers of nations and religions that had grown after the partition.
It was the ultimate tribute to a teacher that went far beyond the borders of the nations.
Good story