After
his name, I have tagged him belonging to PAU. But was he belonged really to PAU
? How we decide a person belonging to certain institute or a place ? Obviously
either he has graduated, or post graduated from that place or have served the
place ,irrespectively whether he merged himself with the culture of that place.
In that sense, Dr Chowdhury belonged to PAU as he served this institute , first
as Associate Professor of Parasitology and later as Professor of Parasitology
and held charge of Head of the Department of Veterinary Parasitology for some
time. As this was his last destination from where he took retirement, we may
tag him as belonging to PAU. But was he really belonged to PAU ? Scrutiny of
his biodata reveals as if he was a cosmopolitan scientist who perhaps felt
uneasy at the serving place and was trying to run away to take solace at some other place.
This
great Indian scientist did his graduation in Veterinary Science and Animal
Husbandry from Assam Veterinary College, Guwahati and did his MVSc in Parasitology from Mathura
Veterinary College under Dr BP Pandey-the renowned Indian Parasitologist of twentieth century.
Both Dr JP Dubey, USA and Dr BB Bhatia,Pantnagar were his colleagues as all
were doing MVSc under Dr Pandey ,at that time. After wards ,Dr Chowdhury joined
Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar as a Research scholar for a
short period. Then he went to Belgium under some international scholarship and
did his DSc. He also visited Japan under
promotion of science and developed great bond with DR I Tada, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu
university, Fukuoka, Japan which culminated in acting of the latter as
co-editor for the book “Helminthology”.
The
desire of Dr Chowdhury to understand the subject at international level led him
to become member or fellow of societies of Veterinary Parasitology, Belgium,
Japan and America . Not satisfied from that he became member of World
Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology. Though at some time ,
he became life member of Indian society of Parasitology and that of Indian
Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology.
I
met Dr N Chowdhury first time in 1981 at IDPL, Hyderabad where both of us
were candidates for the post of Senior Biologist, equivalent to Associate
Professor. I could not join this post for some reason while Dr Chowdhury joined
PAU in 1982 as Associate Professor of Parasitology. Dr Chowdhury came more
close to me when he was writing a chapter “ Helminths of domesticated animals
in Indian subcontinent” in his book “ Helminthology” (Published in 1994) . He
was interested particularly in my review articles on Stephanofilariasis,
schistosomiasis incognitum and nasal schistosomiasis. As the latter article was
not handy till that time, I send him rough manuscript of the article.
Those
who have read this chapter in his book will appreciate how meticulously Dr Chowdhury has provided authentic
information on the subject. I have no hesitation in stating that his chapter is
a milestone in reviewing all the relevant literature on helminths in domestic
animals in Indian continent that happened after about twenty or thirty years
when our predecessors have written on checklist of helminths of domestic
animals and alike important articles. In
2001 , came another important book ‘Helminths of Wild life” of Dr Chowdhury.
This was again a first attempt to deal with parasites of wild life at global
level.
Then
came the difference of opinion which I developed not with Dr Chowdhury but with
some of my fellow scientists. I was of the opinion that Dr Chowdhury should be
elected as fellow of Indian Parasitology Societies as he has written important
books and they are sufficient to recognize this scientist. He has already
established his international credentials by inviting international scientists
of different institutes to write
chapters for his two books.
However,
there were two difficulties. First was that for considering fellowship
of the
society or academy Dr Chowdhury should apply for the same in a
prescribed format or at least making an application in that respect. Dr
Chowdhury refused to apply as by that time he has retired from services
of PAU
and this suffix was of little value to Dr Chowdhury . Perhaps, there was
a
hidden message that this will give credentials to your society to elect a
distinguished scientist as their fellow.
Another
fact was that the societies have developed a format where the judge has to give
marks for every achievement of the candidate scientist like degrees,
experiences, research papers , books published, society activities made by the
scientist and so on. And the scientists are awarded fellowship on their mark
basis.
On
this selection basis, I have remarked (though I have remained a judge for the
selection of follows for some years) . Thanks God ! our Goswami Tulsidas has
not applied for the fellowship otherwise he could not get this coveted title as
he has written “Ramcharitmanas” only to
his credit (others are short booklets) or case of Meera Bai or alike
personality would have rejected by our Indian scientific academies .
But
Dr Chowdhury was more bitter and outspoken than me. He was highly critical of
the standards of so many professionals . He felt pain that these persons are
not advancing our science and are engaged only in private works- counting their
bank balance or type of car or house ,they are possessing . I remember how much critical he was when one
distinguished Parasitologist constituted
young scientist award on his own name, when he was not only alive but
active in his service career. I agreed with Dr Chowdhury that this is against
our Indian culture. But we have to keep mum at certain places where we are
helpless –in my opinion at least this scientist came forward to encourage our
young scientists . We have not taken “theka or contract ” to improve each and
every one and we should see ourselves – we should avoid the work which we do
not like. But Dr Chowdhury was hard to convince and he has written letters to
the distinguished persons where he differed . I came to know about these facts
as Dr Chowdhury sent a copy of such few letters to me also.
Now , he is no more.
When I look back at his
achievements , I feel the Indian scientific fraternity has not done
justice to
Dr Chowdhury. He could not get from them what he deserved most . Our
some
scientists have not liked his critical character though that is
important for
improving ourselves or at least assessing ourselves. This has long back
been narrated by our poet Kabir das “nindak niyare rakhiye, angan kuti
chawai,
binu pani bin sabuna, nirmal kare subhaw.” ( keep your critic close to
you;
give him shelter in your courtyard. Without soap and water he cleanses
your
character).
I
pray Almighty God to give peace to the soul of
my dear friend Dr N Chowdhury.
Dr
PD Juyal , Vice Chancellor of Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary University, Jabalpur
was associated with Dr N Chowdhury as Dr Juyal was also Professor and Head of
Parasitology, PAU and has close acquaintance than me with Dr Chowdhury.
Therefore, I requested him to provide an authentic brief of Dr Chowdhury which
he very kindly did and I am copying the
same as under
CHOWDHURY, NIRMALENDU ; BVSc , MVSc, DSc;
Born on 1st February, 1942,Karimganj, Assam (Father late R.M.Chowdhury) , Married with Mrs Amita Chowdhury and blessed with a daughter. Did BVSc from Guwahati Veterinary College, MVSc from UP College of veterinary science , Mathura; DSc from State university of Ghent, Belgium ; Kumamoto university medical school, Japan;
Served in 1969-70 as Research scholar at IVRI, Izatnagar; state univ of Ghent 1971-75; Associate Professor at Assam Agriculture University 1975-80; Associate Prof at PAU,Ludhiana 1982-87; Professor of Helminthology 1988-2002 (Head of the dept for some time ) . Retired in the year 2002 from PAU, Ludhiana and settled there
He was research fellow of CSIR and ICAR 1969. Belgium Ministry of Education 1970; Japan society for promotion of science 1980.
Fellow of Belgian society of Parasitology; ex member Japan society for parasitology, American society of Parasitology. Member Indian Society of Parasitology, World association for advancement of veterinary Parasitology;
He has edited and published the book "Helminthology" in 1994; Helminths of wildlife (2001), Perspectives of Helminthology(2001).
He contributed 5 book chapters and 35 research papers, 1 review paper. He won many awards and was a distinguished international Parasitologist.
Dr N Chowdhury expired on 24th March 2016. We condole his death and pray to the Almighty for eternal peace to his soul and to give courage to his family to bear this loss.
….
