Prof. AC Roy and My Recollections:

Prof. AC Roy and My Recollections:
Biman Ghosh, 1964 Architecture & Planning

The year was 1958, a time that was about 65 years ago, I was a teenage young. That was the time I had to seek my parent’s guidance and also to some extent had to take my own decision about my future studies – I am at the juncture of time when I was leaving my school days and would be moving to a college. I had my choice open to go for studying either engineering, or pure science. My inclination was for engineering.

I tried my luck for engineering, and after the exams I was asked to have two face to face interviews for my admission in Architecture discipline. One with the Principal Prof. A.C. Roy and the other with Prof. J.A. Cordes, the then Head of the department of Architecture. While Prof. A.C. Roy was an engineering graduate of Glasgow, a top-to-bottom Englishman type personality, and on the other side was Prof. J.A. Cordes was an American.

So, for all obvious reasons I was a little nervous about meeting an American and the Principal of the most famous engineering college of India. Therefore, I decided to seek guidance from my English teacher at St. Xaviers, Father Hogbin, who was also our mentor in debating in how I should approach the interviews. Father Hogbin was very kind, and he listened to my appeal. He advised that I should present myself smartly and exactly on time, any kind to delay might go against my chance of admission. He then advised me to carefully listen and understand first before responding to any question, and then to restrict myself not to say anything more than what I needed to. I prepared myself to follow his advice.

On the morning of the interviews, I reached smartly dressed and on time. Then I was led to the anti room waiting to face Prof. A.C. Roy. I was asked to go in, it was a large room and at one corner of the room was the large table behind which was a large chair upon which sat this dark black gentleman. The table was clean with no papers on it, the only item on the table were two telephones. I was certainly nervous. The very first question he asked me why I wished to study Architecture. I remembered Father Hogbin’s advice and just said I love buildings. Luckily, he did not follow up asking me which buildings and why.

Next, I remember he asked me what was the difference between freedom and liberty? I said ….. Freedom is to express oneself verbally or in writing whatever one thinks about a subject. He asked …. what about movement and action? I said …. that too.
And Liberty? I said …. Liberty is to be able to use Freedom in real life, including power to act and think as one wants without any restriction.
He said …. well now you are young, you will be living here with freedom but remember there are certain rules and restrictions. This is a college of high reputation. Do not waste your opportunity and misuse your Freedom and be aware of Liberty.
After saying all these, he said, “now you can go.”
I mumbled something like thank you Sir and left the room.
I thought I did OK.

I will not bore you with details of my interview with Prof. Cordes, and American Town Planner / Architect. But that he made me take photographs of buildings I liked in Calcutta, bring those to him and explain why I liked them.

Anyway, I got in. But sadly, I did not follow the advice of Prof. A.C. Roy and mostly wasted my time and energy in pursuing other activities not related to my academics resulting in numerous opportunities missed during this important time of my life.
I was stupid and immature!!
However, I was fortunate enough to get admission to study Architecture at BE College.

From the Bottom left: Amitava Deb, Prabir Chatterjee, Ranajit, Udayan Sengupta, KP Bhattacharjee, Joydeb Sarkar, Asesh Moitra, Siddhartha Datta, Bijon Chowdhury, Pranab Roy, Dilip Ray, Samir Rakshit, Dulal Mukherjee, Bablu da, Bhanu Ghosh, Biman Ghosh

July 2025

“One book, one pen, one child
and one teacher can change the world.”
– Malala Yousafzai

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