For children: What was physicist Satyendranath Bose’s childhood in Calcutta like?

Surendranath Bose was on his way back from the market with the fish and the vegetables. He was filled with child-like excitement. He could not wait to see what his son Satyen would be doing. Once he got home, he quickly changed and rushed off to check on his son. He opened the door to the store room a wee bit, and peeped inside.

A little boy of four, lost in a sea of numbers, was sitting amid stacks of pulses, lentils, oil, soap, sugar, salt, old beddings, pillows and old clothes. Dressed in shorts and a vest, the boy was poring over numbers, staring at them in wonderment. Numbers and math symbols had been scrawled in chalk on the red cement floor of the room. Satyen was looking delighted as he stared at the numbers and added more on the shiny red floor.

“Wonderful!” Surendranath exclaimed. “You got everything correct! Was it tough”

Little Satyen giggled. “Mathematics isn’t tough, Baba. Please give me some really difficult sums next time you go out. I finish them so fast.” Then, excited, he added, “Look, Baba! The red floor looks like a pond and the numbers and symbols seem to be swimming in it.”

Satyen, whose...

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