रविवार, जुलाई 23, 2017

Jag da- A memoir

July 22, 2017.
WhatsApp blipped with a message from Prof Tripathi that Jag Da is no more.  It was a shock as there was no news that he was sick. I have not met him since last 2 years due to extraordinary business. Dr. Jagdish Chandra Joshi was popularly known as Jagda in whole NainiTal-Almora area. He was a teacher-researcher in DSB college, Physics department.  He also carried out a big job of Warden ship of a big hostel of DSB college for long many years.

A fantastic experimentalist 

I was almost a second generation students of Jagda.  He retired a few years later I completed my M.Sc.  For instance had told us the alternate way of aligning a telescope in the 'angle of prism' experiment when I was completing my B.Sc. in 1983 in DSB College Nainital.  The  procedure explained in books had no connection with what he was explaining.  While viewing with his eye and keeping his big cheek on the instrument he tilted the whole spectrometer to focus at the window a bit far... Thats the way I have also been teaching it to B.Tech. students since last 20 years, and one can very well imagine how deep the impact of his teaching was (and How often I remembered him). Molecular Spectroscopy  Lab (now Photophysics lab) of NainiTal has several  instruments designed during his time.

Democracy in the hostel
Ask any one who had lived in Brook Hill Hostel- if he ever spoke roughly to any one.  He knew the attitude of the youngsters and knew very well how to manage a hostel like Brook Hill!   Later when I became the warden of an undergraduate hostel, I understood the difficulties and the responsibilities of Jag da during those days.


May the soul rest in peace.

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