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Professor Biswas: My Mentor

By Dr. Sunil Chandra Dutta

Late Professor Dr. Mozibur Rahman Biswas (Department of Irrigation and Water Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh) was not only my teacher but also my mentor. A teacher is a person who teaches students to learn, acquire knowledge, and competency to lead a life in a disciplined way. Whereas a mentor guides a disciple through a close relationship to share knowledge, skills and experience to face the real-world situation to move forward with a stipulated goal. With high gratitude, I can say that without my mentor Professor Biswas, I should not be at this stage where I am now.

Late Professor Biswas was the Head of the Department of Irrigation & Water Management, Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Rural Technology, Member of the BAU Syndicate, and lastly Member of PSC – what a towering personality and experience!

Professor Biswas was regarded as a well-organized teacher by the students. He used to come to the Agricultural Engineering Faculty Building (Tin shed at the bank of the River Brahmaputra) around 7 am during the weekdays. Yes, I am talking about the post-liberation war period in Bangladesh. He taught us the 'Flood Control and River Training' course when I was a final year student in Agricultural Engineering (1976-77).

Professor Biswas, dressed in fotua and a simple pant, used to start the day by teaching the class at 8:00 am. All the students were very punctual to attend the class. He had a towering experience in teaching the hydrological principles that are immensely invaluable to understand the water resources development of Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world.

Every student used to carefully listen to his lecture. I was very attentive to take class notes as he delivered his lectures. He used to talk in a very simple language so that every student could understand easily. He placed emphasis on 'Hydrograph', 'runoff' and 'Flood Routing' analyses. Now I understand what he taught to us and that teaching has made many of his students experts in water resources development.

Professor Biswas gave us a lot of assignments to solve hydrological problems. I can still remember that I had to solve a lot of book questions from 'Hydrology for Engineers' by Linsley et al., and I strongly believe that those problems solving mechanisms helped me a lot to understand complicated water resources development in Bangladesh and Australia.

I joined as a Lecturer in the Department of Irrigation and Water Management at the Bangladesh Agricultural University in June 1977. Professor Biswas called me one day and asked me to do some paper cutting work related to water resources development in Bangladesh. I was very scared whether I would be able to do the job the way he wanted. He told me 'Sunil, your real learning will start now, always try to understand from nature and every event will give you a lesson. You have to acquire knowledge through facing a real issue'. He advised me to come to the office before 7 am and work up to 7 pm. He also told me, 'I want to see the light in your sitting room even after evening'. I used to teach my classes and when there was no class duty, I used to study. I used to sit in a tiny room adjacent to Professor Biswas' chamber. He used to frequently discuss a lot of research questions with me. There were some computers installed in his room and I supervised the students doing computing work for research projects. Professor Biswas may be compared to a green coconut which is hard outside but very soft inside; that was his sign of affection to his students.

Anyway, I went to Thailand for studying Master of Engineering in 1978 and I came back in August 1979. Professor Biswas told me, 'Sunil, engage yourself in doing research, otherwise, you will not acquire knowledge'. Yes, it was Professor Biswas who engaged me fully in 'Education, research and training' to acquire knowledge in various aspects of water resources development in Bangladesh. He told me, 'You will look after research, I will look after administration – you do not have to go to Administrative Building'. Professor Biswas believed in 'Multidisciplinary Research' and that is why I had to work in an environment where researchers were engaged from Agricultural Economics, Horticulture, Agronomy, Plant Pathology, Food Engineering, Farm Power & Machinery, Soil Science, and Agricultural Marketing.

Professor Biswas asked me whether I could measure the discharge of LLP, DTW and STW and he was the first person in Bangladesh who pioneered to do this task on a wide scale. I had to construct some flow measuring devices with the help of Hydraulic laboratory staff and some skilled workers from Akbaria Industries (a Welding farm that used to make steel almirah). I started my journey in 1980 and worked non-stop until 1986 when I went to England for Ph.D. study.

I came back from England in 1990. I was also very fortunate to work very closely with Emeritus Professor Dr. M. Abdus Sattar Mandal (Bangladesh Agricultural University) since the 1980s. He helped to shape and lead the multidisciplinary research team in consultation with Professor Biswas and myself. Our collaborative field research began again in 1990 and worked until 1995 when I decided to migrate to Australia.

We engaged a lot of students to work in the field and collected data related to irrigation water management, farm economics, field and horticultural crops. These multidisciplinary research activities provided enough opportunities for the teachers and the students to learn from the field and apply those in their real lives.

The major research projects we conducted under his (Dr. Biswas) leadership were:

• A study on the privatization of minor irrigation in Bangladesh (1993-1995)

• Crop Diversification: an alternative strategy for improving the performance of the irrigation water market in Bangladesh (1990-92)

• Field studies of the performance of minor irrigation under different forms of management (1984-86)

• Feasibility of canal linings for minor irrigation projects in Bangladesh (1983)

• Quality of irrigation water (1980-82)

• Field research in water management and irrigation (1980-82)

Besides all these activities, Professor Biswas wrote books and book chapters on the management of minor irrigation projects, prepared training materials on on-farm water management for local government engineers and BRAC field staff.

Professor Biswas will remain alive through his achievements and students who are actively working home and abroad for water resources development. Lastly, I visited him in 2016 in Bangladesh. Although he had some surgery on his brain, he was looking very healthy. He was very enthusiastic and talked a lot about our past days and my job in Australia. I could not realize that he would leave us so early! On his first death anniversary, I pray for the salvation of my mentor's soul and let his family members (who he has left behind) have moral strength and courage to endure this invaluable loss. Long live Professor Biswas' teaching and mentoring amongst us.

Dr. Sunil Chandra Dutta is a water accountant at Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology.