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It is not often that one turns sixty in one's lifetime...some (un)fortunate souls don't make it there at all.
I was supposed to retire at 60 when I joined IIT KGP in 1965. But by one of those decisions of the GoI (much to do with her finances), our Service (!) was extended by 2 years. So, I was very much at KGP on my 60th Birthday.
And decided to ignore it.
But on that morning there were three biblical wise men ringing my door bell (they knew that had they announced their intention to invade our Qrs, I would have slipped away).
I was taken by surprise when Professors Krishna Kumar (the main culprit), V. Srinivas and P. K. Raina barged in and seated themselves on my ramshackle sofa and gifted me a lovely silver memento with appropriate inscriptions. I could understand KK because he had not only sat in my Classes but also did a Project with me. But the two others were a surprise...they were just my colleagues. It was nice of them.
They also handed me a file folder that had some fond 'obits' which they collected from across the world...web got woven by then. And my son of a fun, without my knowledge, was in collusion with them and had launched these verbal mementos on a GeoCities site, whose address also was presented to me.
It is not often that one gets fulsome praise without expecting any return. So, I was visiting that site whenever I was down in spirits (which was not often). The last time I tried accessing that site was a couple of years back and it said that the whole damn thing is no longer existing..."Sorry GeoCities has closed".
Quite naturally I was forlorn...but you know my son...he went up the attic and brought out the hard copy file and asked me to stop moaning.
Well, Blogger still exists. So, I thought that I would better kill my time (I know the Alice Quip...Time won't like to be killed) by uploading the contents on my blogspot...Vanity being what it is.
So, here it is verbatim:
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I saw Professor G. P. Sastry first when he came to teach us Electrodynamics and Special Theory of Relativity. Most of us in the class were hesitant in asking him questions in the first two weeks. He realized this and started asking questions one day to all of us about what he taught in the previous two weeks. This removed hesitation. We all started asking him questions. We discovered soon it is best to ask him as many questions as possible. His teaching benefited everybody in the class. I saw first time a great teacher. Later he taught us Quantum Mechanics. Everything appeared much easier and understandable. He knew most of the difficulties all of us faced, he really cared to make things clear to all students in the class. I have never seen another teacher so much concerned about the whole class. I was fortunate to be introduced to theoretical research by him. I had my first experience of "research" while doing a project under his guidance. I am very grateful to him for that. During the research project I learned he was an equally great human being. Now I know him as a senior colleague in our Department. He has not changed even a bit. He is always inventing new ways to explain difficult problems of physics. He remains a very modest and humble person in spite of being a great teacher. I salute him on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
By Dharam Vir, B. Sc (Physics, 1969)
Prof. Sastry was a young teacher (about 25 years old) when I was his student in the B. Sc (Physics Hons) final year. He was so simple and humble that he could hardly be recognized as teacher. He looked more like a final year B. Tech. or post-graduate student.
He taught us Electricity and Magnetism, usually considered a very difficult subject. We used to wonder how this young teacher with not much of experience could teach such a subject and we were quite skeptical about him.
As the time passed, everyone began to get impressed by him. He was sincere and methodical. He made the subject very interesting as well as challenging. He consulted and referred to the best books of those times and picked the most typical problems from them for us to solve. He was very patient with the students and never lost temper. He happily tolerated my stubbornness in the class and cared for me.
For many of us, his course turned out to be the best. I started consulting the books he used to refer. I still remember books by Pugh and Pugh, Bruno Rossi, Panofsky and Phillips and Jackson. In fact, I landed up buying a few of these books. The book by Panofsky and Phillips is still with me. Of all the subjects that I learnt at Kharagpur, I vividly remember the contents of the course given by him!
From Kharagpur, I moved to IIT, Kanpur for Master's. There we had two semesters course on Electrodynamics. Whenever I attended lecture on this subject, Sastry used to come like a flash and disappear. He had made a permanent impression on my mind.
I had an occasion to visit IIT, Kharagpur in January, 2003, after a lapse of about 34 years. I was fortunate to have met him. He remembered me and all our classmates. He turned emotional. He remembered the rare moments of pain and pleasure. He said that I had made him 34 years younger. He was like the Sastry I had known. He had not changed.
Indeed, Prof. Sastry is a perfect human being as well as teacher with right mixture of head and heart. I owe my success to teachers like him and pay my humble tribute to him.
I wish him a long life. Our country needs such teachers.
Dharam Vir, IAS
Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Government of Haryana
1009, Sector 24
Chandigarh 160 023, India
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Professor G. P. Sastry is the best of the teachers I have learnt from and certainly far above the rest. He is a great teacher, a great physicist and a man with a huge heart.
He taught us quantum mechanics. He began with a mathematical prelude, simple and extraordinary, which deeply motivated me to follow his course of lectures. His lectures were such brilliant expositions that during the course it was not necessary for me to read any books on the subject. However, in the same year he was not assigned to teach us the special theory of relativity (which he was doing the previous years) and it left us deprived of another great experience.
When Professor Sastry was working on Cherenkov Radiation it was the last major area of classical electrodynamics to be solved. His discovery of the Cherenkov ray cones in crystalline media was an outstanding theoretical feat; it was subsequently observed in experiments, exactly as predicted by the theory.
