Short Biography of Professor Sukomal Talapatra

Short Biography of Professor Sukomal Talapatra
Compiled during some informal talks with him by Asim Deb, 1977 Electronics & Tele Communication Engineering.

Probably Prof. Talapatra is holding the record of longest span of teaching in BE College, from 1961 to 2021.

Prof. Sukomal Talapatra was born on 7th April 1940 at Talshahar village, Brahmanbaria sub-division, district Tripura (Tipperah, the then Kumilla), East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh). His father Munindra Chandra Talapatra was a teacher of English and Mathematics at village high school, and his mother was a housewife. He belongs to a well-educated family. His Jyathamoshai was a Congress leader & was arrested by the British Raj on various occasions.

Prof. Talapara went to primary school in class 3 at the age of 7 and had to face interruptions due to communal disturbances while he was a student of class 5. The infamous Noakhali riot of 1946-47 forced him to discontinue his studies for almost 1 year. The family had to take initial shelter at the village high school and after few days, he had to leave the village and went to his recently married sister’s place at Sylhet, a less disturbed area of that time. He could return to his parents after 2 months when the situation was little cooled down. During those turmoil period his father could realise that their stay is not anymore safe in East Pakistan. So his father decided to send his sons, once a little grown up, to India for pursuing further studies. Prof Talapatra, because of his merits never faced any year loss by securing admission in the next academic session in Ashuganj Anjuman-e Islamia High School in class 6. Prof Talapatra, a little grown up by then, once again had to came to India in 1950 because of communal disturbance. One of his elder brothers was studying in India and Prof. Talapatra took a refuge with him. He could return after 2 months. Finally, he passed Matriculation in 1955 from the same school from his native village in 1st division with 79% marks & Letter marks in Sanskrit.

Other members of their family, mainly brothers were already in India, engaged in studies. Prof Talapatra also migrated to India as a refugee & got admission in Bangabashi College, in the Science stream. He passed Intermediate in 1957 with 1st division marks and then joined BE College in Civil Engineering. He received Forbes scholarship being the topper on the basis of results of BE Part I (common for all branches 1st & 2nd year). He was 2nd in rank in the 4th year BE Final Part 2 (Civil). Those days, BE College had a significant number of students coming after Intermediate from famous institutes like Presidency College, Scottish Church College, St. Xavier’s College. Prof. Talapatra says, he felt himself being from a remote village, much inferior to them in many social respects. He says, he was “an absorber” in the hostel. In his own words, his surname means so. However, within no time, due to his academic merits, he could earn other’s attentions.

After graduation in 1961, he joined Technical Teachers’ Training Program at BE College the same year (mid session) as a Teacher Trainee under Central Government’s scheme. He began teaching Hydraulics laboratory & also taking tutorial classes. In 1963 he began regular lecture classes. Dr. B Sen & other senior teachers used to supervise him. At the same time, in 1961, he joined the ME program in BE College & completed in 1963. His major paper was Irrigation, under Prof. Chiranjib Kumar Sarkar. His thesis guide was Dr. Paresh Nath Chatterjee.

In 1964, he joined as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering (officially, unofficially in Applied Mechanics). He began teaching regular classes of Hydraulics and then Strength of Materials, and Mechanics. In 1972, he became the Assistant Professor. During those days, he used to spend 27 28 hours in teaching due to staff shortage. In 1975-76, he joined QIP PH.D. program at IIT Kharagpur in Civil Engineering, with specialization on Sediment Transportation. In 1980, he became a full Professor. In the year 2011, Prof Talapatra was recognized as a Distinguished Teacher of BE College.

Prof Talapatra contributed in a chapter in experimental Hydraulics, written by Dr. Somnath Ghosh, his IIT Kharagpur thesis guide. He had one Ph.D. student in Optimum Cropping pattern, and the other student could not continue due to illness.

In government projects, he worked on the Flow Analysis Bank Erosion in Farakka. His another important project was Navigation Channel Sediment Transportation of Kolkata Port, assisting Dr. Suhas Roy of Calcutta Port. He also worked on ISRO projects with his colleagues Prof. Dipak Sengupta and Prof. Suman Dasgupta. With a different kind of assignment, Dr. Santosh (Lord) Mukherjee, the then HOD of Civil Engineering engaged him in moderation of question bank studies.

Prof. Talapatra describes himself a “go-bechara” personality and always prefers to keep himself away from any kind of visibility or recognitions. In fact, he didn’t want to share any his professional recognitions. He also didn’t agree to share a single incident of his teaching days. He says after his BE, he realized that he could learn nothing & so much was yet to learn, so decided to continue with higher studies. And even now spends time on learning new things.

At this age, he is still a full time Professor of Applied Mechanics with BE College, and enjoys teaching. When I asked what he does in spare times, his answer is get prepared for the next day, so serious he is.

He had/has otherwise some interest outside engineering. During his early school days, his interest was to study philosophy and religion. His philosophy of life was that life is a smooth flow and so never thought of working for earning breads. His other area of interest is Sanskrit language to find the ব্যুৎপত্তি অর্থ, the roots of the naming of words, how the words were formed. He also had great interest (before college), in Kishore Sahitya, Rommy Rochona, detective Byomkesh.

The Noakhali riot and subsequent struggles changed his life, that’s why we all could get Prof. Sukomal Talapatra with us. Otherwise the world lost a philosopher.

File Photo of Prof. Talapatra during the 2015 yearly Get-Together of 1972-1977 batch of students