Martin Burn Ltd. to Research In Motion - a century of engineers

Those who know me well enough are also quite aware of the fact that I am immensely proud of my ancestral house! By ancestral house I mean a stoic structure in the heart of Calcutta that has continued to shelter five generations of our family for the past 85 years.

The house as it is today

I had read a while back that it does not matter how expensive a house is. What matters is how many people it has sheltered. In that scale our house, lovingly called 125 (because of the house number) would pass with flying colors! Now, 125 was built by my great grand dad, the late Sarat Chandra Ghosh whom we refer to as Appa-Dadu way back in 1926. Appa-dadu was born in around 1880 in Jessore of the then undivided Bengal. After his father, Ramendranath passed away at an early age, his mother Kshiradasundari sent him off to Krishnagar to his maternal uncle's house. It was customary in those days for boys to be brought up with the maternal uncle as a caregiver in the absence of a father. So, Appa-dadu finished his schooling and joined Bihar School of Engineering. He graduated as a civil engineer. I remember hearing this story from my great uncle, that one day Appa-Dadu was overseeing some construction work at Patna Rail Station. He was in his early twenties that time and was very enthusiastic about his work. Climbing the scaffolds, he was busily instructing some laborers when he noticed two men watching him from below. One was a British and the other, an Indian but dressed in western clothes. When he climbed down, the Indian guy beckoned him and asked about who he was and if he wanted to work for their company. Appa-dadu had no idea who those men were, so he asked them what their company was. Those men were Sir Thomas Aquin Martin and Sir Rajen Mookherjee, founders of Martin Burn Ltd. Martin Burn Ltd was one of the most famous construction companies in the British empire at that time! (It is equivalent to Bill Gates asking a fresh graduate if he wants to work for Microsoft Corp.)

Appa dadu with his 2 grand sons

So Appa-Dadu came to Calcutta and started working. In the mean time he got married to Sudhanshubala Deb from a village near Diamond Harbour (southern part of Bengal). They lived in a rented house in Bhawanipur and had seven children. The eldest two kids were daughters so they were married off quite early and then they moved to the "new" house in 1927. Our house is a 3 storeyed building with solid 25" walls and a super strong foundation. The rooms all have plenty (more than enough) doors and windows for cross ventillation and sunlight streams in almost in all the dozen rooms! Appa-dadu is one of those very lucky people who had a long life, a happy family, a grand house and a satisfied life! When he retired it was found that in his entire service life he had only taken 43 days off. He even went to work on the days of his daughters' weddings. Half the day off was fine on those days!

Dadun with his grand son

Keeping up with the engineering tradition, my grand dad Sailendra Nath became a mechanical engineer. His fascination was cars. Talking about our house, I can't miss out our WBD 2946 - the black Austin 40 that my grand dad (Dadun) owned. Even in his late 70s, I have seen Dadun standing on the 2nd floor balcony and saying, pointing to a car on the street below and clearly stating what's wrong with that car's engine. He lived and breathed cars. Driving that Austin 40 was a passion for him as well as for his 3 sons to whom it was not just a car, but a faithful member of our family.

3G

Generation 3, consisting of my dad and his two younger brothers didn't have to build houses for themselves but they are taking very good care of what they have been blessed with. We are popping out engineers in every generation though, my uncles are both mechanical engineers. All three of them are car crazy. They started with specs of Buicks and Austins and Morrises and are continuing to keep them updated with the latest models of Hondas and Nissans. There's no stopping them for sure. Almost every time I talk to them they ask me how my driving is coming along, which cars I have shortlisted and give me tips on how to park parallely within 6 inches of the curb!

My sister and I are the last of the Ghosh-s because we don't have any brothers and our kids would technically not have the last name of Ghosh. However, we are both engineers. My sister is one of those strong willed people who did not get on the IT bandwagon. Rejecting her job at Infosys, she went on to become what she did her bachelors on - to be a good architect! I'm carrying on in the mobile technology/wireless world now finding my way in the kingdom of smartphones. When I just started my first semester in engineering in 2003 and was working on a graphics assignment, my uncle was helping me with that. The set squares were my sisters, the wooden T my grand dad's and the book on engineering graphics had Appa-dadu's name written on the fly leaf with the date 1903! We are maintaining this tradition for a century!

PS: In the room which used to be Appa-dadu's bedroom, the latest addition to our family is crawling and trying to walk on unsteady legs... let's see what's in store for her :-)