Besides being a superb teacher and an outstanding physicist he is also a man with a huge heart. He was always magnanimous in helping me out of severe difficulties; I can never forget what he did for me.
On his 60th birthday, as also on any other day, any tribute to my teacher will be to little to appreciate the epic dimensions of his mind and heart.
-Pratip Bhattacharyya
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Dear GPS: It is my great pleasure to wish you on the occasion of your 60th birthday.
I am sure everyone who ever had a chance to share the same space-time coordinates with you, consider themselves very fortunate. The time spent with you in your lectures, in the laboratory sessions, at your office / home / Hari's, forms some of my fondest memories of Kharagpur. Your official age may be 60 but we all know that you are much younger at heart.
Once again, thank you very much for everything you have done for us students and wish you a very happy and long life.
-Kedar Khare
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Prof G. P. Sastry is the best Physics teacher I have encountered. As a student I learnt Special Relativity, Electrodynamics and Quantum Mechanics from him. The memories of his lectures still continue to inspire me now when I teach these subjects nearly two decades later. It gives me great pleasure to contribute these few lines to felicitate Prof. Sastry as he turns sixty. I wish him many more very fruitful and enjoyable years of existence.
Somnath Bharadwaj
Department of Physics and Meteorology
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On the occasion of GPS's 60th birthday my prayers for his continued good health and peace of mind. It is tempting to go back to those wonder years in Kharagpur, those myths and legends about GPS (even before I got an opportunity to interact with him), his bewildering lectures, his solutions to numerous apparent paradoxes....touche.
Let me rather take you to the future. After all these glorious years of teaching one day GPS would have reminded himself that he no longer needed to carry the attendance register to the class, for there would be no students waiting! He might rather be glancing through the potpourri of portraits he had collected on his table. Somewhere in a public university in Alabama or in a teachers' convention in Kodaikanal one of those faces might be teaching the "Flickering Bulb Paradox" then!
Some years ago I was entasked for this challenging job to archive all the research articles written by Sudhanshu Dutta Majumdar Memorial Lecture organized by CTS, IIT Kharagpur. I was astounded by the immense breadth of his research activities: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Anisotropic Crystals, Vacuum Pumps, you name it! That was GPS's mentor. All who know GPS know that the cycle continued...
And the show must go on. The students of future generation are not to be deprived of the GPS's style of learning Physics, the same enthusiasm is to be inculcated in them. That in my mind is the best gift we can think of to offer him.
I take this opportunity on GPS's birthday to quote one of his favorite Oliver Wendell Holmes:
"To be 60 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old"
Wishing you a great birthday and many more to come.
Your student as ever,
Parag Ghosh
Dept of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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I am Anand Kumar Jha. I graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2002 with a 5yrs Integrated M Sc in Physics. Currently I am an Optics Ph D student in the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. It has not been long since I graduated. So my memory with Prof. G. P. Sastry (we call him GP) is very much fresh.
I really feel excited having gotten an opportunity to write something about GPS. Right from my first year, whenever I met any senior in the physics department, he would talk only about GPS and his experiences with him. On the contrary when i used to watch GPS in the department I never felt that he was as much lively as my seniors used to tell me. In the fourth year he taught us a course on "Electromagnetic Theory and Special Relativity". It was this 7th semester when I could actually see and feel the liveliness in GPS, my seniors used to talk about. His method of teaching, his way of explaining and his ability to motivate students were just perfect.
Due to lack of enthusiasm in my batch, he decided not to take the course on Quantum Mechanics III, which he used to teach in the 8th semester. This was very unfortunate for us and we missed a great chunk of energy, which he would have shared with us, had he taught us the second course. To a great extent I feel myself responsible for that.
Last few months at IIT was a great time and it was when I saw the other aspect of GPS. He has a unique way of looking at things. I used to find some reason to talk to him. It used to be recommendation letter or advice on something. Whatever the reason was, every time I met him, I had some new experience. GPS talks a LOT. Whenever I went to his house, he would just give me a plate full of sweets to finish. While I am on my way of finishing those sweets GPS would keep talking. I used to enjoy each and every word of his. Once in a while he also used to give me a chance to speak. To be honest I used to prefer listening.
GPS is not only the best teacher I have ever seen in my life, he is also the best person I have ever been in contact with. I learnt quite a bit of physics from him unfortunately not much. I always loved physics but it was after coming in touch with GPS that I felt Physics as part of my life. His way of looking at life has certainly guided me on various occasions.
Today on 22nd of August, i would like to convey my Birthday-wishes to GPS through this e-mail. I have earned and learned so much from GPS and I'll always benefit from his blessing and teaching. I'll have my happiest moment in life when some of my work could keep GPS happy for at least 60 minutes.
Wishing for his good health and blessings,
Anand
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Dear GP: We have never met, yet you are one of my closest colleagues and friends. Beginning with pen on paper, we graduated to email with attachments. Beginning with special relativity, our dialog has covered physics from quarks to cosmos. Beginning with physics, our conversation spanned the human condition from history and literature to philosophy and religion. You have introduced me to the culture of India and its academic world, as well as providing an outsider's clear-eyed, wry but generous view of the West.
Along the way you and your students pummeled, corrected, and refined in detail the general relativity text that John Archibald Wheeler and I wrote. You and your students composed the solutions manual, for which dozens of harried instructors thank you daily.
