Spring JUAA WMA Newsletter Spring Volume VIII Issue I

Spring 2006 JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Volume VIII, Issue I Page 1 Jadavpur University Alumni Association Washington Metropolitan Area In this Issue…. Editorial NEWSLETTER R From the Editor’s Desk… With great pleasure, we present the Spring issue of the 2006 newsletter of the Jadavpur University Alumni Association, Washington Metropolitan Area chapter (JUAA-WMA). Page 1 Page 8 JUAA-WMA has been experiencing a steadily increasing visibility in the US as well as in India. “Sanskriti”, the premier Bengali association in the Washington Metropolitan area expressed interest in organizing joint events with JUAA-WMA. Coordinators of the newly-formed JUAA-Atlanta chapter approached us to explore the possibility of routing their contributions (life-memberships, annual scholarships, donations for special causes, etc.) to the JUAA-Kolkata Headquarters through JUAAWMA, before they obtain a tax-exempt status. Even a commercial website, electronic greetings card portal www.123greetings.com, has shown interest in having a mention at our website in exchange of a link to our website at their site. JUAA-WMA Board of Directors and members are enjoying a tremendous sense of camaraderie and responsibility, which is the foundation of any alumni association. JUAA-WMA members elected five new Board members during the Fall 2005 general election. Jayati Dasgupta (‘84/Arch.), Sudipta Sarkar (‘96/CSE), Atish Ray (‘89/Mech. E.), Bidyut Chakravarty (‘72/ETCE), and Sharmila Ghosh (‘98/Comp. Lit.) have joined incumbent members Aniruddha Bhattacharyya (President, ‘52/Ch. E.) and Tapash Ghosh(‘79/Pharm.) in the Board of Directors. The special Advisory Board consisting of Mihir Mitra (‘51/Mech. E.), Asok Motayed (’67/Civil E.) Rama Saha (‘75/M. Ph.), Dilip Paul(’61/Tel. E.) & Somnath Som(‘67/Civil E.) continues to advise the Board President on all relevant matters, including the scholarship fund. In addition to the regular sections of JUAA-WMA newsletter including the local chapter’s activities and scholarship-related information, this issue proudly features two very different Jadavpur-related original articles contributed by Ms. Marilyn Blois, who has recently visited the Jadavpur University campus with a delegation from the Northern Virginia Community College, and by Dr. Abhijit Gupta, a current Professor of the English Department at Jadavpur University. I had an opportunity to take a brief interview of eminent writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen during her recent visit to Washington DC. This issue features the interview. I express my gratitude to Aniruddha Bhattacharyya, Anjali Bhattacharyya, Atish Ray, Debabrata Das, Mihir Mitra, Dilip Paul, and Anirban Chaudhuri for helping with the creation of this issue of the newsletter in various capacities. Keeping with the tradition of the last few years, this issue of the newsletter is published at a perfect time to remind our members about the upcoming picnic, which will be held on June 3rd, 2006 at the Rock Creek Regional Park in Rockville, MD. Be there with your friends and family. Wish everyone a fun-filled summer ahead. President’s Message Page 2 Local Chapter Activities Page 3 Upcoming Events Member News Page 8 Campus News Page 9 Featured Articles Kolkata through the Photographer’s Lens Page 12 Quizzing @ Jadavpur Page 14 Alumni Association Accounts 2005 Page 17 Contact Information Page 17 -Madhumita Datta (‘95/Elect.E.) JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 2 Message from President of the JUAA-WMA Board of Directors, 2005-06 I take this opportunity of wishing you all, once again, happiness, prosperity, and success in life. I am proud to be a JU alumnus and I sincerely hope all our members feel the same way. I am very happy to see our 2006 newsletter being published. I thank our active member Madhumita Datta for taking the lead in editing and publishing the newsletter. I must start my message thanking our 2005 Board members: Anirban Chaudhuri (‘01/EE), Sudeshna Dutta (‘98/Pharm.), Kausik Kundu (‘96/ME), Dhruba Chatterjee (‘90/Pharm.), Tapash Ghosh (‘79/Pharm.), Pradip Mondal (‘93/MCA) & Biswajit Sen (‘79/Arch.). Their support and hard work made it possible for us to go ahead towards our goal. Five Board members completed their term last year and I thank Madhumita Datta, our election commissioner, who spearheaded the election process, for arranging to fill up the vacancies. I am proud enough to announce the new Board, consisting of Jayati Dasgupta (‘84/Arch.), Atish Ray (‘89/ME), Sudipta Sarkar (‘96/CSE), Bidyut Chakravarty (‘72/ETCE), Sharmila Ghosh (‘98/Comp. Lit.) and Tapsh Ghosh (‘79/Pharm.). We are always together in our activities, and I am overwhelmed by the support I get from this young group with unlimited energy. In 2005 and 2006, so far, we achieved the following: • • • We received IRS approval considering JUAA WMA as a public non profit organization. This gave the organization permanent tax exempt status. We opened two bank accounts: a checking account, and a savings account in the name of JUAA WMA as a public non profit organization. We added an amendment to our by-laws. This 1st. amendment sets aside the money in the savings bank account for use for JU scholarships only. The money in the savings account will accumulate till the fund assets reach $ 20,000. For the first time we provided grant money to a JU alumnus Pranab Sardar, for submitting applications seeking admission in US universities. We are proud to announce that Pranab got acceptance from four universities with financial assistance. We are aggressively moving forward in tracking new JU alumni in the area and update the membership list as far as practicable. We are continuing with our membership collection and scholarship fund raising drive. We are attempting to open and expand direct channel of communication with the members mainly through telephone calls. For smooth operation, we have added the positions of Vice President and Joint Treasurer in the board. We have changed the host for our website. We have also formed a website subcommittee consisting of Debabrata Das, Sudipta Sarkar, Atish Ray, Madhumita Datta and Subhra Ghosh. They are in the process of upgrading the “JUgraduates.org” website. We hope we will succeed in attracting JU alumni to visit the site more frequently for updates and new announcements. We are attempting to improve our account keeping. With help from