The chronicle has received following tributes and memoirs from faculty/students/alumni and friends for Prof. Khastgir (Applied Physics dept.) and Prof. Patnaik (Pharmaceutics dept.)
Anyone who wishes to offer tributes or to describe memoirs about our beloved professors can do so, by sending an email to chronicle[AT]itbhuglobal.org. All emails will be published in next (September 2006) issue of chronicle. Your email ID and designation will be published along with your name, unless you state otherwise.
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Prof. Khastgir was a lovely and unique person whom I and many others respectfully called 'KhastgirDa'. When I was a PhD student staying in Vishwakarma Hostel, I very often walked with him to the Dept. He was a great story teller and in one of the walks, probably in 1975, he told me a story of Tolstoy on "How much land does a man require?” that left an indelible imprint on my way of life. He was a well-read and versatile personality with a great communication skill. He was loved and admired by one and all as an ideal teacher. Professor Khastgir was a non-PhD professor but a very capable research scientist. After becoming a professor, he guided over a dozen students for their successful PhD completion but never had his name appear as supervisor in their theses. This way he promoted academic prospects of some who would have had hardly achieved academic excellence but by proxy. I always held him in high esteem and often enthralled by his exciting story telling sessions. May his soul rest in peace."
B.N. Dwivedi
bholadwivedi[AT]yahoo.com
Professor-Dept. of Applied Physics,
IT-BHU. - I was extremely pained to learn about the passing away of Prof. Khastagir and Prof Patnaik. While Prof. Patnaik was my ex colleague in the department of Pharmaceutics, Prof. Khastagir was my neighbour in the Hyderabad Colony. Our quarters joined back to back. I pray for the peace of the departed souls.
Shankar Tatwawadi
svt_shankar[AT]hotmail.com
Retired Professor and Head,
Dept. of Pharmaceutics,
IT-BHU. - It was really painful for me to learn the sad demise of my two best colleagues of IT, on the same day-Prof.S.K.Patnaik and Prof. Prasad Khastagir. Prof.Patnaik was a brilliant teacher, and equally good in extra curricular activities. We used be always together in both indoor and out door activities.
Prof. Prasad was not only my friend, and colleague but also like my family member. I knew him since 1958, when I joined the department of Physics. We respected him for his deep and wide knowledge of Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy. We were made permanent in 1964 in the Department of Electrical Engg. We used to call him "DADA".
I pray the almighty for their souls may rest in peace.
B.B.Srivastava
banke_shrivastava[AT]yahoo.com
Retired Professor-Dept. of Applied Physics,
IT-BHU. - I am sorry to learn about the sad demise of Professor Khastgir. He was close friend of mine. It is a great personal loss to me. Professor Khastgir commanded great respect among his students and colleagues.
I pray Lord Vishwanath to rest his soul in peace and give strength to his family members to bear the loss.
Professor D P Singh
dpsingh[AT]hotmail.com
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mining Engineering, IT-BHU
(1960-Mining graduate from IT-BHU)
For biodata-click here - With a painful heart I would like to share the news of the sad demise of Prof. Prasad Khastgir, about whom Prof. CS Jha (the Vice Chancellor who promoted him to the post of Professor, despite his not having a PhD) had said that he was the most learned person in the whole University. Being one of the more fortunate ones to have interacted with him regularly during my stay at IT-BHU, this is a personal loss to me (and perhaps many others who had flocked his residence during their days at IT-BHU).May his soul rest in peace.
Dr. S N Sarbadhikari, MBBS, PhD
supten[AT]amrita.edu
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Amrita University, Kerala
(PhD, Biomedical Engineering, IT-BHU in 1995) - This is indeed very sad news. Prof. Khastgir was definitely the greatest of all in IT-BHU.... not only in physics.... rather his style of teaching..... his perspective on life ..... and his willingness to help everyone. .
Just to give you an idea of how much he was admired among great physicists, I was told that prof Khastagir's personal invitation was key in getting big physicists like Feynman and others to land in India for an international physics conference in Banaras. Prof. Khastagir was considered to be the only authority alive in classical as well as quantum sciences in India. And above all ... always ready to help. People used to flock his residence from all over the places to get their questions answered. He has an evening slot fixed at his residence to answer anyone who visits his house.
