I had the good fortune to meet him in the shop often when I gave my father lifts on my two-wheeler.

Sir C V Raman was so fond of my father that whenever he spotted me at Select, he would invariable address me saying "Youngman! you don't know the value of your father - he is truly a diamond! Take care of him when he grows old and helpless."  In this connection, I would like to share some memories connected with Select Bookshop.

Fond memories

This incident happened at the shop when it was located on M G Road (after shifting from Museum Road, where Select took its birth) behind Thomas Cook. Once I visited the shop to see my father before seeing The Moon and Sixpence at Lido theatre. Since my father was busy with customers and friends, I started cleaning his discarded eye glasses, I took them out to throw them into the trash bin. As I was busy doing so, I felt the presence of a well-built person behind me. He pulled me up from my stoop to prevent me from junking the glasses and lo and behold the person was none other than Sir C V Raman. In great anger he dragged me into the shop to complain to my father about my irresponsible act and my father had to pacify him and introduce me as his son.

KBK Rao, the proprietor of Select wanted invariable hide some books in the basement (this shop had a frontage in a small room and the lower level a basement) to show them to Nobel Laureate. When my father was entering the basement to pick up those books, Raman in his usual hurry tried to follow my father; being a tall personality, his head was hit against the wall and he was hurt. He then requested my father to display a board with the warning "Mind Your Head” to avoid such occurrences.

Raman in Burma

Raman's official career was outstanding. One instance which occurred in Burma in 1907 illustrated this aspect of his humanitarian approach to his work as against the usual bureaucratic mentality of officials. "A Burmese merchant had saved a good sum of money to build a house. One day his wooden shack got burnt down and with that bundles of 100 rupees currency notes were also damaged. This heartbroken Burmese went to currency office with the burnt notes to seek advice. Junior officials said that nothing could be done and that he must reconcile himself to a total loss of his savings."

When Raman heard the waiting of the merchant, he came out of his office and listened to his pathetic story. He took the damaged notes for examination and asked the Burmese to see him the following day. "I will try my best to help you but don’t hope for much" he cautioned. After dinner, Raman shut himself in his study with magnifying glass and examined every damaged note and noted down the numbers. Still visible the following day he announced that the notes were genuine and passed orders that new notes be issued as compensation. The Burmese merchant was overwhelmed tried to offer Raman an envelope containing Rs 3000 with a note of gratitude. Raman having called him scolded him severely and told him "I only did my duty, I cannot accept any reward for doing my duty." Words of this incident spread throughout Burma. From then on, people often would stand in streets to have 'darshan' of the Noble soul as Raman came to be called by Burmese people

French connection

I was deputed to France to act as a liaison officer for my company. One of the habits I fell into in Paris was to travel through the bookshops along the Seine, most shops carried French and German Publications and rarely could one see an English book. However on one occasion I saw a book displayed in its handsome jacket depicting the Maharaja of Mysore Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar astride the elephant decorated during the Dasara celebrations in Mysore. Though this book was in French I grabbed it and sent it to my father through some friends in the Indian Embassy. My father at once handed over the book to Raman who was excited to get it and kept it as a memento as this Maharajah was instrumental in allotting the land for the Raman Research Institute.

After two months Raman approached my father once again for another copy of the very same book as Lady Raman had offered it to the library of a local ladies' club. Fortunately I was able to locate another copy with generous help from the Indian Embassy staff who knew the exact book and the source.
In 1924 Sir C V Raman was elected the Fellow of the Royal Society of London. His contribution and work involving Magnetism and musical instruments was enormous too. He founded the Raman Research Institute in 1943 in Bangalore and worked till his death in 1970.