In Memory
of Our Beloved Teacher
By: Ashish
Kumar Srivastava, Dept. of Mathematics, Ohio University
Prof M.C.
Puri was not only a great teacher and researcher, but above all, a great human being.
His death is a huge loss to academic community and it is a personal loss to me
as well as to all his students and friends.
Prof Puri
was undoubtedly best teacher I ever had. He taught me two courses, one in M.Sc (Mathematics)
and the other in M.Tech (Computer Applications). We admired his discipline in
life. He had a different kind of personality. He was very strict, incorrigibly
idealist, but at the same time very caring and loving.
I still
remember some of the incidents which will always inspire us. Once while
explaining real life implications of optimization theory, he said .when you
sleep comfortably in winter night, you must think at least once about the poor
man sleeping on street. When he was saying this, he had tears in his eyes. This
incident really touched me. I saw the human side of an IIT professor for the
first time. He used to hold meeting with some students once in a month to get
feedback about the course and his teaching. In the first meeting with us, he
asked a question to all of us. Do you like the course? All students said yes,
but when my turn came I said I love the way you teach this course, but I don’t
like the subject. His immediate response was I like honest people. You should
always express your view honestly. There are not many people who appreciate honest
view if it is not according to their taste, but Prof Puri was above human
weaknesses. This is the reason why he was so popular among students. Everyone
in my both the classes loved him.
The other
class which I did with him, I had to drop as I fell sick and took a semester
off. He kept on asking other students about my health. The day I returned back
to IIT, when Prof Puri saw me, he came almost running towards me and asked me
about my health. I was overwhelmed by his gesture. He helped me in solving some
of the official problems which I was facing at that time due to insensitive IIT
administration. He was truly a sensitive and caring person. I am not the only
one who feels this way about Prof Puri. Every student whom he ever taught will
have similar stories. His life will always be a model for us as a teacher, and
as a human being.
I would
like to pay my sincere tribute to our beloved teacher, Prof M.C.Puri on behalf
of M.Sc (Mathematics), 1999 and M.Tech (Computer Applications), 2001 class. May
his inspirational ways always guide us.
(On behalf
of M.Sc. (Mathematics), 1999 and M.Tech. (Computer Applications), 2001 class)
Ashish
Kumar Srivastava
Department
of Mathematics
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA
ashish@math.ohiou.edu
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