Physicist & father of Bengali sci-fi

Sir JC Bose, the first Indian in the field of science to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society, was born at MymenSingh in Bengal Presidency of British India on November 30, 1858. Born into a Brahmo Samaj family, his father believed that Indians should be well versed in their local culture and traditions before being introduced to foreign influence, which is why a young Bose was enrolled in a Faridpur school where children from different castes, classes and religion studied together.

At the age of 17, Bose moved to Calcutta and enrolled in St Xavier's college to pursue physics for five years, after which he travelled to England to study medicine at the University of London. Due to poor health, Bose had to leave medicine, and in 1881, he joined Christ's College at the University of Cambridge to study chemistry, physics and botany as a part of natural sciences.

Known for a versatile range of studies, Bose was the first to illustrate that plants have life and experience pain and pleasure, like animals. His observations were proven through his own invention-a crescograph.

Bose, a pioneer in radio and microwave optics, was also the first to demonstrate wireless communication using radio waves, besides detecting radio signals by using semiconductor junctions.

It was in 1885 that he returned to India and joined Presidency College in Calcutta as a professor of physics. Despite racial discrimination in the form of disparity in salary compared with his British colleagues, Bose remained dedicated to teaching and research. As a token of protest, though, he taught without salary for three years, until his position was confirmed on a par with British colleagues. However, he was paid arrears in recognition of his commitment.

Science fiction intrigued Bose, so much so that he authored 'Niruddesher Kahini', underscoring his recognition as the father of Bengali science fiction. This tale of weather control highlights getting rid of a cyclone using a small bottle of hair oil, 'Kunto Keshori'.

He spent the last years of his life at Giridih, in a house located near Jhanda Maidan, the building that was later named Jagadish Chandra Bose Smriti Vigyan Bhavan and inaugurated by the then Bihar Governor, Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai, in 1997.

Bose died at the age of 87. Bose Institute in Kolkata, a premier research institute dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific study; Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata; and JC Bose University of Science and Technology are among the institutes perpetuating his name.