I just wanted to give you a flavor..... that he is not the type of philosopher that you encounter a lot these days in India. He was an accomplished physicist.... respected and renowned among the greatest in world. Despite all this, he used to proudly claim that his first love is literature, second is history and physics comes only third.He was a great teacher ...... of the kind we used to see in Hindi movies in 60's or something.....basically an ideal one. He would link physics with poetries on life. He used to start his physics lecture with an English poetry and end with another one..... tries to give you a flavor that physics is actually study of all physical phenomena. He used to link it with history..... I still remember the history of time that he gave before he started teaching what time.....is oh man.... that lecture was better than Hawkins’ book on time. He used to link physics with flowers and biology and stuff like that. He used to bring some weird species of flowers in class ... give a history and science of that species ....with history being really interesting … Roman king was supposed to have presented that flower to the lady he wanted please .... etc. etc. :)) And.... he would present that to one of the back benchers).... trying to get everyone involved in the class.. :)
Despite being heavily technical class (that too in physics .... which is hated by large number of engineers)..... his class was one of the most popular one ..... because of his stories, poetries, flowers, candies and above all his philosophical insights into working of society, human mind, etc etc. And remember he was badly handicapped...... despite all this .... amazing enthusiasm. ..... just an amazing personality.
I would love and hope to see a detailed article on this great soul.
Mukul Agrawal
mukul.agrawal[AT]gmail.com>
(Electronics 2000, IT-BHU)
PhD student, Stanford University
http://www.stanford.edu/~mukul - I was shocked to see a message from Tapan today morning informing me of the death of Prof. Khastgir. Anyone who knew Prof. Khastgir knows how big a loss this is for whoever came in contact with him.
Prof. Khastgir was noble soul who touched the life of thousands of friends, families, students and teachers alike with his sheer brilliance & versatile knowledge. I consider myself singularly fortunate in knowing him so closely over the years and feel at a great loss for words to describe him.
His house in Hyderabad colony was like a temple to us all. There were people from all walks of life coming together to discuss all aspects of life, love, issues, happiness, sorrow, musings, trivia, etc. etc. The genius of the man was so addictive, you just could not get out of it - if you were there you just had to see him. I've known him since 1985-86 and few people in my life have had the impact that he has had on me.
He was an extraordinarily gifted teacher - he could immediately relate to a person's background and would try to explain the concept using analogies/metaphors from the environment the person felt comfortable with. With his great knowledge he would never struggle to find parallels from other streams to explain his point - it would all tie together very beautifully to the central thread of his argument.
He was as passionate about Literature (Bengali & English) as he was about Physics or Mathematics. He could have easily been the best teacher in English or Bengali if he had so desired.
His knowledge of Philosophy was equally profound. Although Buddhism was so close to his heart, he was at ease talking about any steam in Philosophy.
His interest in music was eclectic - from Tagore songs, Hindustani Classical to Julio Iglesi as - he was interested in every form of music that was there.
His interest in the world of Art was also original - he was a great admirer of the Oriental art but was curious about the history and development of Western Art as well so you could talk to him on the style of Van Gogh or Picasso or other European artists as well as also talk about the influence of Chan painters on the Zen style in Japan in the same conversation.
His curious interest in the nature especially in the trees was simply extraordinary. I remember there was a time when I discussed some of the interesting shaped trees that I had seen and he just went on and on picking specific trees on specific locations.
I can just continue on and still do injustice to the multitude of gifts which Prof. Khastgir was bestowed with. But I would stop here and say above all, he was a great poet at heart, sympathetic to the cause of the poor, reaching out just about to everyone who was in genuine need of help.
People like Prof. Khastgir never die, they just live in our hearts and minds and our souls forever.
My thoughts are with his family - Aunty, Buajee, Abhik, Pratik & Anuruddha and their families. On behalf of the countless friends & students who have had the great fortune to know this very extraordinary man, I pray the Almighty to bless the departed soul and give courage to the bereaved family to bear this shock.
Knowing Prof. Khastgir and how he would have liked the loved ones to react, I would only quote these lines from W. B. Yeats (his favourite poet other than Tagore):
*Cast a cold eye
**On life, on death.
**Horseman, pass byRahul Garg
rahul_mita[AT]hotmail.com
M. Sc. (Physics) 1989 from BHU
Sydney, Australia - I am really saddened by this news. I still remember Prof. Khastgir as he had taught me Physics when he was a lecturer. He was a very simple person. I also pray the Almighty to bless the peace to these departed souls and strength to their families.
Dr. Banmali S. Rawat
rawat[AT]ee.unr.edu
Professor & Head, Electrical Engineering Dept.,
University of Nevada at Reno, USA
(B.Tech Electrical 1968 and M.Tech. Electrical 1970 from IT-BHU) - I was sad to know the demise of Prof Khastgir. I have some memories of him. He taught me Physics in second semester of 1str year (1980).I remember how he could make basics like Newton Laws of motion so philosophical. I still remember him talking about Dual nature of matter with some references to Metaphysics. He had deep knowledge of Philosophy. During my final year I went to talk about western philosophy and he was kind to spare lot of time for me. Even when I was preparing for civil Services I consulted him on Nuclear Physics. It was of great help. He was a great person and I fondly remember him.
May God give peace to his soul.
Vinod Mall
vinodmall_2000[AT]yahoo.com
(Electronics 1984, IT-BHU)