Only sixty years? My days have been illuminated by the friendly wisdom of an elder who turns out to be ten years old when I graduated from college. But what is such a time lapse to a relativist? A simple time inversion better represents our relationship, and allows me to express gratitude and affection to my mentor and friend.
Warmly,
Edwin Taylor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Well, by now you must be wondering as to what all this has to do with Prof. G. P. Sastry! In fact, most of the time whenever I entered the library, I found that there was a slim, handsome, intelligent and sincere young-looking gentleman sitting at one remote corner, highly absorbed in the book he was holding in is hand. Needless to say how much I was impressed by such an attractive and dynamic personality. And then, I was really curious to find out who he was.
Soon it so happened that one day while we were waiting in our Physics class for the teacher whom we had not seen earlier, the same gentleman appeared entering from the door. Really, it was my first encounter with the ideal teacher. What an excellent lecture he delivered---clear concepts put forth in a rhythmic (simple harmonic) style combined with the fluency in English, which very few academicians even in IIT possess. I have seldom seen Professors who are good at 'Science' and 'Language' simultaneously---an extraordinary (human) combination of 'Science' and 'Arts'; 'Knowledge' and 'Emotions'. It was as though 'Keats' were teaching us 'Optics'---strange supernaturally radiant electromagnetic phenomenon.
Prof. G. P. Sastry happens to be the best human being I have ever come across. As one of my recollections unfolds, once I was delivering my lecture as the then President of Physics Society at the "Departmental Freshers' Introduction". I quoted a few lines from what I thought from 'Yeats'. It was during the snacks-break that Prof. Sastry who must have been listening to my words very carefully first patted me on my back for the seemingly well-received lecture I had delivered and then, very affectionately pointed out to me that the lines which I was referring to in my lecture were actually not from 'Yeats', but were from 'Keats'. The style and smile which he combined when he told me all this showed me the brilliant 'theatrical' abilities he had and the tremendous knowledge he possessed even in areas not directly connected with Science. An interesting interface of knowledge---par excellence indeed!
Professor Sastry happens to be one of those few Professors who could give you 100/100 marks whenever you deserved. While I can go on forever describing this excellent human being (probably 'God' has created him from his own hands) the editor of the magazine must be waiting to give others also a chance for similar descriptions, and thus (although very unwillingly) I must stop now. But before I do that, let me record the warmest personal regards of my own, my parents, my wife, my son and all my near and dear ones who must have heard from me anecdotes of my interaction with Prof. G. P. Sastry, time and again. We all wish him and his family all encompassing good luck and a very happy and successful future life.
J. S. Pandey
Sr. Asst. Director, NEERI, Nagpur
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Few people in the world are fortunate enough to have a teacher like G. P. Sastry at some point in their life. His approachability, the lively manner of his teaching and the uncomplicated nature of his explanations kept me hooked to physics during my years at IIT Kharagpur. He is the person who first suggested that I start reading quantum mechanics from the most 'quantum' of all systems, namely the two-level system. This approach has much to do with the kind of physics I have taken up as a profession. His course on relativity is a classic example class room teaching at its best. I have never taken a more interesting course elsewhere and can only hope to emulate his interactive and lively style in he future. Inspired by his relativity paradoxes, I was able to formulate one with a tippe top and Professor Sastry provided an elegant solution of the same. Subsequently (with the help of others at KGP), he also took the initiative in writing this paradox up as a paper which enabled me to have a joint publication with my most respected teacher. With deepest gratitude, I wish Professor Sastry a happy and active life on his sixtieth birthday.
Sougato Bose
Lecturer, University College of London
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You do not need to hear from me how great a teacher GPS is, anyone who attended his classes knows. He himself would downplay his ability to coax us into swallowing and digesting the stuff he taught us. Quoting Feynman (who quoted Gibbon), he would tell us that his teaching was effective only when we would come at least half way and put in some effort.
I really got to know GPS after I had left KGP. It was through that strangely addictive thing called email. I was (and still am) in love with my own writing, and quite by accident I found an audience at a faraway computer terminal, who reciprocated with (often outrageous) anecdotes from his own life, with quotes from diverse range of literature---occasionally we also discussed a little physics---but more importantly with words of advice in times of trouble. I am grateful to him for every bit of it, and for much else besides that defies cataloguing, and it seems to me the right words to express my gratitude will always elude me.
But most of all, I could not help admiring him for his ready wit. Of many instances, one that readily comes to mind is: "If the plural of mouse is mice, shouldn't the plural of spouse be spice?"
Aniket Basu
Department of Theoretical Physics
TIFR, Mumbai
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I first saw Prof Sastry as this rather grumpy looking person who shared an office with Prof. D. Basu (who happened to be our fac. ad.). My first impression was that this is a scary person and one to stay away from. And so, when on several occasions during my 2nd year, when Prof. Basu would ask me to go to Prof. Sastry with some doubts, I used my intuition and stayed away.
Then, in our 3rd year, I saw to my horror that he'd be teaching us our first Quantum Mech course. Day 1: Sir walks in, cleans the blackboard, takes the eraser to the nearest window and cleans the eraser there---all without uttering a single word. This same phenomena would be repeated everyday without variation for all the 3 sems that he'd teach us! Then, he cleaned his hands in the wash-basin (and suddenly the reason for putting the wash-basins in classrooms became clear to all of us!), opened the class-register and took the attendance. And then he started teaching.
