I never meant to offend my fans, says Venky

Indian-born scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, the winner of Nobel Prize - 2009, on Monday said he 'did not mean' to sound miffed in his reactions to Indian fans' emails, which apparently clogged his e-mail box.  

However, he said he did not actually mean to offend the sentiments of his fans. He said he enjoys the fact that people are taking pride in his success.

"I felt it was a big surprise. And it's changed my life in lot of ways. And it's taken me some time to get adjusted to it. You may know it created some controversy in India about my ability to deal with publicity. But I didn't mean it in a negative way that's what I want to say. I'm deeply appreciative of the fact that people are taking pleasure in this," said Ramakrishnan.

Various newspapers recently reported that Ramakrishnan was 'disenchanted' with 'strange behaviour' of Indians who wanted to reach out to him.

He was quoted as saying, "All sorts of people from India" have been writing to him and "clogging up his email box which took him an hour or two to just remove their mails."

His remarks had caused a huge controversy in India and people blamed him for not being able to take the newfound recognition in his stride.

Ramakrishnan was in London to attend a gala reception held in honour of Indian President Pratibha Patil, who is on a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom.

The reception was also attended by Indian ace shooter Abhinav Bindra and about 400-strong dignitaries, mostly of Indian origin.

When Ramakrishnan won the Nobel Prize, Indians celebrated his success all across the country.

Faculty of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara where Ramakrishnan had studied cherish his achievement by distributing sweets and bursting crackers.

Ramakrishnan along with Israeli Ada Yonath and American Thomas Steitz won the Nobel Prize for producing atom-by-atom maps of the mysterious, life-giving ribosome that has enabled researchers to develop powerful new antibiotics.