Our sweet home at Madhyamgram, 24-Parganas (N)

My father, after losing all his property due to partition of Bengal, purchased a land at Bosenagar, Madhyamgram, 24-Parganas (N) of about 7 Cottas , some 10 miles off from Sealdah station in Bongaon line. The plot was a nice one  at the corner of three roads in East, West and North. He constructed a one storied building with three rooms,one kitchen and one toilet covered by wide veranda on three sides south, ,east and west.He completed the construction after his retirement with the money he received after retirement.The building was situated at the corner of east and north side road leaving space at the back ( wet side) for Kitchen garden. He planted 4 coconut trees, one Kanthal tree and one guava tree etc. We shifted from Calcutta to Madhyamgram at the end of 1958 for celebrating "first eating rice" of Apurba (Babu), the elder son of my elder brother.
My elder brother has two sons, Apurba and Ajoy. Our house was first tartitioned in two parts, 1. for myself and the other for my elder brother, Kumud Ranjan retired from Post and Telegraph as a 2nd Class Gazetted officer the written consent of my mother and three sisters on the condition that an amount of Rs. 6,000/- would be deposited in the name of my mother in her account shared equally by me and my elder brother to meet  her medical expenses. But no decisions were taken  regarding her, day to day, food and lodging   It was supposed that since she preferred to stay always with me, It would be borne my me. As ill luck would have it, I was attacked with a dangerous disease in 1978 when she required a separate dwellings than myself. My elder brother, and two sisters, to some extent economically steady, were asked to give shelter to our mother but , any way, they were reluctant to do so. The problem was solved my elder sister, Sachi, with difficulty. i am grateful to the family of my elder sister, specially, to my brother in law who took lots of trouble of my morher in her death bed. She died in the house of my elder sister though she had two sons who could do it.
My portion was sold to some person for some construction of my recent house and paying the amount as decided during deed of conveyance of partition. At present the portion in which Kumud Ranjan stayed was again partioned into two among his two sons. The youner one Ajoy renovated the house.

   My college was situated on Sodepur Road, 4 km off from Madhyamgram. When I used to go to my college by my bi-cycle when I put on pant and shirt otherwise I put on Dhoti and Panjabi while going by Rickshaw.  Apurba on my lap (pic right), pic (bottom) after coming from my college.

At that time the pay scale of the College teachers were very poor and divided in two categories; 200 - 500 and  300 - 600. the college teachers under an umbrella WBCUTA ( West Bengal College and University Teachers Association) launched movemnt in three stages. 1. squatting in Esplanade East through out night, 2. Indefinite class boycott, 3. Boycott of examining scripts of examination papers. The movement lasted for 1960s with the two demands;
1. Revision of Pay scale, 2. Introduction of uniform pay scale.actually the demand was fulfilled in 1969 and was implemented in the early part of seventy's.



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Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, New Barrackpore (contd-1)

Gradually, the 2nd post of each Department was filled up with the following persons, English -Damodar De, History-Chandra Mukherjee, Bengali-Amiya Krishna RoyChoudhury, Economics- Mrinal Chandra Sengupta, Political Science-Nakshatra Bhushan Dutta, Mathematics-Chitta Ranjan Sengupta
Philosophy-Jagadish Goswami and Science stream was also started with the following persons; Physics-B.N.Paria, Chemistry- Murari Mohan Sen (Prof. P.K.Banerjee joined later and became senior most in Chem dept. as Pro. Murari Sen discontinued), Zoology-Dhilan Ray, Botany-Pratima Nag, Electronics- Syed Rafi Ahmed etc.
Principal - Bhupendra Chandra Chakrabarty 
( English) was also appointed.
The new building was opened for regular functioning by Prof. Humayun Kabir, Minister in Charge of the Dept. of Education.
At the beginning of my career I used to put on pure Bengalee dress, Dhuti and Panjabi. I had a by-cycle and I used to attain the College with this by-cycle.One day it so happened that my dhuti was stuck in the spokes of the cycle and I had to come home immediately with the help of a Rickshaw. From that day I began putting on Pant and shirt when I wanted to ride on the bicycle.
One day I met Amiya Kumar Rao, my classmate in post graduate classes. He was serving at that time in Gobardanga Hindu College at Gobardanga. He asked me to come to coffee house on Wednesday, Usually, some of the professors of different colleges and Universities met in the coffee house on every Wednesday . Henceforth, I too, began going to Coffee house on every Wednesday. There, we  used to occupy a round table and we would take our seats round the table. The system of taking coffee and fish fry was in the system of "his his whose whose".
One day we decided to go to Darjeeling in summer vacation.