From lecture 1 till his final lecture, it was pure poetry! I still remember the first question that he asked in class: "What is quantized?" and we were taught something important that a lot of standard QM books forget to mention. Indeed it is the point of entry into the path integral method of quantum mechanics.
It would take lots of pages to write about all the wonderful things he taught us in that first course. I am absolutely certain, that without that first course, I certainly would not have learnt quantum mechanics in the same touch-feel way that he emphasized. Soon, the machinery of QM: Linear Algebra and the weird world of the quantum became more manageable.
Actually, after the first few lectures, I thought, "He looks like a harmless person, maybe I could ask some of the doubts I have." And so began a long process of harassing and often nonsensical questions and patient hearing and precise answers. Very quickly, I realized that Sir's sense of humor was absolutely wonderful. Lots of wonderful jokes both in the class room and also some at Harry's. I must hasten to add here that I've heard a bulk of Sir's jokes from him after I came to Princeton. He's often accused me of being a fellow without shame---well I have this to say to you "So are you!" Indeed his disarming smile on the 3rd/4th day of lecture told us that there was a wonderful human being beneath this grumpy exterior.
Anyway, apart from acads Sir also has been a great friend to whom I've always turned for advice. I owe him so much! I'm really sorry I cannot be there to celebrate this wonderful occasion, but we all wish you
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIR!"
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I have the rare opportunity to interact with Prof. G. P. Sastry as a student, as a faculty colleague and as a co-lab-in-charge in the fourth year laboratory of the Dept of Physics, IIT Kharagpur. His contribution as a unique teacher is well known. What is worth mentioning is that his personality and nurture for the students motivated me to finally stick to IITKGP just when I was bewildered like any other lateral-entry boys. This all happened in the very first month when we met him personally in his house at IIT Campus to clarify some of our concepts on "Special Theory of Relativity". Later I came to know that it not only happened to me but also many of my junior/senior friends. But that is not the real surprise!!---not sure how many of us has seen him doing experiments in the laboratory with the students. So that was the beginning of a new experience of learning for me.
I will be nowhere near to articulate his great contribution as a physics teacher, a researcher and a mentor of thousands of pass-outs from our department, but I can only express my feeling about him by quoting from Granth Sahib:
S. K. Ray
Dept of Physics, IIT KGP
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In my opinion, it is impossible to characterize a human being completely. But still we as individuals have some ways of perceiving/interpreting and describing each other. We do get grouped into professional world and simultaneously have some non-professional world to interact with. I find that the personality of an individual mostly gets divided into these two aspects of life. There are very few great people who can command both of these aspects of life to highest level.
I did not have opportunity of being student of Prof. G. P. Sastry. But from the day I came in contact with any student of IIT Kharagpur (nearly 20 years back first at IIT Kanpur) there was consistent acknowledgment about his possessing both these aspects of life to exceptionally high level.
On joining this department some seven years back, I could see this human figure described very well by some of the brilliant alumnae of department. I consider them to be very fortunate for having enjoyed one or both these aspects of a great man.
My very occasional interactions with him have been as a colleague (team-mate for the assignment given to him from department / institute). Whatever small interactions I had with him left deep impressions of the overall personality of the great man and every word
seemed to be meaningful, every action seemed to be in the welfare of broader sense of society. Recalling the people I have come across in life, the depth of enjoyment these interactions with Prof. Sastry gave me could only be felt with very few.
On this 60th birthday, my felicitations and congratulations to Prof. G. P. Sastry for such a great success in life with best wishes and highest regards for future.
Prabhu Krishan Raina
Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur
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I still remember that I met Professor G. P. Sastry in the departmental seminar room where grand viva of M. Sc (1992) students was in progress. Since then I have constant interaction with him in and out of the department. Many of his students say that they are fortunate enough to have a teacher like him. On the other hand I feel I am fortunate enough to have interaction with such a teacher to learn more intricacies of physics and physics teaching. In other words I feel he is not only a students' teacher but also teacher of teachers. Each time I entered his chamber I gained more understanding on the subject in question. Some of these discussions even appeared in the form of a journal article (Eur. J. Phys 17 (1996) 275). I thank Professor Sastry for his support and I wish him a VERY HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY!
With love and regards
V. Srinivas
Dept of Physics
IIT Kharagpur
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It is not often that one turns sixty in one's lifetime...some (un)fortunate souls don't make it there at all.
I was supposed to retire at 60 when I joined IIT KGP in 1965. But by one of those decisions of the GoI (much to do with her finances), our Service (!) was extended by 2 years. So, I was very much at KGP on my 60th Birthday.
And decided to ignore it.
But on that morning there were three biblical wise men ringing my door bell (they knew that had they announced their intention to invade our Qrs, I would have slipped away).
I was taken by surprise when Professors Krishna Kumar (the main culprit), V. Srinivas and P. K. Raina barged in and seated themselves on my ramshackle sofa and gifted me a lovely silver memento with appropriate inscriptions. I could understand KK because he had not only sat in my Classes but also did a Project with me. But the two others were a surprise...they were just my colleagues. It was nice of them.
