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Here's where you get to learn about Mayukh Bose, his roots, his influences, likes, dislikes and even his blood type!
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General Description
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Let me start by saying that I'm a 5'10" kid with a perpetual grin on my face. I was born and generally brought up in and around The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, India and now live in the lovely city of Glendale, California. I love computers, BMWs, rock n' roll, travelling, hiking, reading, rollerblading and sleeping (though not in that order)! I'm primarily right handed, though I prefer to use my left hand for common tasks such as handling a mouse or dribbling a basketball. I guess that I must be sort of ambidextrous then. My blood group is AB+ which makes me an extremely rare blood type.
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If you're wondering, my dad's from West Bengal, my mum's from the state of Assam and I grew up in the state of Tamil Nadu. Since each state has its own culture and language, I grew up absorbing all of them. Add to the mixture the facts that I spent a while growing up in the town of Darmstadt, West Germany when I was little and that IIT has a subculture of its own and you have a very confused kid.
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I went to school at Vanavani Matriculation and managed to wring a Bachelor of Engineering degree out of those stubborn folks out at Madras University. I also spent a little while working on a Masters at Purdue University before deciding to become a programmer full time. I then moved to California and haven't looked back ever since.
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I have one older sister (Mohua), one younger brother (Manjul), one very beautiful and wonderful wife (Suzanne) who is very addicted to sushi and lots of good friends (weird or otherwise). In time, I will link to each one of their home pages here. For now, you're going to have to take my word for it.
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I'm proud to say that I've beaten World of Warcraft addiction and haven't played since March 2009. Thus I have plenty of spare time to hit the gym and read books instead. Also in my spare time, I volunteer as a forum moderator at DevShed.
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What's in a Name Anyway?
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So you're wondering about my rather unusual name huh? Well, my first name is pronounced Mo-you-kh if you're Bengali or Assamese. If you're Tamil (or from the south of India in general), then you'd normally pronounce it Ma-you-kh. If you're from anywhere else, then it's properly pronounced Mo-you-kh or Yo!. Trust me, it isn't that hard to pronounce. Now if you're wondering what it means, it's Sanskrit for "Ray of Light".
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My last name sounds like Boss not Bos-ay. Properly pronounced, it is Bose. Nothing simpler huh? If you're wondering, there's a whole history associated with that name.
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On my mother's side, I happen to belong to the Barkataki clan (pronounced 'Bor-kotaki') and I have collected some history on this side of the family as well, which you can read below.
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A Brief History About the Family Name "Bose"
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The family name Bose is normally associated with the Indian state of Bengal and most people believe that they had their origins there. There are a zillion Boses in the world these days, but I wonder how many of them know about their history. The Boses can trace their origins back a few hundred years and there are quite a few famous (and infamous!) people in the family line. If your last name is Bose, here's what you have to be proud (or ashamed) of!
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The origin of the family name Bose (and other variations of the same name, Basu or Bosu) can be traced back to almost seven hundred years ago and is linked to the the spread of Islam replacing Buddhism as the official state religion in many places in India. For example, before Islam came to Afghanistan, the area was ruled by the Buddhist emperors Ashoka and Kanishka - the latter having his capital in Purushpur or present day Peshawar. Similarly, in Bengal (both present day West Bengal in India and Bangladesh) a Buddhist dynasty of kings named Pal were ruling the kingdom. At this time, India was composed of hundreds of small states each with their own local rulers.
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Bakhtier Khilji of the Slave Dynasty Sultanate in Delhi attacked the area that is today the present day state of Bihar in 1198-99. In the following year, he invaded Bengal and made Islam the official state religion (Incidentally, he also destroyed the famous university of Nalanda in Bihar at this time). The next year, he tried to annex the state of Assam, but could not succeed and eventually went back to Delhi, where he died. Meanwhile the state of Bengal had become part of a larger Islamic state, with a dozen smaller independent kingdoms which were ruled by local rulers. After Bakhtier Khilji's death, these smaller states started to rebuild their kingdoms again.
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One of the twelve local rulers was King Pratapaditya of Jessore (currently in southern Bangladesh). At this time, the caste system was pretty much the way of life in India and certain communities were always expected to perform certain tasks. In order to rule the region, the King needed various types of people like Brahmins for religious purposes, Kshatriyas for war and defence, Baniyas for business etc. However, due to the invasion by Bakhtier Khilji, there was a shortage of such people in Bengal. He therefore requested the King of Kanauj (present day state of Uttar Pradesh) to send some appropriate people and it is said that five Brahmins and five Kayasthas (the five surnames Bose, Ghosh, Mitra, Guha and Dutta) were dispatched to Bengal. The first Bose to arrive was Dasarath Bose.
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Local legend has it that when the first group of people arrived, they could not immediately meet the King and they were given some water to drink and refresh themselves. After drinking the water, the remaining water was poured over some dying plants which suddenly started to regrow again. This convinced several people that the newcomers were just what they were looking for.
