Home Page . .  Family Tree . . Sonarang Sandesh . . Contacts & Letters . . Family History . . More Sonarang History . .  Family Directory

Marriages . . Photo-Gallery . . Previous Sonarang Sandeshs' . . The Last Word . .

contacts & letters.2006

Get in touch with one another!  Tell others how things are and find out what others have to say! 

VIVEK Sarkar named 2008 ACM fellow BY DWIGHT DANIELS Special to the Rice News

The Association of Computing Machinery has inducted Vivek Sarkar as a 2008 ACM Fellow.

Sarkar, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Computer Science at Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering, was recognized for his contributions to parallel computing. He is among 44 leading computer scientists worldwide from education, industry, commerce and entertainment to be bestowed the honor this year.

"These men and women are the inventors of technologies that impact the way people live and work throughout the world," said ACM President Wendy Hall, adding that the honor recognizes "contributions to solving complex problems, expanding the impact of technology and advancing the quality of life for people everywhere."

Sarkar is the creator of the Habanero project at Rice. It addresses multicore software challenges through developing new programming technologies—languages, compilers, managed runtimes, concurrency libraries and tools—that support portable parallel abstractions for multicore hardware. "It is an honor to receive this recognition from my peers," said Sarkar, "as well as a testimonial to all the research colleagues whom I've had the opportunity to work with."

Prior to joining Rice in 2007, Sarkar was Senior Manager of Programming Technologies at IBM Research where he led IBM's research efforts in high productivity programming models and tools during 2002- 2007 as part of DARPA's HPCS program. His past projects at IBM include the X10 programming language, the Jikes Research Virtual Machine, the ASTI optimizer, and the PTRAN automatic parallelization system. He holds a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, a master's degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate from Stanford.

ACM will formally recognize its new Fellows at an annual Awards Banquet in June 2009 in San Diego.

--Dwight Daniels is a science writer at Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering.

Letter from Shirin Sen to Sen4sens about the Get-together on 7 Jan 09 at the residence of Rekha and Viney Kapila at Palam Vihar New Delhi (SEE PICS ON PHOTOGALLERY PAGE)

        Anita and Rina were visiting Delhi soon after Christmas and were going to stay with Rekha and Viney. They were going to be here for Rina’s birthday on January 7. Rekha and Viney decided to ask the cousins over for lunch on that day. There had been a spell of really cloudy and cold weather for two or three days before that, but the 7th turned out to be a bright and sunny day with a great deal of warmth. I think this set the tone for the afternoon for everyone was in a bright and cheerful mood. Viney was his usual charming self and plied us with drinks while keeping us amused with anecdotes of his days in the Air Force. Lola got lost and Viney had to go fetch her from a fixed rendezvous in Palam Vihar. Honey, Tuti and Dilip arrived at about the same time. That made five cousins together – quite a handful! And then the party began!

        On her way to the Kapila's, Honey met a Kashmiri chap selling shawls and salwar/kameez material – so there was much bargaining with women trying their best to bring the prices down. Honey finally got a shawl – she said it was for Koko?!

        I cannot remember what we talked about specifically, but all I know is that there was much laughter – in fact I had tears rolling down my cheeks at the way I laughed. We talked about when we were younger. Rina and Honey told us about when Baba came on holiday, they would save money to go for coffee and dancing with him. He never had enough money so the girls had to “stand" him -- he would go and dance with some one else and leave the two girls twiddling their thumbs, which they thought was most unfair as they had to work hard to save the money.

        Then came up the topic of growing old – and at once certain people clammed up! Very dicey topic to come up. But there are always the spoil sports who told us their ages, leaving others to fumble around! This reminded us of Pishima, who was always one for hiding her age but didn’t really succeed as Aunts Tasa, Trevie and Nina would gladly tell their ages and leave everyone guessing about Pishima’s!!

        We didn't go in for lunch till almost 3 o’clock, when we were treated to Rekha’s fabulous biryani, chicjen korma, baigna fry and “tok”. Oonty gave the blessing and the bantering and laughter continued right through the meal. After the meal we came and sat outside in the garden where Oonty and Honey took all these lovely pictures making us looking pretty fab, even though I say so! Lola's comment was "We were no beauty queens, but I guess the dahlias made up up for that!"

        I would like to thank Rekha and Viney for this lovely afternoon of laughter and togetherness. May we have many more like this.

 

Letter from Ashit from Bangalore  dated December 2008

Hi Folks,

        Inevitably, this very eventful year is coming to an end, and we will soon be celebrating the festive season, and will be welcoming 2009 – with optimistic hopes for peaceful and joyous future for all - without the pain and suffering that we had to sadly witness recently, the uncertainty and downturn of the economy the world over.
        I had an enjoyable and varied year, with mostly good health and fair amount of travel. The year began with my annual Kolkata trip – as usual, with a host of cultural bonanza and many parties. The significant event of the year was Vivek's Bangalore visit, which he had timed to organize a memorable and lovely 75th birthday party# for me at the Bangalore Club! The gathering of so many affectionate friends and relatives (27) was most endearing.

        Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/sarkarsweet/75thBirthdayParty?authkey=moLHtKItBWo

        Earlier, Wilie & Peter had come for a three week's visit from England, and I was their tour operator cum travel agent! All of us had a lovely enjoyable time together, and visited Hampi, a destination that I had been waiting to see for ages. Sadly Brian was ailing, and soon after their return, my dear friend of fifty years passed away.

        My annual US visit was made later than usual, as Vivek had moved to warmer Texas last year, and both had joined Rice University faculty. My journey started with Goa to attend a lovely wedding, and then five delightful and hospitable days each with Anne & Hans at Holland, and then with Beate and her husband Rainer in Germany. Then to the US, and after five days at Houston TX, I was off on my three weeks travels to Massachusets, New Jersey, DC/MD & Indiana to bask in the warm hospitality (despite the low temperatures) of Bhanu & Aparna, Amit & Gauri, Jojo & Bhaswer & finally with Debu & Meher. I managed to meet many friends and relatives, including Dilip & Nutan, Sonali/Joy and family whilst in DC region. The final month was then spent in Houston with Ratna, Vivek, Aparna & Raja, with a four day quick trip to be with Gutli & Joy at Dallas. The highlight was the Thanksgiving gathering just before my return, when Shilpa was home from Stanford. Ruchi, Ranjit/Miho, Sayo & Aiki too were with us, and finally with 21 for dinner and 30 for dessert the party was a great success. We were delighted that Abir & family could also join us. (Sorry - to some the names may not be meaningful or recognizable! They are good friends or relations - as you are sure to guess...)

        During my 'relaxed' Houston stay I still managed to see four plays, one magic show, two movies, a trip to NASA space center and multiple visits to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (specially the 'fab' exhibition - Body Worlds 2, and another on Butterflies) - besides very many eating outs from Sandwiches & Dim-Sum to French or Japanese cuisines! We attended the Houston Fall Concert, in which Aparna was a Guitarist in their Philharmonia group - which went off extremely well, and made us proud of her achievement. Another interesting item was attending a very absorbing and witty lecture at the Rice University by the famous Dr Andrew Wiles, who was successful in finally proving the "Fermat's Last Theorem" a few years ago - that had eluded mathematicians for the last three centuries!" The US Presidential campaign kept us fully absorbed, and we were delighted to see the historic win by Barack Obama.

        Finally, soon after my return, I upgraded my PC to a terrific 24" Apple iMac – a New Year gift to myself – and look forward to getting used to the different operating system quickly to make the most of this new high-tech desktop!
Looking back, I can sincerely claim being active and content with my relaxed life during the year. I remain involved with the Britannia pensioner's case to get justice; to get their entitled pensions released which very sadly the Company has withheld for almost six years – and am now optimistic about the court case that I am involved with on behalf of the Pensioners.
I am so grateful for the affection, care and concern from a large number of friends and relatives that makes my life so worthwhile. Finally, my greetings, good wishes and God bless to you and your families….

Sincerely

Ashit

_____________

Ashit K Sarkar
3E Palmtree Place, 23 Palmgrove Road,
BANGALORE - 560 047 Ph: (080) 2554-0393/4112-8153 Cell: 99720-12382
Home Page: http://ashitsarkar.co.nr
E-Mail; sarkarsweet@gmail.com
_________________________

From Maj.Gen. Sekhar Sen, VSM (Retd.) Flat No. 142 Type ‘C’, Block 9, 4^th Floor Kendriya Vihar VIP Road Kolkata – 700 052 Phone: 2525 8632        Mobile: 9433098632

Dear Rusty:

             I am in receipt of your last letter and invitation to Yuletide celebrations which again was confirmed by Shirin.  There was delay in acknowledging it as I was away to Kolkata to attend a cousin’s daughter’s marriage.

             As far as your query is concerned, Justice D.M. Sen happens to be an Indian Army officer, in fact the first Indian Judge Advocate General known as Brig. Paul Sen.  It was by his guidance as a Barrister that the Indian Army Act (1950) was promulgated.  He was close to my father, was in fact my referee for the UPSC exam.  On retirement from the Army legal branch he was appointed Judge of the Assam High Court where he distinguished himself in a number of inquiries and investigations, mainly on atrocities by the armed forces on civilian population.  I remember vaguely that one of his recommendations was to split Assam into 7 states.  Presumably after retirement he settled in Kolkata and I have lost track of him.

             Regarding Mahesh Laskar, obviously he is from the Laskar bari of Sonarang.  Laskar is the vernacular for sailor.  In my childhood, I spoke to Sashi Laskar whose two sons were contemporaries of our parents.  He was a tough character in his nineties fond of ribald stories.  How Mahesh Laskar is connected with his clan can only be related by any of his clan member.  One of his clansmen was the guiding spirit of MS(X), a Sengupta.  I will track him out if he is still in a receptive mood.  As far as my elder sister, now over eighty, in hr days a leading advocate of Kolkata High Court and twice President of Sonarang Sanmilani gave the curt reply that generally lascars were socially inferior to bhuyias, though vaidyas.

             Regarding Ena, I am afraid I cannot find any luck.  Husbands are notorious for vague origins.  Therefore you have to give me the father’s name.

             In Kolkata, I spoke to my cousin Gen. Shekhar Sen.  He has kindly agreed to collaborate.  He is translating and editing his Das book in English.  You are right he led the APS for two years.  His ref:

A.K. Sen, IPS (DDG Postal, Retd.)

Hindustan Apt

Mayur Vihar

New Delhi

Phone: 2225 6656

OLD CONTACTS