They also handed me a file folder that had some fond 'obits' which they collected from across the world...web got woven by then. And my son of a fun, without my knowledge, was in collusion with them and had launched these verbal mementos on a GeoCities site, whose address also was presented to me.
It is not often that one gets fulsome praise without expecting any return. So, I was visiting that site whenever I was down in spirits (which was not often). The last time I tried accessing that site was a couple of years back and it said that the whole damn thing is no longer existing..."Sorry GeoCities has closed".
Quite naturally I was forlorn...but you know my son...he went up the attic and brought out the hard copy file and asked me to stop moaning.
Well, Blogger still exists. So, I thought that I would better kill my time (I know the Alice Quip...Time won't like to be killed) by uploading the contents on my blogspot...Vanity being what it is.
So, here it is verbatim:
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Krishna Kumar
I saw Professor G. P. Sastry first when he came to teach us Electrodynamics and Special Theory of Relativity. Most of us in the class were hesitant in asking him questions in the first two weeks. He realized this and started asking questions one day to all of us about what he taught in the previous two weeks. This removed hesitation. We all started asking him questions. We discovered soon it is best to ask him as many questions as possible. His teaching benefited everybody in the class. I saw first time a great teacher. Later he taught us Quantum Mechanics. Everything appeared much easier and understandable. He knew most of the difficulties all of us faced, he really cared to make things clear to all students in the class. I have never seen another teacher so much concerned about the whole class. I was fortunate to be introduced to theoretical research by him. I had my first experience of "research" while doing a project under his guidance. I am very grateful to him for that. During the research project I learned he was an equally great human being. Now I know him as a senior colleague in our Department. He has not changed even a bit. He is always inventing new ways to explain difficult problems of physics. He remains a very modest and humble person in spite of being a great teacher. I salute him on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
*****************************************************************************************************************
Krishna Kumar
Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur
Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur
Dharam Vir
The Sastry I had known
By Dharam Vir, B. Sc (Physics, 1969)
Prof. Sastry was a young teacher (about 25 years old) when I was his student in the B. Sc (Physics Hons) final year. He was so simple and humble that he could hardly be recognized as teacher. He looked more like a final year B. Tech. or post-graduate student.
He taught us Electricity and Magnetism, usually considered a very difficult subject. We used to wonder how this young teacher with not much of experience could teach such a subject and we were quite skeptical about him.
As the time passed, everyone began to get impressed by him. He was sincere and methodical. He made the subject very interesting as well as challenging. He consulted and referred to the best books of those times and picked the most typical problems from them for us to solve. He was very patient with the students and never lost temper. He happily tolerated my stubbornness in the class and cared for me.
For many of us, his course turned out to be the best. I started consulting the books he used to refer. I still remember books by Pugh and Pugh, Bruno Rossi, Panofsky and Phillips and Jackson. In fact, I landed up buying a few of these books. The book by Panofsky and Phillips is still with me. Of all the subjects that I learnt at Kharagpur, I vividly remember the contents of the course given by him!
From Kharagpur, I moved to IIT, Kanpur for Master's. There we had two semesters course on Electrodynamics. Whenever I attended lecture on this subject, Sastry used to come like a flash and disappear. He had made a permanent impression on my mind.
I had an occasion to visit IIT, Kharagpur in January, 2003, after a lapse of about 34 years. I was fortunate to have met him. He remembered me and all our classmates. He turned emotional. He remembered the rare moments of pain and pleasure. He said that I had made him 34 years younger. He was like the Sastry I had known. He had not changed.
Indeed, Prof. Sastry is a perfect human being as well as teacher with right mixture of head and heart. I owe my success to teachers like him and pay my humble tribute to him.
I wish him a long life. Our country needs such teachers.
Dharam Vir, IAS
Principal Secretary, Technical Education, Government of Haryana
1009, Sector 24
Chandigarh 160 023, India
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Pratip Bhattacharyya
Professor G. P. Sastry is the best of the teachers I have learnt from and certainly far above the rest. He is a great teacher, a great physicist and a man with a huge heart.
He taught us quantum mechanics. He began with a mathematical prelude, simple and extraordinary, which deeply motivated me to follow his course of lectures. His lectures were such brilliant expositions that during the course it was not necessary for me to read any books on the subject. However, in the same year he was not assigned to teach us the special theory of relativity (which he was doing the previous years) and it left us deprived of another great experience.
When Professor Sastry was working on Cherenkov Radiation it was the last major area of classical electrodynamics to be solved. His discovery of the Cherenkov ray cones in crystalline media was an outstanding theoretical feat; it was subsequently observed in experiments, exactly as predicted by the theory.
Besides being a superb teacher and an outstanding physicist he is also a man with a huge heart. He was always magnanimous in helping me out of severe difficulties; I can never forget what he did for me.
On his 60th birthday, as also on any other day, any tribute to my teacher will be to little to appreciate the epic dimensions of his mind and heart.
-Pratip Bhattacharyya
**************************************************************************************************************
Kedar Khare
Dear GPS: It is my great pleasure to wish you on the occasion of your 60th birthday.
I am sure everyone who ever had a chance to share the same space-time coordinates with you, consider themselves very fortunate. The time spent with you in your lectures, in the laboratory sessions, at your office / home / Hari's, forms some of my fondest memories of Kharagpur. Your official age may be 60 but we all know that you are much younger at heart.
