‘This man didn’t know that sea can be frozen’The reason given for extending my father’s visa
The reason mentioned for the extension of my father’s visa, when he found the frozen North Sea as he was to travel from Oslo to Kiel. This can only happen to an adventurer, who is willing to explore the unknown and was comfortable living with ambiguity and imperfections.
A fulfilling life.
My father truly had a fulfilling life. He served the London County Council as a town planner, as a teacher with IIT Kharagpur and Jadavpur University. He was an institution builder and was inducted in Jadavpur University from IIT Kharagpur by the then education minister Late Triguna Sen. Jadavpur University emerged as a top university by the 1980s.
He served in important positions of the Indian Institute of Architects, Institute of Town Planners and Council of Architecture. He was in various policy making bodies of state and the central government.
An adventurer.
He widely travelled across Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and Africa. He worked in Oslo to watch the midnight sun, in Rome to see the Rome Olympics (was in stadium to see Milkha Singh's famous run, Cassius Clay's gold medal and India in the hockey final). He was in Moscow to see the parade in Red Square and had crossed the Check-point-Charlie during the peak of cold war. In India, he had travelled from Amarnath to Kanyakumari and from the North-east to Andamans to Jaisalmer.
As a town planner, he had made pioneering contribution to protect the biodiversity of Kolkata and for restoration of heritage sites including Gaur in Malda.
He touched many lives.
Over the last two decades he was involved with Bharat Sevashram Sangha as a volunteer. He touched many lives, which was evident today with large number of people coming to pay their respects and Behala Puratan Bazaar (one of the busiest markets of Kolkata) declared a closure as a mark of respect.
We are grateful to Mr. Debashish Kumar, MLA and Mayor Parishad of Kolkata, who took personal initiative for a smooth conduct of his last rites. No amount of thanks are enough to acknowledge the contributions of my cousins Kaustubh and Sourabh in the way they took care of my father over the last one month.
A teacher at heart.
Baba was a teacher and institution builder at heart. I had visited numerous academic institutions, with him, as a child. He would make me feel the pulse of the place and would want me to see the campus either walking or cycling (I learned cycling while staying at the CBRI Guest House of now IIT Roorkee). When, I joined academia, he would make sure that he visits the campus where I was working, be it SPJIMR or MICA or IMT Ghaziabad.
The snap below captures me with him, during his visit to IMT Ghaziabad in 2017-18 (his health did not permit him to come to my present location at Bangalore).
I take this opportunity to convey my deep gratitude to all my friends for your support and for providing the strength when I need it the most, as he made his eternal journey in the early morning of 4th July.
I am certain he will enjoy his exploits in the heaven as well.
Lessons from Baba, in my journey, and the letter he wrote me about my first job.
Source: My Facebook post on my father's passing, July 2022, published here at my family's request.
