Best known as one of the country's first female scientists, Mani helped create and produce India's own meteorological instruments to achieve economic independence.
Affectionately known as the ‘weather woman of India’, Anna Mani is why the country can make accurate weather forecasts today.
On August 23, 2022, Google honoured Mani, a physicist and meteorologist, with a doodle on its homepage. She would have been 104.
Mani is best known as one of the country’s first female scientists. She began working for the India Meteorological Department at 30, where she helped design and manufacture weather instruments.
She excelled so much that within five years, she became the head of the department despite it being a male-dominated industry at the time.
During her time as the department chief, more than 100 weather instruments were designed and standardised for production.
But this is only the story of her post-PhD achievements.
Let’s rewind back to her childhood. Mani was born in southern India in a typical upper-class house where only boys were encouraged to pursue high-level careers.
And women, prepared for marriages.
Mani, however, spent her formative years engrossed in books.
By 12 years of age, she had read every book at her public library - unlike other girls her age, who would be daydreaming about their wedding day at the time.
Woman of indomitable will, Anna Mani. Within her was the power to create, nurture and transform. pic.twitter.com/zntcNKgZc8
— Mehnaz Mansoori (@mehnaz_20) August 23, 2022
Never granted a PhD in India
According to her autobiography published in an Indian newspaper, The Hindu, she asked for a set of Encyclopedia Britannica instead of a set of diamond earrings that was offered to her as a gift on her eighth birthday.
“In the olden days, they would compile all the family assets on papyrus. If a woman's worth had to be measured by her jewellery and assets, wouldn't it be easier for the woman to wear a list of these assets around her neck?” Mani had once said.
In 1940, Mani received a scholarship to do research in physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Between 1942 and 1945, she published five papers on the luminescence of diamonds and ruby and submitted her PhD dissertation to Madras University.
However, she was never granted a PhD, and her dissertation remains in the library of Raman Research Institute.
Madras University claimed that Mani did not have an M.Sc. degree and therefore could not be granted a PhD.
'We have only one life'
In 1945, she was awarded a government scholarship for an internship in England, where she specialised in meteorological instrumentation.
Before anyone knew what the ozone layer did, Mani began her study on monitoring atmospheric ozone in 1960. She also created the ozonesonde, a device that measures atmospheric ozone.
She returned to India in 1948 and began working for the India Meteorological Department.
Fast forward to 1976, Mani retired as deputy director general of the Indian Meteorological Department after 28 years of service and returned to the Raman Research Institute as a visiting professor for three years.
When asked if she had any advice for young people considering a career in meteorology, she said: "We have only one life. First, equip yourself for the job, make full use of your talents and then love and enjoy the work, making the most of being out of doors and in contact with nature."
Deeply committed to her work, Mani never got married.
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(With input from news agency language)
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