Once again, thank you very much for everything you have done for us students and wish you a very happy and long life.
-Kedar Khare
****************************************************************************************************************
Somnath Bharadwaj
Prof G. P. Sastry is the best Physics teacher I have encountered. As a student I learnt Special Relativity, Electrodynamics and Quantum Mechanics from him. The memories of his lectures still continue to inspire me now when I teach these subjects nearly two decades later. It gives me great pleasure to contribute these few lines to felicitate Prof. Sastry as he turns sixty. I wish him many more very fruitful and enjoyable years of existence.
Somnath Bharadwaj
Department of Physics and Meteorology
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Parag Ghosh
On the occasion of GPS's 60th birthday my prayers for his continued good health and peace of mind. It is tempting to go back to those wonder years in Kharagpur, those myths and legends about GPS (even before I got an opportunity to interact with him), his bewildering lectures, his solutions to numerous apparent paradoxes....touche.
Let me rather take you to the future. After all these glorious years of teaching one day GPS would have reminded himself that he no longer needed to carry the attendance register to the class, for there would be no students waiting! He might rather be glancing through the potpourri of portraits he had collected on his table. Somewhere in a public university in Alabama or in a teachers' convention in Kodaikanal one of those faces might be teaching the "Flickering Bulb Paradox" then!
Some years ago I was entasked for this challenging job to archive all the research articles written by Sudhanshu Dutta Majumdar Memorial Lecture organized by CTS, IIT Kharagpur. I was astounded by the immense breadth of his research activities: General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Anisotropic Crystals, Vacuum Pumps, you name it! That was GPS's mentor. All who know GPS know that the cycle continued...
And the show must go on. The students of future generation are not to be deprived of the GPS's style of learning Physics, the same enthusiasm is to be inculcated in them. That in my mind is the best gift we can think of to offer him.
I take this opportunity on GPS's birthday to quote one of his favorite Oliver Wendell Holmes:
"To be 60 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old"
Wishing you a great birthday and many more to come.
Your student as ever,
Parag Ghosh
Dept of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Anand Kumar Jha
I am Anand Kumar Jha. I graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 2002 with a 5yrs Integrated M Sc in Physics. Currently I am an Optics Ph D student in the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester. It has not been long since I graduated. So my memory with Prof. G. P. Sastry (we call him GP) is very much fresh.
I really feel excited having gotten an opportunity to write something about GPS. Right from my first year, whenever I met any senior in the physics department, he would talk only about GPS and his experiences with him. On the contrary when i used to watch GPS in the department I never felt that he was as much lively as my seniors used to tell me. In the fourth year he taught us a course on "Electromagnetic Theory and Special Relativity". It was this 7th semester when I could actually see and feel the liveliness in GPS, my seniors used to talk about. His method of teaching, his way of explaining and his ability to motivate students were just perfect.
Due to lack of enthusiasm in my batch, he decided not to take the course on Quantum Mechanics III, which he used to teach in the 8th semester. This was very unfortunate for us and we missed a great chunk of energy, which he would have shared with us, had he taught us the second course. To a great extent I feel myself responsible for that.
Last few months at IIT was a great time and it was when I saw the other aspect of GPS. He has a unique way of looking at things. I used to find some reason to talk to him. It used to be recommendation letter or advice on something. Whatever the reason was, every time I met him, I had some new experience. GPS talks a LOT. Whenever I went to his house, he would just give me a plate full of sweets to finish. While I am on my way of finishing those sweets GPS would keep talking. I used to enjoy each and every word of his. Once in a while he also used to give me a chance to speak. To be honest I used to prefer listening.
GPS is not only the best teacher I have ever seen in my life, he is also the best person I have ever been in contact with. I learnt quite a bit of physics from him unfortunately not much. I always loved physics but it was after coming in touch with GPS that I felt Physics as part of my life. His way of looking at life has certainly guided me on various occasions.
Today on 22nd of August, i would like to convey my Birthday-wishes to GPS through this e-mail. I have earned and learned so much from GPS and I'll always benefit from his blessing and teaching. I'll have my happiest moment in life when some of my work could keep GPS happy for at least 60 minutes.
Wishing for his good health and blessings,
Anand
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Edwin Taylor
Dear GP: We have never met, yet you are one of my closest colleagues and friends. Beginning with pen on paper, we graduated to email with attachments. Beginning with special relativity, our dialog has covered physics from quarks to cosmos. Beginning with physics, our conversation spanned the human condition from history and literature to philosophy and religion. You have introduced me to the culture of India and its academic world, as well as providing an outsider's clear-eyed, wry but generous view of the West.
Along the way you and your students pummeled, corrected, and refined in detail the general relativity text that John Archibald Wheeler and I wrote. You and your students composed the solutions manual, for which dozens of harried instructors thank you daily.
Only sixty years? My days have been illuminated by the friendly wisdom of an elder who turns out to be ten years old when I graduated from college. But what is such a time lapse to a relativist? A simple time inversion better represents our relationship, and allows me to express gratitude and affection to my mentor and friend.