It was settled that during this summer vacation (1961) we would go to Darjeeling. Actually , we went to Darjeeling for an excursion. This was my second excursion in my life and the first excursion in my career. My  first excursion, in my life, I had in Digha after my Matriculation examination in 1951 with some of my local friends of Shankaritola Street, Cal-14.. It was too much amazing not only because  that was my first excursion but also this was the first time I saw a sea, a vast range of water  which  I still remember and just before reaching the sea beach we heard a tremendous sound of the breaks of the waves of the sea.    

Acharya Prafulla Chandra College - My whole career.( Aug 1960 - Dec 1994)

(Welcome to Acharya Prafulla Chandra College

Acharya Prafulla Chandra College was founded on 16 August, 1960 under the Dispersal Scheme–with the joint participation of the State and Central Governments. Late Haripada Biswas was the founder secretary of this college. Initially it was named ‘New Barrackpore College’.)

I came home from Bajali College, pathsala, Assam, in the 1st week of May, after summer vacation and heard that a College , from RR Dept of Govt.of India was going to be opened in New Barrackpore, at a distance of 1 KM from our residence, Madhyamgram, at the initiative of the founder of the New Barrackpore Colony, Mr. Haripada Biswas, a  famous personality.  I made him pleased at my first interview. Actually, myself , Mrs Nilima Das of Madhyamgram ( stayed just in front of our house) and Dr.Manati Mitra of New Barrackpore got the first appointment in this college and joined on 4th August 1960 for enrollment of students. The foundation stone of the College building on Sodepur Road was laid down by Mehr Chand Khanna , Minister in charge of R.R Dept.of Govt. of India. on 16th Aug  1960.Actually the College began functioning  in the morning in the premises of New Barrackpopre Boys' Colony High School on 4th August 1960 ( this can be verified from the old records of admission register . I used to write the admission, Prof. Minati Mitra used to write the bills and keep the cash in a wooden box) . The name of the College was New Brrackpore College. Later it was renamed as Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, New Barrackpore (north 24-Parganas) 

Only 9 (nine)Professors were appointed in the first year of the College. 1. Prof. R. Samadder (Mathematics), 2. Prof. (Dr.) Minati Mitra ( Bengali), 3. Prof. Nilima Das (Philosophy), 4. Prof. Bhabadeb Banerjee (English), 5. Prof. Jogesh Chandra Chakraborty (Sanskrit), 6. Prof. Binoy Roy (History), 7. Prof. Amalankur Sen (Economics), 8. Prof. Arunendu Dasgupta,( Political science) 9. Prof. Kalyani Roy (Sanskrit). At first it was started as a Degree College only in Arts with Mathematics as combination Subjects. Prof Jogesh Chandra Chakraborty acted as Professor -in-Charge of the College. Prof. B.C.Chakrabarty was  appointed as a First Principal of the College in 1962 (probably). in the new College building. The Functioning in the new building was opened by Prof. Humayun Kakir, Minister in the Dept. of Education of Govt. of India.    

Librarian - Asit Brahma, Office Assistants - Sukumar Ghosh, and 4 Class four staff were also appointed.

Bajali College , Assam - My first appointment

My first appointment was in Assam, Bajali College in August 1959 and served upto ( April 1960). In  summer vacation I came home and did not join again for anti- Bengali movement gripped the whole of Assam.

During this period I got an appointment from Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, NewBarrackpore (formerly Nrew Barrackpore College).

Post graduate study in Pure Mathematics (1956-1958)

Before the results of M.Sc. being published we had to shift to our newly constructed house at Madhyamgram at the end of 1958. Our result was published in the first part of 1959. The first eating rice of the elder son of my elder brother, Kumud Ranjan (first grand son of Ashutosh samadder ) was held there within two/three days. 

