Amal outlives Lal

[Prof P Lal, in memoriam from Agent Provocateur by Kanchan Gupta
He inspired me to seek a living from the written word

Poet-translator-teacher. That’s how newspapers described Professor Purushottam Lal — better known as Professor P Lal — who died in his beloved city, Kolkata, on November 3. Readers were also informed he was 81…

Kolkata will miss an intellectual who made the city his home, far away from Kapurthala where he was born. While others, including his students, left Kolkata looking for greener pastures, Prof Lal stayed on, resolute in his belief that this was his karmabhumi. In his death, I have lost an affectionate teacher and someone who inspired me to seek a living from the written word. Meanwhile, the queue ahead gets shorter. This appears as my Sunday column, Coffee Break, in The Pioneer on November 14, 2010.]

Amal had fought epic battles with Lal and now outlives him. [TNM]