Express gratitude every moment for the way you touched our lives

My famiy and I had a special relation with Tapan. It is difficult to explain and summarize it in few words, but I will try.

He was neither my colleague, nor my professor. In fact, I never understood too much of his work. Just as an example, I attended with my family the ceremony where he received his Doctorate Honoris Causa in Madrid. I was translating his speech to my mother, and the only part that I understood, and could translate, was that the most important piece of a cell phone was the antenna. That was all I got.

But there are a lot of things that I undertsand.

When my wife and I went to Syracuse, as I was studying there my Master´s Degree in Public Administration, he helped us with everything we needed. That, I understand and appreciate.

I understand that Tapan was a colleague and close friend of my sister Magdalena. They worked together, wrote together, taught together, traveled together.... They, in fact, shared great part of their lives. Even my mother met him quite often, and liked him a lot.

Tapan often came to my home. He spent some time with us when we were in Brazil and once again in my house in Madrid. He always had a great time with my children. Being so different, I was amazed how much they enjoyed each other. In fact, I believe that my son Carlos is now studying air and space engineering partially due to his influence.

And I do understand that my family and I will miss him a lot. 

Prof. Sarkar's passion for humanitarian activities is well known. Here he is seen attending the AP-S SIGHT workshop in CODEC conference, Kolkata 2015 

A wonderful trip to Cairo Egypt and a day trip to Giza 

One of Tapan's mottos, was a quote from Sri Ramakrishna: “As long as I live, so long do I learn”. He exemplified it all along his life. He was always reading, always learning, and never keeping what he learnt just for him. He was always eager to share and he did it tirelessly. He also knew that in order to get the message through there is the need to repeat it countless times. Again he did it tirelessly… I wish we would all be like him!

I think Jethu is entirely responsible for my love for travel. From the very beginning he would always pack my luggage, never happy with the way I did it. Of course, that had nothing to do with the fact that he would already have things he had shopped for in the various places he visited and would put all that never fit in his luggage, in mine! On one such occasion, I remember Magdalena telling me that Jethu complained to her that my luggage was too heavy and that I was carrying too many things. She was especially puzzled to hear this as when she looked in my hotel wardrobe and luggage she did not see anything that could be termed "excessive".
I asked her if he mentioned to her that he was sending 10kg of macaw food that he had got from Syracuse along with a few kilos of dog treats for the 3 dogs, and a few scrolls of 6 feet paintings by local artists he managed to fit in there as well!! Of course he did not!!

Inviting everyone to share their story or pics with/about Tapan and fill this space.....

I first met Tapan in 1989 during the IEEE International Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Symposium (later on International Microwave Symposium), held in Long Beach, CA, USA. A friend of mine had asked me to attend a session together with her where there was a debate dealing with one of the controversial topics of the year. We arrived a bit late and we sat down at the back. In the front of the room the speakers were explaining their views. I was fascinated by Tapan’s approach, but mainly at that time by the volume of his voice. I was able to hear him perfectly well and more… I asked my friend: Is he deaf? Her answer was: No, he always speaks like that! During the break, Tapan saw us and since my friend was a little too short he came to tell us to move to the front row, because there were empty seats there… We enjoyed the rest of the debate and later on a happy lunch with him and others in the same table. This was Tapan! An imposing researcher of incommensurable stature but with a soft heart. Next we met after only one week in San Jose, CA, USA, for the IEEE International Antennas and Propagation Symposium. During that meeting Tapan got interested in my work. We started collaboration between both research groups. It lasted for the rest of his life.