“Mr. Chill — that’s the word that comes to our mind whenever we refer to Samantak Das,” said Sayantan Dasgupta, an associate professor at Jadavpur University. As colleagues at the comparative literature department, Dasgupta had seen Das up close and personally. On Das’s first death anniversary, his colleague takes a trip down memory lane and shares priceless anecdotes with My Kolkata.
A tribute to Professor Samantak Das
Sayantan Dasgupta with Samantak Das Sayantan Dasgupta/Facebook
I remember, Samantak was a great worker. The kind of things that teachers often do not like doing — the administrative work apart from teaching — he would do it gladly. There was a personal element to his relationships — even on the professional front. He was a peoples’ person.
Professor Sayantan Dasgupta
Here’s one of my earliest memories with Samantak…We joined (Jadavpur University, comparative literature department) around the same time. While he was an associate professor, I joined as an assistant professor. Soon after, there was a convocation, and as you know, during convocations some teachers have to be on duty. Samantak and I were both assigned for that. It was there we spoke at length. Before that, we did not really know each other that much.
It was during one of those formal conversations that Samantak said, ‘Arey, just call me Samantak yaar’. He was a senior and one would think of calling him sir or Samantakda, but he was very clear that he did not want any of those formalities. That’s how I started calling him Samantak, and called him so thereafter.
I remember, Samantak was a great worker. The kind of things that teachers often do not like doing — the administrative works apart from teaching — he would do it gladly. There was a personal element to his relationships — even on the professional front. He was a peoples’ person.
I remember, when Simantini (Sayantan Dasgupta’s wife) was pregnant, Samantak suddenly gave me a book one day. The book was “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” (by Heidi Murkoff). ‘This is a book that came in very handy for me, you might like to read it’ he said. Just out of the blue. He had these things in him, always helping someone.
Gate No. 4 of Jadavpur University Wikimedia Commons
And then…this is interesting…there’s something he called YMHAOS. Samantak would go around helping people, doing their work and things like that. Say, I needed something. He would mail the document. Or there was any departmental work. He would prepare lists and all and mail it to everybody. He would sign off with YMHAOS. This became a thing of a joke among us. What is YMHAOS? He released — ‘Your Most Humble And Obedient Servant’. He was like that. He would help out people, do their work and then sign off with that.
Another time, we went for a picnic with the students and there was a very open and different Samantak, out of the university space. I remember him dancing with us and the students on some crappy Bollywood song. He had that way of stretching the boundaries between students, teachers and so on and so forth. These memories still keep haunting me.
