India, Nov. 17 -- sAt 90, renowned British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist and conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, who demonstrated to the scientific world that chimpanzees have minds capable of solving problems and emotions like happiness, sadness, fear and despair, calls herself an obstinate person. Her stubbornness stems from her mother's advice to her at 10, when she wanted to go to Africa to live with wild animals and write books about them. Everybody laughed at her, saying "you are just a girl, you cannot do things like that". But her mother understood her dream.

"This was 80 years ago, and the world was different. But my mother said 'if that is what you really want to do, then you are going to really have to work very hard,...