CV -      somen bhattacharjee                   Full CV

Entered Presidency College, after the usual rigid school life, though dotted with family tragedies.

Blind teenage love for equations, identities and Euclid = choose physics.
   that’s early seventies.

The thwarted student rebellion(*), the emotional issue of Bangladesh with millions on the road to Calcutta(‡), Vietnam still further east, and Indira Gandhi’s landslide victory.
        ··· and then the declaration of emergency.
                 ··· equations didn’t balance at that time, at that age.

Physics honours course to end in 3 years but time, for some, can stand still;
                 ··· noteworthy reluctance of all officials, even now, to acknowledge that.
     Relished physics, more so with extra time for classic films, bengali plays (“theaters”),
          and slow sips of Feynman lectures.

When did I graduate - what year am I supposed to write - 1975 or 1977?

M. Sc. - a two year course ended in two years but the starting year got shifted. The inspiring classes in Science College in Calcutta’s Rajabazar, and in Presidency, can just reinforce one’s interest in physics. The first bite of biology.
  ··· and that one sleepless night all glued to the radio
  ··· the early dawn announcement - Indira Gandhi defeated in post-emergency election   ···

Well, again, what year am I supposed to say as the year of graduation? 77 or 79?

A few months of undergrad teaching in MMC College, in Shambazar, Calcutta.

Then a new phase in Carnegie Mellon University - ph d era of 1980-84.
A new country for bewilderment - overstuffed supermarkets, highways, telephones that work all the time, my poor english, first snow, - and first time seeing a box called TV that burped on El Salvador, Nicaragua, and then the ridiculous attack on Granada.
Lucky to get an advisor who gave enough independence. ...

Time for Post-doc. Polymers, villagish Amherst in Massachusetts, and later ritimoton(†) suburbia in the shadows of the Murray Hill Bell Labs.

Change in gear to become a member of the faculty of IOP. That's 1988 - the start of a new experience of science in India.

Footnotes

s m bhattacharjee, 2010