Sometime back I had lamented the death of my dear friend Samiran. I could never imagine that one day I will attend his, ‘Shraadh Ritual’, which I did on 26th. June. But what a quirk of fate, we met a few days back on 22nd May. It was a Sunday and our school friend Amitabha invited four of us colleagues for lunch at his home. Samiran, Ashish and Keshto. Somehow it was not happening with Samiran being out of station and we wanted him to be a part. It got postponed three times and the fourth time we were lucky. I had my driver and so I offered to pick up Samiran from his home at Jodhpur Park, a stone’s throw away from my house.
I am glad I did. As we drove down the streets of Kolkata toward E M Bypass we started talking on many subjects, particularly his work as an engineer. As we crossed a Fly-Over he rattled the details and sometimes pointed out mistakes. For example, the Chingrihatta… he said the design was changed by the PWD Department and it is a major engineering flaw. The curves in many points are not engineered correct.
Whilst we crisscrossed I found that many of his decisions were not so logically thought of and there was an element of lateral thinking. He agreed in a way but when I pointed out Edward De Bono, he was silent. He had not read Bono. Absolutely perfect of Samiran as he ate, slept, dreamt engineering and not much beyond it. No, I am wrong, he also had a great passion for Indian Classical Music. I decided to gift him a book of Edward De Bono and as soon as I reached home I ordered Lateral Thinking for him. I forwarded the book to him with the inscription:
‘To my Dear Friend Samiran, What a delight ! Travelling with you in a car exchanging ideas, discussing different topics. As De Bono says: a Discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos. Love aloke. 26th. May 2022’. I wrote this because with some of my friends, even at this age, it becomes a battle of egos. But not with Samiran.
What a quirk of fate. We met on 22nd May. I presented him the book on 26th.May. Samiran passed away on 16th.June. 26th.June was the Shraadh Ritual. I called him after the book reached him to get his reaction and he said that he has not opened the gift packing which he considers an engineering feat. I do not know if he has read the book and we were to meet sometimes soon.
Samiran Sen was my school mate in Don Bosco. Since he moved to the Science stream and me to Commerce, we lost touch except in common classes like English, Bengali and an occasional meet at School functions. It was our work for the Government of West Bengal that got us together.
Admired for his brilliant engineering mind, Samiran was regarded as a professional who, among other things, could be relied on to bring a steady hand to projects. He enjoyed a varied career, and was involved with projects including the Flyovers in Calcutta. Most of the Flyovers in Kolkata are designed by him and wherever the PWD has deviated from his design the project has faced disaster. He has been recalled several times for the redesign which according to him does not work so much as the original. Alongside his commercial work, Samiran pursued a keen interest in 19th-century engineering, serving as a valued committee member for such past projects, lending his huge knowledge for maintenance and care. Samiran had what might be called a talent for marketing or, more prosaically, an ability to get on with people and a knack for getting them to invest in infrastructure. Apart from the Government of West Bengal, he worked for the Government of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and others.
In Kolkata, particularly for The Bengal Chamber Of Commerce and Industry, he built a network of engineers, property developers to bringing funds to projects connected with Kolkata’s Harbourside. This included helping to find new shareholders for the Ferryboat Company following its liquidation, and successfully soliciting donations for the construction of the wharfs at the river bank.
His highest-profile work came after he was called to head the investigating committee on the Brabourne Road Flyover Collapse. On 31 March 2016, a 150 m (490 ft) steel span of the under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover in the Girish Park neighbourhood of Kolkata, India, collapsed. 27 people died and 50 more were injured in the accident. The committee found defects in multiple aspects of the flyover construction including design, construction, raw materials and supervision. The committee placed that the main cause was the failure of a pier cap which brought down two spans supported over it. Some flaws either in joints of pier cap or unwanted eccentric loading may have been responsible. Samiran chaired the inquiry into the collapse and recommended that the flyover is to be dismantled.
Samiran was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and passed out with a degree in B.Tech,Civil. He was determined to become an engineer. He possessed an infectious enthusiasm for engineering and all who met him could not fail to become interested in the subject. He developed two main areas of research: Infrastructure and Flyovers.
Samiran’s intellect was matched by a predisposition to understand the situation of those around him. He was a loving and supportive friend, dependably calm, and gentle.
Samiran Sen , my friend, died of a cardiac arrest on 16th. June.