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Pakistani among scientists who detected gravitational waves predicted by Einstein
 Pakistain rushes to claim her without making her possible or even likely.[DAWN] Much before her name became synonymous with Einstein and his gravitational waves, the astrophysicist and associate department head of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr Nergis Mavalvala, was a little girl born to a Parsi family in Karachi and raised here in a joint-family set-up. For a moment there I thought she might have been a Moslem, but that little goose of surprise has flown. She's Zoroastrian by birth. Nergis moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1984 for higher studies after having completed her schooling at the Convent of Jesus and Mary (CJM) in Clifton. Prior to that, she grew up in a big house near the PIDC building on Beaumont Road. In Pakistain she'd have likely had a nice Moslem suitor who'd have thrown acid in her face when rejected. “Her grandfather, Maneck Mavalvala, a prosperous businessman, lived there with his three brothers. It was more than a house. It was a big sprawling mansion with these four brothers, their children and grandchildren. The compound also housed a dhobi, drivers, cooks and their families. Today, the site has been turned into a marriage hall,” reminisced Natasha Mavalvala, who is married to Nergis’s first cousin. Or she could have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam after being raped a few times. “The family moved to Canada in the mid-1980s and Nergis and her older sister, Mahrukh, went to college in the States. They only have extended family here in Pakistan now. The last time we met both the sisters was over two years ago when they came to Karachi to attend a cousin’s wedding,” the cousin-in-law shared. I'm sure they were comfy being surrounded by Moslems. “I am part of this family through marriage but we Parsis are a close-knit community so I remember the girls well. They were sweet, happy children but not very naughty. I would describe them as quiet studious girls, who were highly accomplished students. Both are brilliant scientists and professors today,” Mrs Mavalvala told Dawn. Few Pak women are. Many live under burkas and never come out. Nergis’s uncle or chacha, who lives in Parsi Colony in Mehmoodabad, also remembered his nieces as very serious about their education. “Nergis was also into sports. She would frequent Karachi Gymkhana for sports activities, especially swimming,” he said. Posted by: Fred 2016-02-15 |
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