Warmly,
Edwin Taylor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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J. S. Pandey
Prof. G. P. Sastry: The Best Professor and the Best Human Being I Have Ever Come Across
When I joined IIT Kharagpur in July, 1977, library used to be the most favoured place for me. This was primarily because of two reasons: firstly because it was for the first time I had come across such a huge library with equally huge amount of resources, which generated immense excitement for learning and grasping as much as possible in the shortest interval of time. Secondly, if one wants to escape ragging and at the same time not miss the studies, this was the safest place to do both.Well, by now you must be wondering as to what all this has to do with Prof. G. P. Sastry! In fact, most of the time whenever I entered the library, I found that there was a slim, handsome, intelligent and sincere young-looking gentleman sitting at one remote corner, highly absorbed in the book he was holding in is hand. Needless to say how much I was impressed by such an attractive and dynamic personality. And then, I was really curious to find out who he was.
Soon it so happened that one day while we were waiting in our Physics class for the teacher whom we had not seen earlier, the same gentleman appeared entering from the door. Really, it was my first encounter with the ideal teacher. What an excellent lecture he delivered---clear concepts put forth in a rhythmic (simple harmonic) style combined with the fluency in English, which very few academicians even in IIT possess. I have seldom seen Professors who are good at 'Science' and 'Language' simultaneously---an extraordinary (human) combination of 'Science' and 'Arts'; 'Knowledge' and 'Emotions'. It was as though 'Keats' were teaching us 'Optics'---strange supernaturally radiant electromagnetic phenomenon.
Prof. G. P. Sastry happens to be the best human being I have ever come across. As one of my recollections unfolds, once I was delivering my lecture as the then President of Physics Society at the "Departmental Freshers' Introduction". I quoted a few lines from what I thought from 'Yeats'. It was during the snacks-break that Prof. Sastry who must have been listening to my words very carefully first patted me on my back for the seemingly well-received lecture I had delivered and then, very affectionately pointed out to me that the lines which I was referring to in my lecture were actually not from 'Yeats', but were from 'Keats'. The style and smile which he combined when he told me all this showed me the brilliant 'theatrical' abilities he had and the tremendous knowledge he possessed even in areas not directly connected with Science. An interesting interface of knowledge---par excellence indeed!
Professor Sastry happens to be one of those few Professors who could give you 100/100 marks whenever you deserved. While I can go on forever describing this excellent human being (probably 'God' has created him from his own hands) the editor of the magazine must be waiting to give others also a chance for similar descriptions, and thus (although very unwillingly) I must stop now. But before I do that, let me record the warmest personal regards of my own, my parents, my wife, my son and all my near and dear ones who must have heard from me anecdotes of my interaction with Prof. G. P. Sastry, time and again. We all wish him and his family all encompassing good luck and a very happy and successful future life.
J. S. Pandey
Sr. Asst. Director, NEERI, Nagpur
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Sougato Bose
Few people in the world are fortunate enough to have a teacher like G. P. Sastry at some point in their life. His approachability, the lively manner of his teaching and the uncomplicated nature of his explanations kept me hooked to physics during my years at IIT Kharagpur. He is the person who first suggested that I start reading quantum mechanics from the most 'quantum' of all systems, namely the two-level system. This approach has much to do with the kind of physics I have taken up as a profession. His course on relativity is a classic example class room teaching at its best. I have never taken a more interesting course elsewhere and can only hope to emulate his interactive and lively style in he future. Inspired by his relativity paradoxes, I was able to formulate one with a tippe top and Professor Sastry provided an elegant solution of the same. Subsequently (with the help of others at KGP), he also took the initiative in writing this paradox up as a paper which enabled me to have a joint publication with my most respected teacher. With deepest gratitude, I wish Professor Sastry a happy and active life on his sixtieth birthday.
Sougato Bose
Lecturer, University College of London
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Aniket Basu
You do not need to hear from me how great a teacher GPS is, anyone who attended his classes knows. He himself would downplay his ability to coax us into swallowing and digesting the stuff he taught us. Quoting Feynman (who quoted Gibbon), he would tell us that his teaching was effective only when we would come at least half way and put in some effort.
I really got to know GPS after I had left KGP. It was through that strangely addictive thing called email. I was (and still am) in love with my own writing, and quite by accident I found an audience at a faraway computer terminal, who reciprocated with (often outrageous) anecdotes from his own life, with quotes from diverse range of literature---occasionally we also discussed a little physics---but more importantly with words of advice in times of trouble. I am grateful to him for every bit of it, and for much else besides that defies cataloguing, and it seems to me the right words to express my gratitude will always elude me.
But most of all, I could not help admiring him for his ready wit. Of many instances, one that readily comes to mind is: "If the plural of mouse is mice, shouldn't the plural of spouse be spice?"
Aniket Basu
Department of Theoretical Physics
TIFR, Mumbai
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Indrajit Mitra
I first saw Prof Sastry as this rather grumpy looking person who shared an office with Prof. D. Basu (who happened to be our fac. ad.). My first impression was that this is a scary person and one to stay away from. And so, when on several occasions during my 2nd year, when Prof. Basu would ask me to go to Prof. Sastry with some doubts, I used my intuition and stayed away.
Then, in our 3rd year, I saw to my horror that he'd be teaching us our first Quantum Mech course. Day 1: Sir walks in, cleans the blackboard, takes the eraser to the nearest window and cleans the eraser there---all without uttering a single word. This same phenomena would be repeated everyday without variation for all the 3 sems that he'd teach us! Then, he cleaned his hands in the wash-basin (and suddenly the reason for putting the wash-basins in classrooms became clear to all of us!), opened the class-register and took the attendance. And then he started teaching.
