Jitendranath Goswami speaks at Cotton College on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Dec. 10: When Jitendranath Goswami passed out from Cotton College in 1968, he was a young man full of dreams.

When he arrived at his alma mater this morning on a nostalgic trip, Goswami had fulfilled not only his own dreams but also that of his country — he is the principal scientist in Indian’s moon mission Chandrayaan-I.

Today the 58-year-old scientist paid tributes to the century-old Cotton College, which helped him become what he is today.

“I can never forget the time when I was pursuing science stream at Cotton College as it inspired me a lot to achieve something unique in life,” Goswami said and exhorted Cottonians to make themselves known outside Assam and India.

“There is nothing wrong if one fails. Fear of failure becomes the stumbling block in doing anything great. Many of us do not try to go for scientific experiments because of fear of failure. Once we overcome such fear, we can accomplish many things. The successful launching of Chandrayaan-I is also attributed to this theory. One must identify his or her capabilities first and work towards excellence in his or her chosen field since one’s student days,” Goswami said while addressing the packed Kalaguru Bishnu Rabha auditorium of the college.

Goswami, the director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, said Assam was full of talent and he would come forward to help those who aspired to be associated with India’s space research project. He promised to help the college in introducing a diploma course in the field of space research under the Indian Space Research Organisation from next year.

During their hour-long interaction with Goswami, Cottonians posed various queries about the universe and solar space. He said data and information collected by Chandrayaan-I would be in public domain in 2010.

Replying to a question asked by a Cottonian on whether science was a blessing or doom, Goswami said, “Internet and mobile phone have changed our lives in both positive and negative ways. Both are inventions by scientists. So it is up to us whether we take science as a blessing or doom.”

Speaking at the function, Cotton College principal Indra Kumar Bhattacharyya said, “Goswami is undoubtedly the outstanding talent that the college produced in the last 40 years. The entire Cotton family is proud of his achievement and it would inspire future Cottonians.”

Chandan Borgohain, a Cottonian, said he had never expected to be able to interact with the principal scientist of Chandrayaan-I. “I am really inspired and will try hard to follow his footstep,” he added.