Opinion ‘Mere paas Maa hain’: Remembering Rohini Godbole

In mid 2001, a senior student of the department returned from a visit to Germany. He got with him some old computer games that he had enjoyed as a child. I, too, wanted to play them. So, we tried to install it on the department’s desktop but could not. The instructions were in German and we didn’t know the language. We looked for help and it came from Rohini. She sat down with us and translated all the instructions for us. It’s a different matter that we could not install those old games on new PCs due to incompatibility, but Rohini’s enthusiasm was infectious. We wanted a translator and she became one without any judgement or hesitation. After some months, she was leaving for a year-long sabbatical and she wanted to treat all the students in the department to some ice cream the night before she left. She got her favourite vegetarian ice cream from Bangalore’s 11th Cross Malleshwaram but unfortunately, we were all out for dinner. So, she left it in the fridge with a note for us. Upon returning to the department, we saw the note and devoured the ice cream. She was leaving early in the morning, so we stayed up all night waiting in front of her apartment. When she was about to leave, we all gathered around her to shout “auf wiedersehen” (until we meet again). That surprise really cheered her up.

Rohini used to cycle up and down from her residence and during one such trip, in mid-2003, she had an accident. She fractured her collarbone and right-hand thumb. She was teaching that semester and I was assisting her. It was very painful for her to write on the board. So, on her advice, I scanned her handwritten notes and she projected them in the class and continued teaching while holding her collarbone. The eagerness to share the excitement of learning Physics was never on ebb, nor was her sense of humour. That semester, we were having a discussion while standing and she was looking up at me, holding her collarbone. After a while, she exclaimed, “Ritesh, please sit down. You are literally being a pain in my neck.” It was painful to even laugh aloud for her, but I did. The other painful thing she had to do during that time was sign lots of administrative documents with a broken thumb. When she learned that I had not been paid my fellowship, she decided to make a stamp for her signature and handed it to me for putting it on documents. Her injury slowly healed and we both forgot about that stamp. I discovered it when I was clearing my office after defending my thesis in April 2006 and returned it to her. She apologised yet again for my delayed fellowships.

Rohini was very vigilant about hidden biases and she would point them out with due respect. Our office staff at the time always took pride in correcting people when they referred to Rohini as chairman. “She is the chairperson, you know,” he would say. At a recent seminar during the convocation at IISER Kolkata, she spoke of these biases and how we must seek solutions to them without villainising anyone. The very first step to it, she said, was admitting that we all hold unintentional biases against disadvantaged groups in society. Biases against women in STEM, she said, was one such example. She inspired many young students that day as she encouraged them to stand up to such biases and follow their dreams.

To end my reminiscences of Rohini, I will recall an incident soon after she had agreed to supervise my MS thesis. One of the seniors in the Physics department was asking all my batchmates who we were going to work with. When my turn came, he asked me, “Ritesh, tera baap kaun hai?“, implying who my supervisor was. And I could not miss the opportunity to correct him by using the iconic dialogue from Deewar (1975): “Mere paas Maa hai”. It led to a lot of laughter and Rohini came to be known as Amma among my close friends.

Rohini remained academically active till the end. During her visit to Kolkata in June, we discussed a paper we were working on together. Those discussions continued over emails even after her return. She kept on working on Physics and standing strong for the social causes she believed in till her last breath. For me, she remains “not out”, though her innings is over.

The writer is associate professor, Department of Physical Science, IISER Kolkata