From lecture 1 till his final lecture, it was pure poetry! I still remember the first question that he asked in class: "What is quantized?" and we were taught something important that a lot of standard QM books forget to mention. Indeed it is the point of entry into the path integral method of quantum mechanics.
It would take lots of pages to write about all the wonderful things he taught us in that first course. I am absolutely certain, that without that first course, I certainly would not have learnt quantum mechanics in the same touch-feel way that he emphasized. Soon, the machinery of QM: Linear Algebra and the weird world of the quantum became more manageable.
Actually, after the first few lectures, I thought, "He looks like a harmless person, maybe I could ask some of the doubts I have." And so began a long process of harassing and often nonsensical questions and patient hearing and precise answers. Very quickly, I realized that Sir's sense of humor was absolutely wonderful. Lots of wonderful jokes both in the class room and also some at Harry's. I must hasten to add here that I've heard a bulk of Sir's jokes from him after I came to Princeton. He's often accused me of being a fellow without shame---well I have this to say to you "So are you!" Indeed his disarming smile on the 3rd/4th day of lecture told us that there was a wonderful human being beneath this grumpy exterior.
Anyway, apart from acads Sir also has been a great friend to whom I've always turned for advice. I owe him so much! I'm really sorry I cannot be there to celebrate this wonderful occasion, but we all wish you
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIR!"
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Samit Ray
I have the rare opportunity to interact with Prof. G. P. Sastry as a student, as a faculty colleague and as a co-lab-in-charge in the fourth year laboratory of the Dept of Physics, IIT Kharagpur. His contribution as a unique teacher is well known. What is worth mentioning is that his personality and nurture for the students motivated me to finally stick to IITKGP just when I was bewildered like any other lateral-entry boys. This all happened in the very first month when we met him personally in his house at IIT Campus to clarify some of our concepts on "Special Theory of Relativity". Later I came to know that it not only happened to me but also many of my junior/senior friends. But that is not the real surprise!!---not sure how many of us has seen him doing experiments in the laboratory with the students. So that was the beginning of a new experience of learning for me.
I will be nowhere near to articulate his great contribution as a physics teacher, a researcher and a mentor of thousands of pass-outs from our department, but I can only express my feeling about him by quoting from Granth Sahib:
"A hundred moons may be born
A thousand suns may blaze
In this intense brilliance
Without my teacher, There is pitch darkness"
A thousand suns may blaze
In this intense brilliance
Without my teacher, There is pitch darkness"
S. K. Ray
Dept of Physics, IIT KGP
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P. K. Raina
In my opinion, it is impossible to characterize a human being completely. But still we as individuals have some ways of perceiving/interpreting and describing each other. We do get grouped into professional world and simultaneously have some non-professional world to interact with. I find that the personality of an individual mostly gets divided into these two aspects of life. There are very few great people who can command both of these aspects of life to highest level.
I did not have opportunity of being student of Prof. G. P. Sastry. But from the day I came in contact with any student of IIT Kharagpur (nearly 20 years back first at IIT Kanpur) there was consistent acknowledgment about his possessing both these aspects of life to exceptionally high level.
On joining this department some seven years back, I could see this human figure described very well by some of the brilliant alumnae of department. I consider them to be very fortunate for having enjoyed one or both these aspects of a great man.
My very occasional interactions with him have been as a colleague (team-mate for the assignment given to him from department / institute). Whatever small interactions I had with him left deep impressions of the overall personality of the great man and every word
seemed to be meaningful, every action seemed to be in the welfare of broader sense of society. Recalling the people I have come across in life, the depth of enjoyment these interactions with Prof. Sastry gave me could only be felt with very few.
On this 60th birthday, my felicitations and congratulations to Prof. G. P. Sastry for such a great success in life with best wishes and highest regards for future.
Prabhu Krishan Raina
Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur
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V. Srinivas
I still remember that I met Professor G. P. Sastry in the departmental seminar room where grand viva of M. Sc (1992) students was in progress. Since then I have constant interaction with him in and out of the department. Many of his students say that they are fortunate enough to have a teacher like him. On the other hand I feel I am fortunate enough to have interaction with such a teacher to learn more intricacies of physics and physics teaching. In other words I feel he is not only a students' teacher but also teacher of teachers. Each time I entered his chamber I gained more understanding on the subject in question. Some of these discussions even appeared in the form of a journal article (Eur. J. Phys 17 (1996) 275). I thank Professor Sastry for his support and I wish him a VERY HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY!
With love and regards
V. Srinivas
Dept of Physics
IIT Kharagpur
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Amalendu Mukherjee
Dear Sastry Garu:
Ever since I came in your time and space my life has not been the same. You taught me how to look at both life and science. You banished lots of murky fog and unshackled me from dwarfing chains of self-glorification. You taught me how to learn and unlearn. I came to you whenever I had problems in my life and in science and always wondered to whom do you go.......
Ever since I came in your time and space my life has not been the same. You taught me how to look at both life and science. You banished lots of murky fog and unshackled me from dwarfing chains of self-glorification. You taught me how to learn and unlearn. I came to you whenever I had problems in my life and in science and always wondered to whom do you go.......
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Is that ALL?
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