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The newcomers were settled in a place called "Kulingram" somewhere in present day Burdwan district of West Bengal with the explicit mission to re-establish "Kul-dharma" (caste system). Bengali literature of the last two to three hundred years are full of stories of atrocities committed by old men going from village to village and taking several young girls as their wives and generally causing suffering all around.
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One of the descendants of Dasarath Bose was the fifteenth century poet, Maladhar Bose, who wrote the book "Srikrishna Vijay" in Bengali (his contemporary was the poet Kritrivas Ojha, who wrote the Bengali version of Ramayana). Maladhar Bose's accomplishments were recognised by the then ruler of Bengal, Hussein Khan, who offered him (and his descendants) the hereditory title of "Gunaraj Khan". From then on, there has been one branch of the Bose family that wrote their surname as "Bose-Khan". Technically, yours truly also belongs to this branch and could use this expanded surname. Another surname added on was Majumdar and technically, yours truly could append that also (as if it wasn't long enough!).
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One branch of the Bose family went to East Bengal and they lived in Natakhali village in the Manikganj subdivision of Dhaka district until the partition of Bengal in 1947. This part is now in present day Bangladesh. One subgroup of this Natakhali branch, however, moved away from the home range and moved to Bhagalpur in the present day state of Bihar around the second half of the eighteenth century.
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A Brief History About the Family Name "Barkataki"
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The family name Barkataki is normally associated with the Indian state of
Assam. The name is properly pronounced as 'Bor-kotaki' in the
Assamese language. It is composed of two Assamese words, 'Bor' which means 'big' or 'senior',
and 'Kotaki' which means 'person who tells' or 'person who says'. So the name literally means
something like 'senior person who says' or 'senior information giver'. In an European context, such a person
would be called a 'Chief Town Crier' or 'Ambassador'.
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The Barkatakis were therefore a heriditary family of ambassadors and were used by the
Ahom kings to convey official news and orders from one town to another. Since the Barkatakis were of the
Brahmin (priest) caste, this meant they could safely travel from one town to another, without fear of being
ambushed by bandits and thieves, since it was considered unlucky to attack a holy person.
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Unfortunately, the Assamese side of the family was a bit harder to trace, but
the following was related to me personally by Mr. Narayan Barkataki, a relative of the family. My maternal
grandparents were Laxmi Devi and Krishna Chandra Barkataki, who was an electrical engineer working in the Assam Electricity Board. My maternal
great-grandfather was Durgadhar Barkataki, who worked in the subdivisional magistrate's office as the Head of
the secretarial staff. In those days, this was the highest post in the office that could be achieved by a
non-European person. My great-grandmother's (my maternal grandfather's mother) first name couldn't be
recalled unfortunately, but she was from the Bezboruah clan (which in Assamese is a heriditary title that
means 'medical officer'). It is known that her parents were Lokhinath Bezboruah and Pragyasundari Devi.
Lokhinath Bezboruah was a famous Assamese poet and he is known for composing the Assamese state anthem. His
brother, Hemchandra Bezboruah was also famous, as the author of the first Assamese dictionary. My great-great
grandfather was Dinadhar Barkataki, about whom not much is known unfortunately.
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Here's what I can trace my ancestry to:
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| Mayukh's Immediate Ancestors |
| Name |
Relationship |
Preetishree Bose, World's best cook.
Dr. Tarit K. Bose, Scientist and Professor
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Mum and Dad :-)
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Dr. Bidhu Bhusan Bose, Medical practitioner
Maya Bose
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Paternal Grandfather and Paternal Grandmother |
| Bankim Chandra Bose |
Paternal Great Grandfather |
| Ananda Lal Bose |
Paternal Great Great Grandfather |
| Gourokishor Bose |
Paternal Great Great Great Grandfather.
It was probably his father who came from East Bengal to settle in Bhagalpur. |
Laxmi Barkataki
Krishna Chandra Barkataki, Electrical Engineer
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Maternal Grandmother and Grandfather.
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??? Barkataki
Durgadhar Barkataki, Head of secretarial staff at the subdivisional magistrate office
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Maternal Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather.
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Dinadhar Barkataki
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Maternal Great Great Grandfather.
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Some Famous and Infamous Boses and Barkatakis
| Name |
Claim to Fame |
| Ram Ram Bose |
18th century writer of Bengali Prose |
| Monoj Bose |
Story teller and Novelist |
| Budhadev Bose |
Story teller and Poet |
| Samaresh Bose |
Novelist |
| Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose |
Physicist. Allegedly, the true inventor of the radio. |
| Prof. Satyendranath Bose |
Statistician. Worked on theories of the Bose Einstein Condensate and Einstein-Bose Statistics. Had a subatomic particle named after him. References can be found here. |
| Dr. Amar Gopal Bose |
Physicist. Founder of the Bose Corporation, makers of extraordinary speakers. References can be found here and here. |
| Subash Chandra Bose |
Political Leader and Revolutionary/Terrorist (depending on your point of view and which side you happen to be on :-).) |
| Narayan Barkataki |
Lawyer and former Member of Legislative Assembly in the Indian Parliament. He was also the state leader for the BJP party in India. He also happens to be mum's cousin and I'm indebted to him for the
history on the Barkataki side of the family. |
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