Debabrata Das, we have installed a Quick book account keeping format to maintain our accounts as desired by IRS. We had our General Body meeting during the annual picnic last year. In 2006 we will again have the general body meeting during the picnic. JUAA WMA participated with Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) who had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) done with JU for having an exchange program. Dr. Ajitava RayChaudhuri, head of the economics department of JU visited NVCC in September 2005. JUAA WMA offered a reception for Dr. RayChaudhuri when he was here. I attended a similar session when the NVCC representatives, led by Dr. Beverly Blois (Dean), visited JU. We all visited an NGO in Baghnan, Howrah, supported by JU for engaging high school graduates for providing hands on experience on trades including computer training and training in spoken English. • • • • • • • • • JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 • Page 3 I also visited JU and met with Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof. Shyamal Kanti Sanyal and head of the department of Chemical Engineering, Prof. Siddharatha Dutta, on several occasions. My objective was to direct a large US company to select JU Chemical Engineering department for their outsourcing in research activities in the field of Environmental Engineering. I felt, JU needs significant face lifting before a US company could be attracted to develop any research relationship with JU. I had a meeting with the Registrar, Prof. Rajat Bandopadhaya to specially discuss the issue. The students of the Chemical Engineering department held a reception for me where I Aniruddha Bhattacharyya (second from left) with JU spoke. My wife Anjali and I also answered Chemical Engineering Dept. Head, Prof. Siddhartha questions from the students. Prof Sanyal and Dutta and students Prof. Dutta were present in the reception. I must also add here that Prof. Siddhartha Dutta will be visiting Washington DC in September 2006 at the invitation of NVCC. Last but not the least, I wanted to mention that three of our outgoing Board members got married in 2005 and 2006. They are Kausik Kundu, Sudeshna Dutta and Anirban Chaudhuri. We missed Sudeshna’s wedding in Naihati, but made it up by attending Anirban’s reception in Kolkata. We sincerely sincerely wish the newly-weds a very happy and prosperous long married life. ♦ -Aniruddha Bhattacharyya, ‘52/ChE. Local Chapter Activities • Annual Picnic, 2005 The JU Alumni Association’s annual picnic was held on May 21, 2005, at the Cabin John Regional Park, Rockville, MD. The participants enjoyed a great time and a sumptuous lunch. About 75 alumni attended the picnic. JUAA-WMA general body meeting was held during the picnic. • Meeting with RayChaudhuri Professor Ajitava Gathering at 2005 annual picnic Members of JUAA-WMA met Dr. Ajitava RayChaudhuri (Professor and Head of the Department, Economics, JU) along with a delegation from the Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) of Loudon County, VA, comprising Dr. Robert G. Templin (President), Dr. Beverly Blois (Dean) and Dr. Meena Nayak (Professor of English), on September 10, 2005. The members took part in a discussion regarding the exchange program between JU and NVCC, and informed Dr. RayChaudhuri of JUAA-WMA’s activities. Dr. RayChaudhuri is a former student of Jadavpur University and also an alumnus of the American and Yale Universities. He was invited by the NVCC to visit Northern Virginia in September 2005 as the College’s official guest. During his visit, Dr. JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 4 Raychaudhuri attended a number of meetings and seminars organized by NVCC in association with the World Bank, George Mason University, and American University. The meeting with JUAA members was held at the residence of Mr. Asok Motayed in Potomac, MD. • Bijaya Sammelan, 2005 The Alumni Association celebrated annual Bijaya Sammelan on November 5th, 2005, at the Kingsview Middle School in Germantown, MD. The evening featured fantastic dance performances by local youngsters, and a captivating “shruti natak” performance by Soubhik and Mousumi Sengupta from Cleveland, Ohio. The evening held a special significance, because a number of attendees were not JUAAWMA members, which reinforced JUAA-WMA’s position as a premier cultural forum for the Bengali community in the Washington Metro area. Sumptuous snacks and dinner were served, and contributions from the members were collected. The newly elected members of the JUAA Board of Directors, Jayati Dasgupta, Atish Ray, Sudipta Sarkar, Bidyut Chakrabarti, and Sharmila Ghosh were introduced during this event. • Financial Assistance to Ex-Student Pranab Sardar JUAA-WMA is proud to coordinate the collection of $300.00 (in addition to personal contributions from individuals) to assist Pranab Sardar, a brilliant ex-student from the Mathematics department of JU, to pay his graduate school application fees. Pranab got admission from 4 US universities, and accepted a prestigious fellowship offer from the University of Missouri at Columbia for his doctoral studies. Pranab acknowledged the assistance he got from JU seniors in an email in April, 2006, part of which is quoted below: “My sincere thanks are due to JUAA-WMA for its generous financial help. I am also heavily thankful to Supratim da (Supratim Sanyal) and Sisir da (Sisir Mondal) who have been of tremendous help to me at the hours of need. My special thanks go to Dilip Paul for his comments and important advice about studies in US. In a word whatever has been possible today, involves an extremely important part played by the contribution from my seniors from JU. I owe a lot to them. I have already sent the acceptance letter and waiting for the visa papers etc to receive from them. I am supposed to join MU around the first week of August. I hope with all of your blessings, I shall come up with a success as this one, in the next stage of my academic endeavor.” We wish Pranab success in his scholarly pursuit. • Meeting with Journalist Madhumita Datta In association of the Sanskriti Youth Group, JUAA-WMA organized an informal reception for journalist Madhumita Datta, a chief reporter of the popular Bengali daily Aajkaal. The event took place at Anjan Guhathakurta’s place in Rockville, MD, on April 9th, 2006. Madhumita is spearheading a program that brings out to our attention the touching stories of some very bright