AWARD TO GRADUATE
WITH A LOVE FOR FISH AND POETRY

By Ow Wei Mei

The Singapore Straits Times

October 14, 1969

Singapore, Mon.--Chandran Nair (left) spends most of his time at the University of Singapore in a cluttered  room where jars of preserved worms and fish jostle for space with microscopes and bottles of solutions.
   Not a very glamorous existence.  But it's what Chandran, 24-year-old postgraduate student working on his M Sc thesis on inshore fish, likes to do.
   Especially when his dedication has helped to get him this year's University Students' Union's silver medal for outstanding work.
   Chandran came very close behind Miss Chen Li Jen, a sociology student now with the Tourist Board, who took the gold medal.  There were eight nominees.
   Apart from genuine interest in his work, what makes the days far from dull for Chandran is his other major preoccupation--writing poems.
   He has had his poems published in Canada and India, and in local publications like Focus, Poetry Singapore and Tengara.
   Chandran explained his love for literature and ability to express his thoughts and feelings--not usually associated with science students.  "I have a literary background.  My father, for instance, has written three novels in his own language--Malayalam.  I wanted to study science because it is a discipline.  The only way to have some understanding of it is to study it step by step.  But one could acquire a knowledge of literature through reading on one's own."
   Chandran hopes to complete his thesis by the end of next year when he will probably join the Unesco Fisheries Centre at Changi.