A prized possession, for posterity too

A scene from September 2009 remains fresh in the mind of Satyajit Ghosh, presently a senior professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at VIT, Vellore. That was the last time he saw British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking as he was being wheeled away from the dais amid applause at the end of a lecture on cosmology, black holes and dark matter. It was during the jubilee celebrations of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) of the University of Cambridge.

“That scene is still etched in my memory. It was a brilliant exposition. He had a tremendous sense of humour. The lecture was punctuated by humour that he made people laugh. I have watched Professor Hawking from close quarters over a span of nine-and-a-half years during my tenure as a postdoctoral research associate at DAMTP from February 1988. He was the Lucasian Professor during that time,” he recalls.

The year 1988 was significant as it marked the release of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. For Prof. Ghosh, it was even more memorable as he got his copy of the book “endorsed” by the author himself. “I bought a copy of the book, and went to see him in the Common Room of DAMTP. I was lucky enough to get mine endorsed by him. He asked me, ‘are you happy Sat?’ Sat is how people called me there. I have always kept the book among my most treasured keepsakes,” he said.

He is hoping to seek the advice of the Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Puducherry to preserve it for posterity. “I will bequeath it to one of my most deserving students of VIT. It will be in my will,” added Mr. Ghosh, , who is also a visiting researcher at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK.

Taking a trip down memory lane, he recalled his first encounter with Professor Hawking in the DAMTP Common Room in the ground floor within a week of joining the department. “It was a very inspiring moment. Most of us in DAMTP got to hear his popular lectures on cosmology during open days. He addressed a full hall and had the patience to take questions and answer them fully,” he said.

‘He loved basmati rice’

In fact, Professor Hawking’s nurse once told him that he loved the Indian ‘basmati’ rice. “She asked me what was the best way to cook basmati rice. I suggested that it should be soaked in water for at least half an hour before it is cooked,” Professor Ghosh remarked.

Over the years, as he has been introducing students of Mechanical Engineering at VIT to applications of environmental fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer in the built environment, he owes a huge part of his teaching qualities to stalwarts like Professor Hawking and Professor Lord Julian Hunt, who arranged for his postdoctoral fellowship at DAMTP.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is the graciousness of the English professors and Professors Hawking and Hunt were so full of it. They were very generous with their time and kindness. I learned to be kind and gracious from my Cambridge experience and I try to do that here in VIT. I am very happy to try out new methods in the teaching-learning processes because of the foresightedness of chancellor G. Viswanathan, who initiated the concept of project-based learning,” he said.

Recalling an interaction between Professor Hawking and his friend Arijit Banerjee, who was studying Law Tripos course at the University of Cambridge and is now a judge at the Calcutta High Court, he said, “When Banerjee addressed him as sir, he said, ‘Do not call me Sir, call me Stephen, as I am not knighted.’ He will be missed, and the physics community is still trying to come to terms with the loss of a brilliant mind,” the 61-year-old professor added.