The first Indian teacher of Pure Mathematics with International accolades was Prof. S. D. Mukherjee whose works in Geometry derive appreciation even now. The Department of Pure Mathematics can boast of its predecessors who have set up such a qualitative pattern that the progeny feels inspired. The Department feels pride for the Geometers, like Dr. S. D. Mukherjee, Dr. R. N. Sen, Dr. M. C. Chaki and others; Analysts, like Dr. W. H. Young, Dr. Ganesh Prasad, Dr. Haridas Bagchi, Dr. H. M. Senguta, Dr. N. C. Bose Majumdar, Dr. P. L. Ganguly and others; Algebraists like Dr. F. W. Levi, Dr. R. C. Bose, Dr. S. S. Pillai, Dr. B. C. Chatterjee, Dr. A. C. Chowdhury, Dr. S. P. Bandyopadhyay and other luminaries in the field of other branches of Mathematics as well.

( Darbhanga Building, Dept. of Msthematics)
After the end of the regular classes I started preparing  for Examination along with one of my class mate. But during the examination he dropped appearing exam. for his preparation was not up to the mark. 
Results were out after three months and it was found that I had gone through with more than 70% marks in 4 four papers and obtained less than 60% marks in the other four papers. 
We had by this time shifted to Madhyamgram to the newly constructed house  of my father. 
My elder brother got service in Post and Telegraph as a sorter and was married.He had a son and on the occasion of his first eating rice, held at Madhyamgram, some pictures of his son were taken by Ranjit and this was , probably the last meet with Ranjit.      

Punched Card Machine Operator and admitted in M.Sc. (Pure Math)

A punched card, punch card, IBM card, or Hollerith card is a piece of stiff paper that contained either commands for controlling automated machinery or data for data processing applications. Both commands and data were represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. 
After some application I got a service in Indian Statistical Institute as a Punched Card Machine operator for which I had to undergo an apprentice for 3 months and then permanent appointment would be available. I joined it. But I could not continue tuition of the two girls of Mr. Mukherjee. Mr. Mukherjee asked me to arrange a tutor for his two daughters. I requested Kanti to do it in place of me which he accepted. But after some time  Rupashree, the younger one, showed her unwillingness to take lesson from Kanti. As such I had to take the responsibility of Rupashree and Santashree, the two daughters of Mr. Mukherjee. At first I was going 3 days in a week to teach the son of Mr. Mukherjee. But when I had to teach the two girls, also, my routine was extended to both the shifts, morning and evening.  After getting my job I discontinued to teach the two girls making my morning free to join my service. 
Our apprenticeship usually started at 10 A.M. and ended at 5 PM. After that I had to go  home. But this time after reappointment to teach the daughters of Mr. Mukherjee I used to from office direct to Mr. Mukherjees house.
That is I used to  teach them in two shifts  in the  Evening. I was offered good tiffing at the break of the two shifts.
Learning the prospects of Punched Card Machine I wanted not to continue . Anil Gupta , my friend, gave some tips how I might get admission in M.Sc. in pure Mathematics since I could continue only in  the subject of  Pure Mathematics.

Anil Gupta passed B.Sc. with distinction in the same year as I did and was staying in front of our house of 23/D Sankharitola Streeet. I asked him the details of admission in Postgraduate classes. He was studying M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics My score in Mathematics was not sufficient for admission. I met Prof. M.C.Chaki known to me since I was a student of I.Sc. On hearing from me, Prof. Chaki advised me to apply for admission as a player and he would see that I got admission. Actually I procured certificates of a player in College team  of Bangabasi college, a certificate of  player in V th Division (Allen League) of IFA from my local Club Maitreyee Sangha in which I was a member and applied for M.Sc. With the recommendation of Prof. M.C.Chaki I got admitted in M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics in 1956.
But this time too I could not find time for studying. Moreover, I tried to depend on class notes given by the Professors. Apart from Prof Chaki there were some more good teachers. my daily routine was very simple. I remained out for tuition in morning as well as in the evening. from this time I had to contribute Rs.100/- towards my family expenses.