students in West Bengal, who are on the verge of discontinuing their education for short of funds. Madhumita, along with photojournalist Kumar Roy, has recently made a documentary about some of these brilliant students, who despite struggling with destitution, have done extremely well in Madhyamik. More about this documentary can be found at the link: www.aajkaal.net/tara.php. Madhumita brought VCDs of the documentary with her. Board members present at the reception discussed with Madhumita how JUAA-WMA can work with her, so that these students can continue with their studies. Apart from channeling financial contribution, there were discussions about possible outreach programs organized by the Sanskriti Youth Group (which includes children of JUAA-WMA members). Ideas for the outreach program include establishing penfriendship between students from the Washington Metropolitan area and the needy students of West Bengal, and visiting the students’ home and school in West Bengal when local students make trips to India with their parents. JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 • Reception for Nabaneeta Dev Sen Page 5 Soma and Sandip Mukherjee, both JUAA-WMA members, arranged a reception for renowned poet and writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen on May 20th, 2006 at the King Farm Community Room in Rockville, MD. Prof Dev Sen is a JU alumna and a recently-retired professor of the JU Comparative Literature department. JUAA-WMA (Aniruddha and Anjali Bhattacharyya deserve special mention) extended their full support to organize the event. Professor Dev Sen has published over 60 books, both in Bengali and English, and has won numerous prestigious awards. She is a stellar personality in contemporary Bengali literature, and is adored by readers worldwide, as was evident during the reception. The event started with Soma and Sandip Mukherjee introducing Prof. Dev Sen through a very entertaining conversation-style colloquium, where Sandip Mukherjee recalled stories from his JU days when he was a student of Prof. Dev Sen in the Comparative Literature dept. Nandita Dasgupta, also a JU alumna, then took over as the emcee for the rest of the event. She described Prof. Dev Sen’s many accomplishments as a writer, poet, and literary scholar. JUAA-WMA president, Aniruddha Bhattacharyya delivered his address, where he proudly claimed Nabaneeta Dev Sen as ‘one of our [Jadavpur University’s] own’. Anjali Bhattacharyya, a poet herself, talked about the blend of humor and insight in Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s writing, quoting a number of excerpts from her various literary works. She pointed out how Nabaneeta Dev Sen holds a pioneering position in Bengali literature by stepping into the traditionallymale-dominated domain of intellectual humor and wit. Professor Dev Sen said that she was moved by the sincere adoration. She engaged in a conversation with the audience. The conversation was rich with her characteristic repartee. She narrated quite a few personal and family anecdotes, talked about her various awards, her bond with her mother, and read a number of poems of her own choice and from the audience’s suggestions. A ‘shruti natak’ based on Prof. Dev Sen’s short story “Porikkha”, was presented by Swati and Sarbajit Sinha, and their daughter, Sreya Sinha. The audience enjoyed the presentation very much. Swati also read from Prof. Dev Sen’s travelogue, “Karuna tomar Kon Path Diye”. The event ended with Prof. Dev Sen answering questions from the members of the audience about her life and writing. On 21st. May, 2006, Nabaneeta Dev Sen visited Aniruddha and Anjali Bhattacharyya’s home in Fairfax Station, VA, for an informal musical evening and dinner. She was accompanied by her Nabaneeta Dev Sen (seated) with JUAA-WMA members adopted daughter Srabasti Basu, who is a JU alumna herself. Among others, JUAA-WMA members Debabrata Das, Debjani Sarkar, Jayati Dasgupta, Soma Mukherjee, Sandip Mukherjee, and Madhumita Datta were present there. Madhumita had an opportunity to sit down with Prof. Dev Sen for a brief informal interview, excerpts from which follow: Madhumita Datta (MD): What are your thoughts on the role that Internet plays in spreading literary awareness? Nabaneeta Dev Sen (NDS): I am strongly proInternet. I think the Internet is doing a wonderful job of connecting people across the globe who are like-minded in terms of literary appreciation. However, I am concerned about the lack of control and regulation over the authenticity of information available on the Internet. Misleading or incorrect information can proliferate really fast online, running the risk of corrupting readers’ minds. Nabaneeta Dev Sen with Anjali Bhattacharyya JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 6 MD: You have covered a lot of genres in your writing including novels, short stories, poems, travelogues, critical analysis of literature, children’s literature and more. Have you ever thought of writing weblogs or ‘blogs’, which are really popular on the Internet these days? Anyone can write a blog on just about anything. A large number of blogs, an example of which is the “Sulekha Blog”, emphasize on common topics from day-to-day lives, which we see in your writing as well. NDS: No, I don’t see myself writing blogs. I rarely even read blogs. Many of my students regularly write blogs, and some of them forward interesting blog entries to me. I myself am not too much into blogs. MD: You have written both in Bengali, and English. Bengali being a regional language, it might be necessary to encourage more translation of your work to achieve wider readership. What are your thoughts on that? NDS: My experience with translation of my work by others has not been very positive. It is not possible for me to always supervise what is being published as a translation of my original work. I have noticed nightmarish mistakes in translated works, not only in terms of failing to convey the inner message, but sometimes as basic as failing to represent the correct gender of a character! Some of the translated works are good though, such as the translation of my story “Porobrit” in Sanjukta Dasgupta’s collection of translated short stories of the twentieth century women writers, titled “Her Stories”. It is rather difficult to translate the humor in my Bengali writing into any other language. MD: How do you feel if someone wants to make a film based on your writing? Your daughter