As a young and enthusiastic undergraduate student of physics
in the College for Women, Trivandrum, I was interested in reading
about the history of physics and the biographies of eminent
physicists. I used to collect details about their work and their
lives. As an amatuer artist, I also collected their photographs,
from which I would make sketches. In 1974, 1 wrote to Professor
A A Abrikosov, who was then the Head of the Solid State Theory
Department in the Landau Institute, requesting him for some
details regarding the Landau and Lifshitz series of monographs,
and for a photograph of L D Landau and other well-known Soviet
physicists.
A little while later, I was delighted to receive a very gracious
letter from Professor Abrikosov answering all my queries. He
also enclosed a photograph, and took the trouble to annotate
the picture in his letter. I have preserved his letter and the
photograph carefully in my album. Looking back after nearly
thirty years, I am once again struck by the personal interest
he showed and the pains he took to reply in detail to a letter
from an undergraduate student from a far-off place. I will always
cherish this gesture on the part of one of the greatest physicists
of the day.
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