Tribute by

Ms. C. S. Lalitha, Dept. of Mathematics,

Rajdhani College, Univ. of Delhi

I thank almighty with my heart for being able to experience the warmth and love of the great soul Prof. M.C.Puri in my lifetime. I had always seen the true form of God in him. I always felt that all the blessings of Puri sir on me were in fact the blessings showered by God himself. Even now I feel his presence the way I feel the presence of God.

It is impossible for me to express in words what I have gained from him during the numerous interactions with him. I have learnt many things from his words and much more than that from his actions and behavior. His sincerity, devotedness, punctuality, dedication, cheerfulness, lovingness, wittiness, humbleness, politeness, modesty, determination and intelligence always inspired and motivated me. He was the greatest teacher in my life even though he never formally taught me in a class. He would say, “Lalitha you have never been my student but we still share such a perfect understanding, indeed God is great”. How very true sir. I dearly treasure the autograph by him “You have been a great source of strength to me. May God bless you”. He has been my inspiration.

I knew Prof. Puri since 1989 when I started attending the weekly seminar held at Delhi University, Mathematics Faculty building on Wednesdays where a group of active researchers meet from 3-4 pm. Prof. Puri was one of the founder member of this group called “Mathematical Programming Group (MPG)”, started by Prof. R.N.Kaul, Department of Mathematics in 1972. Every Wednesday we eagerly looked forward to meet Prof. Puri who would arrive at 3 p.m. sharp and greet us with folded hands. He would say “I love to attend the seminars and would keep on doing till my health permitted”. He organized a talk by Prof. K.G.Murthy a day before he left for Bangalore and planned to organize a series of lectures on his arrival back on the same topic. Alas God willed otherwise but fulfilled his desire to attend the seminar till the end.

He would be so happy when a young researcher published a paper and would put his hand on his/her head and would say “May God Bless You”.  He encouraged every one of us to good research work and always dreamed of MPG coming up in a big way.

He had a fatherly attachment to every young researcher and to each of his students and would say, “they are like babies and they need to be nurtured with care”. Whenever he was given a small token while delivering a lecture or chairing a session at any conference he would pass the token to some of the young researcher motivating them to do good research work.

After his retirement he donated a valuable collection of his books, which he collected over the years, to MPG and is presently kept at IIT Delhi in the charge of Dr. Aparna Mehra. The students and MPG were so very dear to him. 

May God give us strength to follow the path and rise up to expectations of our dearest Puri sir.  

I salute the greatest soul of Prof. Puri.  

Puri sir’s forever…

Ms. C.S. Lalitha

Department of Mathematics

Rajdhani College

University of Delhi

cslalitha@rediffmail.com