Nandana said in an interview that she would love to make a film portraying her grandmother’s, i.e. your mother Radharani Devi’s life. She will certainly get a lot of material in your writing. NDS: Film and fiction are two different media. A couple of telefilms have been made based on my stories, but not too many of my novels or stories have been made into films. My daughter Nandana studied literature in Harvard. She was a great student, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an editor of a literary magazine. But then she decided to pursue acting. Of course, I have supported her decision. I went to the opening of her off-Broadway performance as a leading lady in York Theater’s “Modigliani.” It will be interesting to write a full-fledged memoir on my mother. I don’t know if it will be suitable for a film. MD: Your writing reflects a lot of autobiographical elements. Have you ever thought of writing an official autobiography? Or, if someone wants to write a biography of yours, what would be your response? NDS: Nobody has approached me yet with a request to write a biography of mine. I don’t know how I would respond. I haven’t thought about writing an autobiography either. I may consider writing one later--not now. MD: Do you ever suffer from the proverbial “writer’s block”? How do you dissolve that? NDS: I do suffer from “writer’s block”. Author Buddhadeb Guha once gave me a great piece of advice to counter “writer’s block” --by translating other writers’ work until you get your creativity back. It really works for me. MD: Your daughters and their antics seem to be a favorite topic for your writing. Do they ever complain that their lives get too much public exposure through your writing? NDS: They didn’t use to complain before, but now sometimes they do feel like they might use some privacy. I really miss writing about my daughters, because I was so used to it. I am thankful to my daughters Antara and Nandana for providing me with endless material to write about. Now my adopted daughter Srabasti, who is very mischievous, keeps me busy. JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 • JU Scholarship Keeping with the long-lasting tradition, JUAA-WMA contributed $500.00 in the year 2005 towards the scholarship fund for meritorious but needy JU students. The students were selected by the parent body of the Alumni Association (JUAA) in the Kolkata Headquarters. A list of donors for the 2005 scholarship fund is presented below: Aniruddha Bhattacharyya (‘52/ChE) Champa Bhusan (‘64/Tel. E.) Debabrata Das (‘94/Printing) Partha Dasgupta (‘68/EE) Amarendranath Datta (‘51/ME) Jogabrata Majumdar (‘76/ME) Asok Motayed (‘67/CE) Alakananda Paul (‘61/Tel. E.) Atish Ray (‘89/ME) Haripada Saha (‘70/CE) Sudhansu Saha (‘69/EE) Raj Shrestha Sujan Bhattacharya (‘78/ME) Anirban Chaudhuri (2001/EE) Debjani Sarkar (‘94/Printing) Madhumita Datta (‘95/EE) Debdas Ghosal (‘65/EE) Pradip Mondal (‘93/MCA) Dilip Paul (‘61/ Tel. E.) Sibsankar Rana (‘63/EE) Somnath Som (‘66/CE) Rama Saha (‘75/MPh.) Rita Sen (‘71/Arch.) Oindrilla Roy Page 7 A. B. Pal, Honorary Secretary of the parent body of the Alumni Association in Kolkata has provided a list of students who has been awarded scholarships in 2005 from funds received from the JUAA-WMA chapter. List of students awarded scholarship (Rs 1500/- each) from JUAA-WMA funds in 2005 Name, Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sabyasachi Tripathi, Purba Medinipur Md. Asifuzzaman, Murshidabad Debabrata Jana, Purba Medinipur Sujit Saha, Burdwan Tridwip Roy, Cooch Behar Sambhu Charan Mondal, Purba Medinipur Manasi Sahoo, Purba Medinipur Department, Class Economics, PG-I History, UG-I Bengali, UG-III Bengali, UG-II Bengali, UG-II Pharmacy, UG-II History, UG-II JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 8 9 10 11 12 13 Prasenjit Ghosh, Bankura Abhijit Nayek, Hooghly Tushar Kanti Halder, South 24 Parganas Tuhin Sanphui, South 24 Parganas Arpan Kayal, Howrah Yasir Arafat, Kolkata Bengali, UG-II Mathematics, PG-I Power Engg, UG-I Printing Engg. UG-I Construction Engg., UG-I Construction Engg., UG-I Page 8 Notably, the scholarship distribution is somewhat uneven with none going to any major engineering department. As the major source of the scholarship donation here is from our local engineers, JUAA-WMA has been contemplating attaching some rules regarding the scholarship distribution criteria by which JUAA should select their candidates from 2006 onwards. JUAA-WMA requests you to contribute generously towards the scholarship fund. As mentioned in the President’s message, our goal is to collect a total sum of $20,000 for the scholarship fund over the next few years. Until then, we will continue to provide the annual contribution of $500 to JUAA Headquarters in Kolkata. Upcoming Events • Annual Picnic 2006 The Alumni Association’s Annual Picnic for 2006 will be held on June 3rd, 2006, at the Rock Creek Regional Park, Rockville, MD, from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. Shelter ‘C’ has been reserved for this purpose. All JU Alumni Association members and well-wishers, along with their families are welcome to attend. The day will be filled with lots of activities and fun-filled events. Lunch and snacks will be served. Picnic shelter 'C' has been reserved for this purpose. Annual General Body Meeting of the JUAA –WMA will be held during the picnic. Please visit our website for directions and other details: www.jugraduates.org/events.html ♣ • Bijaya Sammelan, 2006 The Bijoya Sammelan for 2006 will take place on December 3, 2006 at Burtonsville Middle School. Details of the program will be provided at a later date at our website. Member News Accomplishment…. • We are proud to announce that two poetry books authored by JUAA-WMA patron Anjali Bhattacharyya, have been published in 2005. The first book, "Pakha Mala Kathar Jhak" (introduction by Sunil Gangopadhyay) has been published by Biswajnan, a publishing house that publishes only little magazines. The second book, "Dheu Samudre Sarak Bhenge" has been JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 9 published by Proma, another very well known publisher who publishes quarterly magazine and also books of poems and non fictional prose. Though not a JU alumna, Anjali Bhattacharyya (along with her husband, Aniruddha Bhattacharyya) has always been an active supporter and organizer of JUAA-WMA events. Anjali got her BA and MA in literature from Calcutta University, MS in Social Science, and MA and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the State University of New York, Buffalo. Anjali formerly taught at the Antioch University and the Cleveland State University. She was the Director of Total Quality Management for a Fortune 500 company in Pittsburgh, and President and CEO of ABS Inc. Anjali publishes in various prestigious journals and little magazines in USA and Kolkata, including Proma, and Sunil Gangopadhyay’s little magazine “Krittibaas”. She has been invited to read poems at Nandan, Durdarshan, Banga Sammalon and other literary organizations. She also writes literary articles and “Sruti Natak”. One of the Sruti Natak was staged (directed, produced and acted by her) at Banga Sammelon, 2004. Anjali is also the founder of Gadya Padyer Asar, a quarterly literary circle in greater Washington DC. • We are happy to announce that Pratul Bhattacharya (‘67/BEE, ’70/MSc.), an active member of JUAA-WMA, has compiled and published a wonderful collection of articles on his beloved teacher, the legendary Professor Triguna Charan Sen, Father of Jadavpur University. The book was published in November 2005 on the occasion of Prof. Sen’s birth centenary, with support from the Jadavpur University Global Alumni Association (JUGAA). The book features a biography of Prof. Sen, tributes from a number of Professor Sen’s former students, including former JUAA-WMA President Mihir Mitra (‘51/BME), and a memoir with excerpts from an interview with Prof. Sen conducted by Pratul Bhattacharya in 1995. In Memory…. • We grieved the untimely passing away of our fellow alumnus Goutom Roy of 11213 Fruitwood Drive, Bowie, MD 20720. He was a JU graduate of 1968 CE batch. On May 15, 2005, Gautom Roy passed away at the age of sixty three. He succumbed to the effects of brain cancer after a five month battle with the disease. He is survived by his wife Gopa, his daughter Renee, and son Aneek. Goutom was a devoted family man who relished spending time with his wife, children and his work. He was humble and was very active in community and in JU Alumni activities. He left many friends. He is deeply missed by everyone. News from around the Campus and the Media The Mechanical Engineering department of JU has started celebrating its centenary from March 18th, 2006. For details, visit:http://www.jadavpur.edu/academics/centenary.htm The Electrical Engineering department of JU will start celebrating its year-long centenary from July 25th, 2006. For details, visit: http://www.jueecentenary.org/index.htm. It has been decided to install the bust of legendary Prof. H. C. Guha in Electrical Engineering Dept. in July 2006 on the occasion of centenary celebration. One of the leading sculptors of Kolkata. Sri Anit Ghose, exprofessor of Govt. Art College, has been entrusted with making the bust. (Source: A. B. Pal, Alumni Newsletter). Faculty of Engineering and Technology at JU celebrated its annual cultural event “Sanskriti” from March 28th-April 1st, 2006 on JU campus. Programs included performances by the Jogesh Dutta JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 10 Mime Academy, Marich Sangbad, a play by Chetana, a Kobir Lorai, a stint by Shiva, and the main attraction at the Open Air Theatre, a concert by Ali Azmat Butt, formerly of Junoon. (source: FETSanskriti newsgroup) A national seminar was held at JU on 17th & 18th March 2006 on "Building Industry in India – Present Trends". Experts from booming construction Industry presented valuable papers on various aspects of building industry on four topics i.e., High Rise Structures, Building & Services, Green Building, Role of Financial Institutions. (Source: A. B. Pal, Alumni Newsletter) The School of Design, Engineering & Computing (DEC) at the Bournemouth University in UK has been awarded a two year grant by UK’s Higher Education Link Program scheme to fund a joint project with Jadavpur University. The project involves 'Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Multimedia Database System with Adaptive Hypermedia Interface for Delivering Web Services'. (Source: http://dec.bournemouth.ac.uk) A commemorative stamp on JU was introduced in 2005 by the Indian Postal Service. (Source:http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Stamps2005) The concluding function of Dr. Triguna Sen’s Birth Centenary Celebration was held on 23rd December 2005 at the H. L. Roy auditorium of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. Chief Guest MahaMahopadhyaya Sri Gobinda Gopal Mukhopadhya gave a lucid account of his long association with Dr. Triguna Sen and paid homage to the memory the great visionary. Other speakers were Prof. S. K. Sanyal, Pro-VC, Jadavpur University, Sri Pranab Kumar Sen Sarma, Sri Pratul Bhattacharya, Sri Nandan Bhattacharya, Sri Debabrata Roy & Sri Narahari Sikder. In the second half a seminar was organised on "Role of Bio-Diesel in Present & Future Energy Scenario". The programme was sponsored by the West Bengal Renewable Development Agency, courtesy Sri S. P. Gon Choudhury, Director WEBREDA & special Secretary Power Govt. of West Bengal. Delegates from Govt, academia & industry participated in large numbers. (Source: A. B. Pal, Alumni Newsletter) The annual convocation of Jadavpur University for the year 2005 was held on 24th December 2005 with a colorful ceremony. The Chief Guest was poet Sri Nirendra Nath Chakraborty. (Source: A. B. Pal, Alumni Newsletter) The Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee of Jadavpur University organised a ceremony on 13th July 2005 at 10 a.m. at the Open Air Theater of the University. The chief guest was the President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Memorable quotes from the speech of President Kalam include: "The University [JU] indeed has created many eminent teachers, professors, scientists, economists & many persons of excellence. I also recall how Jadavpur University contributed to the Satellite Launch Vehicle programme of ISRO & LCA program of DRDO. ……….. At this critical juncture of universal turbulence & instability, arising out of mutual distrust and hatred leading to violence, time has come for us to have an institution to attract international scholars for research & teaching. Jadavpur University has all the profile to become a modern Nalanda. " (Source: A. B. Pal, Alumni Newsletter) Jadavpur University (JU) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have announced a collaboration, to provide educational platforms to support mutual exchange of knowledge in the field of mobile computing. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to this effect was signed in November, 2005, between Rajat Bandyopadhyay, Registrar of JU, and Biswanth Bhattacharya, director - public sector, HP, JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 11 India. Ajay Gupta, director, HP Labs India, said, "A significant hallmark of this relationship is the innovation brought to bear by HP Labs. HP Labs is working on developing cutting edge technologies in the areas of mobile computing and data networks, and their applications in areas such as distance education. …Jadavpur University, with its long tradition of working with industry, is an ideal partner to collaborate with. This relationship builds on the successful implementation of a digital library by HP, jointly with Jadavpur University. This library was set up by deploying dSpace Open Source Digital Library. HP is keen to take the digital library solution to other premier educational institutions across India". Under this initiative, HP will install leading server technologies and provide IT infrastructure support for the computing lab at the University. (source: http://www.techtree.com) Plea for Life Membership All JUAA WMA members are urged to become life member of the parent Alumni association at Kolkata, India, by paying a nominal one-time fee of US $40.00 to the alma Mater. For application forms and other details, please contact Dilip Paul (’61/ ETCE) at e-mail: dilpaul@aol.com; ph: 301-365-0146 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 12 Featured Articles Travel Memoir......... Kolkata Through The Photographer’s Lens by Marilyn Blois India, from as far back as I can remember, always conjured up visions of a magical and vibrant land that I longed to visit. During my years working for an international telecommunications company, I always thought an opportunity to do just that would present itself; alas not. Then almost two years ago, my husband, Dr. Beverly Blois of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), initiated discussions between Jadavpur University (JU) and NVCC which resulted in a visit to Virginia by Dr. Ajitava Raychaudhuri in the fall of 2005 and an invitation from JU for an exchange group this past February.1 Although not a part of the NVCC staff, JU invited me to accompany the delegation. I used my time to photograph the historic events happening around me and to drink in all that Kolkata had to offer. Our first morning on the campus we set-out on a walking tour to get our bearings. The playing field had a cricket game going; plastic free zone signs were everywhere, new buildings construction abounded, the gardens in front of the Aurobindo Bhavan were in full bloom, the weather was a perfect mixture of warmth and cool and the tranquility of the pond by the guest house welcomed us. Our good fortune had us in Kolkata during the celebration of the goddess Saraswathi. We adopted her as our patron, conducting puja so that not only would our work at JU be as highly successful as everyone hoped, but that we not be laid up with any maladies during our stay. She blessed us in both regards. The Jheel-side Guest House at JU display of offerings to Her on the campus probably numbered over a dozen, all of them unique, beautiful and fascinating. The night before the formal celebration, the women in the dorm next to the guest house where we stayed, decorated and partied through the night. I was so intrigued and regret not just walking over to join in the fun. Aurobindo Bhaban The formal signing of the MoU was held in the office of Dr. Basu. Mr. Aniruddha Bhatacharyya, president of the JUAA-WMA was also in attendance as he was traveling in West Bengal at the time. He was also able to accompany us to a JU extension operation in Bagnan, on the grounds of Ananda Niketan wherein a Dr. Blois with Vice Chancellor Dr. partnership training program for a BPO course and a development Basu project for extraction by totally natural, non-chemical process of marigold dye for end uses that include textile manufacture were conducted. JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 13 Our delegation also had the opportunity to visit the WIPRO call center compound in Salt Lake. As we had seen all around the city, and on the University campus, new construction abounded everywhere. I picked up and read Chetan Bhagat’s novel, “one night @ the call center”. Having run call centers in a former life, I loved the book; Professor Meena Nayak, a member of our delegation and author of two books, however, did not. Coming from Northern Virginia, Kolkata’s traffic was no shock. I was greatly impressed with what at first looked like the random use of all available road space. In fact, it JU outreach in Howrah turned out the there was some logic to it all, albeit only known to the drivers. Instead of wasting what surely would have been more time in traffic jams, things moved much faster than here in our area. Perhaps this is something the planners for the Capital Beltway might want to look into. Ambassador cars were everywhere carrying business travelers, families and lots of luggage; just like the reassuring yellow cabs in New York City. We managed to get to Park Street several times for either a little R&R to assist with the end of a day debriefing, dinner or shopping. We couldn’t resist buying a little something extra at Flury’s even after a great meal at Barbeque or Prince of Cal. As we were planning this trip, we received cautionary advise from many folks regarding the number of people would we encounter daily. That phenomenon however, never seemed to occur. I remember asking our host Dr. Raychaudhuri “where everyone was.” It proved harder to navigate around Leicester Square in London during some past summer trips then anyplace in Kolkata. The Kolkata Book Fair probably offered the largest collection of folks in one spot. Of course I’m not sure a “gaggle of bookworms” indulging in their passion for books was a true representation of mass humanity on the loose. What did strike a cord, however, was that no matter where you were or what circumstance you found yourself in, there was always someone around to lend a hand. The amount of commerce on every street corner and sometimes in the street while waiting for a light to change, just kept my head moving constantly like a cupie doll. It was noted in our lofty conversations of world economics, that 90% of India’s economy comes Book Fair banner from informal business, such as the vendors found on every street. As a visitor, the variety offered by all these “informal business providers” was staggering. The flowers, food, clothes, household goods, phones, do-dads and thing-a-ma-bobs offered a window to the enormous entrepreneurial spirit we saw everywhere. Having my first trip to India not only provide witness to what I predict will be deemed an historic event by both institutions, it also provided me the luxury of making new friends whom I now consider family. The hospitality we were showed gave us experiences beyond anything a mere tourist could expect. NVCC continues to prepare for the first of the exchange participants this September. The work that has gone into this project by both colleges is a testament to the mutual commitment for success. ♣ JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 1 Page 14 JUAA/WMA Newsletter, Spring, 2005, “Broadening Horizons: College system and Jadavpur University,” Meena Arora Nayak. A partnership between the Virginia Community About the author: Marilyn S. Blois is former director of network operations for Cable & Wireless, LLC and vice president of network services for Arbinet—The Exchange. Now retired from the telecom industry, she resides in Vienna, Virginia and contributes occasional travel articles to Élan Magazine. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ Lane...... Down the Memory Lane...... Quizzing @ Jadavpur by Abhijit Gupta I joined JU as an undergraduate student exactly 20 years ago, in 1986. By then, I was already a seasoned quizzard, having first cut my teeth in the Chuchura-Chandannagar circuit and then as a member of the St Lawrence school team during the Higher Secondary years. As a school team we did not fare very well in the festival circuit but all that was to change dramatically at university. One of the first quizzing events I remember from university was the freshers’ quiz, organized by the Arts Faculty Students’ Union. I teamed up with Saurav Sen from the history department and we won with ridiculous ease. Saurav Sen was then easily the most formidable database of recondite information on both sides of the jheel. At IIT Kharagpur’s Spring Fest the following year, he reduced keen engineers to tears by describing the workings of the Wankel Rotary Engine in merciless detail, and by his perorations on the push-pull amplifier. Like India and Pakistan at cricket, there were then two great quizzing nations in the university, the Arts-Science and the Engineering. While Arts-Science were dominated by English, Economics and Mathematics, Engineering drew its strength from Electrical, Electronics and Mechanical. In those early years of jheel-side rivalry, the Arts-Science faction would pour scorn on the engineers for being of the ‘rock handbook’ school of quizzing—implying that their of knowledge of western music was derived not from hours of dedicated listening but from handbooks and encyclopedia. The engineers did not take this lying down and jeered the Arts-Science camp for knowing next to nothing about sports. In the fullness of time, these rivalries would be forgotten as friendships flourished across the great divide and the two camps united in the common goal of preventing the SFI from taking over the Debating Society and Quiz Forum (DSQF). The DSQF—then as now—was the official face of quizzing in the campus. Quizzing comprised 100 % and debating approximately 0 % of its activities. Arup Ghosh (currently head honcho at ITC) of the English department ran it like a mafia boss, and we merrily stringed along. One of its yearly events was the Ranajoy Karlekar Memorial Inter-Departmental Quiz, usually held on the basketball court. There was a shield for the event, though no one now knows where it is. (For those of a post-Eighties vintage, Ranajoy Karlekar of the English department was one of the most legendary teachers of his generation and died prematurely in 1985). JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 15 But the most intense rivalry was reserved for the college festival quizzes, where there were cash prizes to be won. I still remember winning the princely sum of Rs 151 at one such quiz and the subsequent immortal comment made by teammate Vinay Rao (Math): ‘Ah, a square meal at last’. The math team was probably the strongest in the university, with Vinay being partnered by basketball-team captain Joy Bhattacharya and ancient mariner Debkumar Mitra, aka Debuda. Joy and Debu-da were probably the first quizzards ever to make a career in quizzing post-university—Joy, particularly, during his ESPN years. Debuda on the other hand was widely rumoured to have being around since the Flood and we would probably not have been surprised if the university vice-chancellor also chose to call him Debuda. But I digress. College quizzes soon became as predictable as Left Front victories in West Bengal, as JU swept first, second and third places in most of them. Alarmed, fest organizers said that they would allow only two teams from JU to participate. Armageddon ensued: which were the two best teams in the university? To ascertain this, a dark and barbaric ritual known as ‘seeding quiz’ [more popularly known as bi(n)chi quiz] was instituted. Every Friday, the tribe would gather at the now-demolished Gandhi Bhaban (yes, you read right, GB has been torn down to make way for a modern auditorium) and one of the competing teams would act as the quizmasters. A complicated percentile system was devised to keep scores which no one other than the mathematicians understood. Quizzes went on for 10, 20, 30 rounds and till late evening, with an audience of one scorer, one timekeeper and somebody’s bored girlfriend (quizzing was then, alas, a ruthlessly male bastion). Some of the most difficult questions in the history of humankind were asked at these quizzes, as teams sought to undo each other in esoterica. The seeding quizzes also saw the birth of two of the brightest stars of the Engineering faculty, Aniruddha Bhattacharya and Amitava Banerjee (currently a colleague in the Electronics department). Their knowledge of Hindi film funda—and particularly film music—was frightening: I still believe that there is nothing that they did not know about the Bombay film industry. But as far as star billing went, it was Arani Sinha of Electrical who shone the brightest (Arani, if you are reading this, please forgive me once more). He was the most talismanic of engineering quizzards, taking slow boats to Shibpur if necessary to reach a quiz on time. Along with his trusty comrade Kalidas Ghosh of Mechanical (currently a hotshot banker with Citibank), Arani went forth to give battle wherever there was a whiff of quizzing in the air. Such mundane matters as floods, insurrections and fall of governments completely failed to deter his quest for the final answer to the life, the universe and everything. It was not inappropriate, therefore, that the only novel ever to be begun on quizzing was called Arani Quizzed. Four chapters of this incomplete novel were co-written by yours truly and Rimi Chatterjee (novelist, English teacher at JU) in the summer of 1990. The first chapter was ‘published’ (photocopied and sold to quizzards) on the first day of AGON, the fest of Calcutta National Medical College. Three more chapters were inflicted upon an unsuspecting world before Arani got wise to what was happening (he had by then shifted to ISI) and threatened the authors with dire consequences if they did not stop writing novels about him. For those interested, the first chapter may be found at http://theblabberwocky.blogspot.com/2006/03/arani-quizzed.html Roundabout this time, quizzards made common cause to prevent the SFI from taking over the DSQF, which was about the only club in the campus it did not control. This was attempted by the very simple expedient of enrolling a large number of students (who were innocent of any quiz-ly act in all their lives) and voting a new committee in. One morning at nine, we (Kalidas Ghosh, Rajsekhar Mitra and I) met the vice-chancellor and requested him to intervene. This he did and the crisis was averted for the nonce. However, there was nothing we could do when similar tactics were employed by the SFI the following year. In fairness, it must also be said that we ran DSQF like a para club and did little to increase membership rolls. By 1991, most of the students of my generation were on their way out and a brave new breed set their sights on the open quizzing circuit. Names like Rathindra Basu (Electrical) and Jaideep Mukherjee (International Relations) began to do the rounds; happily, a number of women quizzards from the English Department began to challenge the male hegemony. The early 90s also saw a brief period of what can only be described as militant trade unionism on part of university quizzards. There were repeated boycotts of JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 16 festival quizzes to protest organizational high-handedness, or incompetent quizmasters. Parallel quizzes would be held at the festival venue at very short notice, and the actual event would have to be cancelled by the organizers. The first of these ‘rebel’ quizzes were held at Xavotsab, followed by Dental College, Presidency College and JU itself—in the latter case to protest the quiz mastership of Krishnendu Banik at the Arts SanskritiTwenty years on, the DSQF still exists and a new bunch of enthusiasts—mercifully unmolested by any political outfit—runs the club from the first floor of the Amenities Centre. I do not know whether they write novels about themselves or hatch plans of world domination in their little room. But sometimes, when I walk across the campus at dusk, with the sun setting over Bengal Lamp, I can see a light burning on the first floor of the AC Canteen. And I like to imagine that they are engaged in some completely useless research about the name of Attila the Hun’s pet dog or Bill Clinton’s brand of cigar, a comforting thought in a world which has little time for the irrelevant, the unproductive and the downright silly. ♣ About the author: Abhijit Gupta a reader in the Department of English at Jadavpur University, where he has been teaching since 1999. Abhijit has a long-standing connection with Jadavpur University. Prior to receiving his Ph.D from Cambridge University in 1996, Abhijit received his Bachelors’ (’89) and Masters’(’91) of Arts degrees in English, both from Jadavpur University. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ Editor’s note: The articles are published unedited in the newsletter as received from the authors, and they reflect solely the authors’ view, which may or may not be JUAA-WMA’s view. JUAA-WMA Newsletter, Spring 2006 Page 17 JUAA/WMA Accounts 2005 Starting Balance ( Jan 31, 2005): Collections: Membership fee collected in 2005: Scholarship funds contribution: Scholarship fund contribution (Mousumi and Souvik): Contribution towards Pranab Sardar: Contribution towards lapel pins: Picnic collection: Bijoya collection: Misc. collection: Sanskriti check pending: Total Collection: Expenses: 2004 contribution towards JU alumni association, Kolkata: Website expenses: OBA Bank past records expenses: Reimbursement for Pranab Sardar: Reimbursement for lapel pins: Picnic expenses: Bijoya expenses: Flowers for funeral: Sanskriti check pending: Total Expenses: Ending Balance (Jan 6, 2006): $ 3,460.45 Contact Information Please send feedback about this issue to the editor: Madhumita Datta,’95/EE mitaju95@yahoo.com; Ph: 301-560-0924 $488.00 $4,230.45 $150.00 $300.00 $280.00 $739.00 $1,400.00 $58.92 $75.00 $ 7,721.37 Atish Ray (Treasurer), ’89/ME atishray@yahoo.com; ph. 703-264-1905 Tapash Ghosh (Cultural Secretary), ’79/Phram tapashghosh611@hotmail.com; ph. 301-528-0626 Bidyut Chakravarty, ’72/ETCE; bandhugan@comcast.net; ph. 301-515-3124 $500.00 $118.90 $145.00 $300.00 $280.00 $733.88 $1,441.22 $59.98 $75.00 $ 3,578.98 $ 7,602.84 We’re on the Web! See us at: www.jugraduates.org We need your help... ...in keeping our mailing list and alumni directory updated. If you have moved recently, please send us your new contact information. If you know of any alumnus who is currently not included in our member list, or who has moved to the Washington Metropolitan Area (DC/Maryland/Virginia) recently, please urge them to become member of JUAA-WMA. We also urge you to contribute news, views, individual accomplishments, and other articles that might be of interest to fellow members. Sharmila Ghosh, ’98/Comp. Lit. ; prasun_ghosh@hotmail.com; ph. 301-591-4046 For general enquiry, contact any of the following Board members and Office-bearers: Aniruddha Bhattacharya (President), ‘52/ChE absinc9383@aol.com; ph. 703-690-3925 Jayati Dasgupta (Vice-President), ’84/Arch. rumarchi@aol.com; ph. 703-825-1256 Sudipta Sarkar (General Secretary), ’96/CS sudiptasarkar@hotmail.com; ph. 703-359-7837