About a month back, an anonymous reader asked me to write up my experiences with Professor G. S. Sanyal.
And I promised to do it after August 18th, the Diamond Jubilee Foundation Day of IIT KGP:
http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2011/07/gss.html
And today is August 19th...day of pleasant reckoning.
If you Google for "Prof G. S. Sanyal" you get 1250 hits...without quotes, but with iitkgp, you get ten times that number.
So, why should I add my farthing?
Because he happens to be the ONLY one at IIT KGP (this includes HNB and SDM) whose feet I touched, 5 good years after I retired from KGP.
The man is a marvel.
**************************************************************************************************************
When I joined IIT KGP in 1965, GSS was a presence in our Dept. So I thought he was a Faculty of Physics. I came to know later that he was a Senior Professor in ECE, but was teaching the Final Course of Electromagnetic Theory for our newfangled M Sc Course by invitation from HNB.
And he was a good two decades older to me and forbiddingly dressed up always, with an inescapable necktie, summer, rains or winter.
And it so happened that HNB put me through EM1, EM2, EM3 and finally EM4 (GSS's course) serially on the Reco of his daughter Seema as she progressed...
And so I was like an EM Omnibus in the Dept and flipped through practically all books on the subject in the Central Library.
The first time GSS happened to speak to me was 20 years later...in the interview I appeared for the Professor's post. He was the Director then and so Chairman of the Selection Committee, which consisted of two External Experts in Physics and the Visitor's Nominee (a Chemist). Generally the Director introduces the candidate and double-checks his CV and hands the goat over to the eager Experts.
But, when I entered the Board Room, I found GSS rubbing his hands gleefully and dashed off with:
"You are a man of EM and I too am a man of EM...tell me the answer to this..."
Well, that was good news to me.
In between, he went out of the Board Room for a few minutes during which the other sharks tried to gobble me up...but he was back again...
After my interview was over, my friend NP who was waiting outside led me to the scooter stand. And there was this Senior Professor of the embryonic Biotech unlocking his cycle. He came forward to me, shook my hands and congratulated me.
I was surprised because we never spoke to each other before.
He explained saying that it was he who pulled GSS out of the Board Room for some important signatures and GSS was in a hurry to get back saying:
"That young man is answering everything very well and I want to rush back..."
*************************************************************************************************************
A few months later he retired from Directorship, and was made the Chairman of the newly started STEP, in the good Old Building now housing the formidable CTS.
Then on, I used to get calls from him every now and then to go to his Office to discuss all aspects of Physics, from Lasers to GPS (not me!).
And while trying to answer his queries, I learned a lot of Physics myself.
This is because he was a Radio Engineer by training but had a deep love for Physics. This always happens...if someone is not in your line but asks questions out of love, you find that answering him calls for a different set of skills...you can't use jargon and get away.
I then found that he wanted to publish in a good Physics Journal and was going about it in his own way.
And once he said he had so many questions that it would be better if I give him time in my Qrs. And my wife welcomed the opportunity and made some delicious dal vadas especially for the occasion.
Interestingly, before he got his Paper in Physics, he made me write a monograph on Lasers by compiling answers to his queries on the subject.
And when my wife and I landed up at KGP almost 5 years after my leaving KGP on retirement we found him in his Office and he gifted me the reprint of his Paper in a well-known Physics Journal.
Token of his love for the subject.
And I left Physics as soon as I could and had gifted him my token of love for English...my SDM Homage:
********************************************************************************************************
"Dear Prof. Sastry,
Thanks a lot for your e-mail of October 02, 2007 enclosing a copy of an article written by you on Late Prof. S. Datta Majumdar. The article is very nice, full of information and top class humour. I shall read it again and again.
It is difficult for me to respond through e-mail. Telephone is much easier. My office number is +91 - 3222 - 283882 (F.N. / A.N. on working days). Of course, as you know, I have to go out of room once in a while. Kindly send your telephone number also.
With very best wishes to you and all members of your family.
Sincerely yours,
G. S. Sanyal
=========================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment