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| Obituary: Dr. Parimal Sen |
Dr. Devi Sen Naskar and Dr. Radha Sen
02/16/2009
Dr. Parimal Sen, Retired Professor, Chair Person
Chemical Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur
Most of us are known for our children and their accomplishments. Such was not the case for me. I was known for my dad. And why not, he was a well known Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He started his career in Kharagpur, a few years after the Institute started. He joined in 1952 and worked there till he retired in 1982.
He was my father, my teacher and my role model.
Students were my father’s life and teaching was his life blood. In our campus quarter we were frequently visited by his students, who came sometimes for extra help in their studies and sometimes to get away from the dorm food. At times my dad would just casually invite his students’ home without informing my mother and she would have to make a mad dash to pull together leftovers to come up with a tasty meal. Such was the Sen-household in KGP, filled, with sounds of dad’s colleagues, students and friends.
Once a Teacher, always a Teacher. Teaching was so engrained in my father’s life that he could not stop teaching even after retirement, but now instead of teaching his students in Kharagpur, he started volunteering in Ram Krishna Mission Coaching classes. All our domestic helps also got a healthy dose of instruction of English and Math, it drove away some of our employees, so my mother said, and made it difficult to retain them, but this could not be helped. High school students came for free Chemistry lessons, Math lesson and left with meals and extra knowledge and some returning to tell my dad of their success stories.
My father made friends quickly. These were people from all different walks of life, from the carpenter, electrician to the very learned Colleagues and especially the students. He had many students, in many countries that remembered him fondly. When he traveled anywhere, he always was welcomed by his family of X-Students; many of them had gone on to become accomplished in their own careers.
His death on January 9th has left a lot of people deeply saddened. My father joined IIT as a Lecturer, rose through the ranks of Chair Person of Chemical Engineering and Retired as the Dean of Graduate Studies. During his life time he has touched the life of lots of you and you in turn have touched his life and enriched it.
For that I thank you.
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