With Manmohan Subudhi on the occasion of his son's wedding - 2012 August
At Beach with Manmohan in 1971
A Memory to Treasure!
I joined MIT for my master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in September 1969. Senapatibabu started his Master’s program in January 1970. Before that he spent several years at a Government Research Center in Durgapur and a semester at Kanpur IIT. Since he was two to three years older and had a commendable achievement at Kharagpur ITT, my relation with him was like my older brother. After the Spring semester in 1970, we both shared a room at the graduate student residence, the Ashdown House. We became roommates for the entire year 1971, after which I left MIT and joined Brooklyn Polytech for my PhD program. Senapati Babu completed his doctoral degree and spent several post-doctoral years at MIT before joining Battelle Lab at Columbus, Ohio. After completing my PhD, I have been a Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York. In the meantime, Senapati Babu changed a couple of jobs and settled in Columbus, Ohio. I am still working in Long Island. The irony is that at present my Laboratory is managed by the Battelle Columbus Lab where Senapati Babu started his employment.
We both got married in 1970s and each had two children. Our relation never changed for all these years. Raju "Nuabou" and my wife Shanti became friends. We used to visit each other’s home with our kids as often as possible. We made two vacation trips together, one to Florida/Key West in around 1973 and another to Maine/Nova Scotia in 1977. We also made many other trips visiting to each other’s place in Boston, Columbus, and New York. He visited us during the passing of my daughter Mili in 1993. We used to talk to each other almost on a quarterly basis, sometimes more frequently. I still remember his last visit with Raju Nuabou to my son Sumit’s wedding on August 18, 2012. All our discussions were intimate and professional in nature and we shared our personal challenges and achievements. We shared our pride noticing the academic achievements of his daughters, Sangeeta and Sunita, and my son Sumit.
I met Raju Nuabou and his two beautiful children last November 2012 when Senapatibabu left us alone. This happened right after my son’s wedding. I could not believe that it happened so soon and I could not get a chance to talk to him again. I wish I had spent some time with him during his last visit. I still think about him and am in a shock. I do not know what to say to Raju Nuabou and his two daughters.
During our days at MIT we both talked many bed-time nights about our future, including how to raise our kids and how we would pursue our careers. Although his achievements in life dwarf mine, we both had research careers and our children have chosen medical profession. We were talking about retiring together somewhere in USA.
I have an album full of memories of our time together. Quite often I go through them to remember my life’s best idol and a very good friend. I share my feelings with Dr. Gauri Das and Mr. Nityanand Mishra now and then, and we talk about our Boston days. This becomes the topic of our discussion when I meet Prasanna Samantray of California and Chandra Sekhar Mohanty of Rhode Island, May God give Raju Nuabou, and Sangeeta and Suneeta enough strength to face the challenges in life without my friend (soul mate)! When someone you respect and love becomes a memory, the memory is a treasure.
Manmohan Subudhi, East Setauket, New York
Dr. Manmohan Subudhi lived in Ashdown House where Nagabhusan took residence in 1970. They shared room for the next two years. Dr Subudhi is a Physicist in Brookhaven National Laboratory in NY.