My first meeting with Oberoi sir as a young officer in Assam (I belong to the 1986 batch of Assam-Meghalaya cadre) is still etched in my memory. He regaled me with stories of his experience in the government of Assam. He even had some fun-filled anecdotes about the very difficult period of the Assam agitation. He also convinced me during that meeting that Assam was one of the best cadres in the country! He was like a breath of fresh air in the Assam bureaucracy. His inimitable sense of humour helped him see the lighter side of government functioning. He challenged me on my understanding of Assamese society and the education sector in the state
. He encouraged young officers to think out of the box. In 1990, he invited me to write the education chapter of the Assam Human Development Report that he was anchoring for UNDP. He was instrumental in igniting the love for the education sector within me, which later became a passion. I loved listening to him during the numerous get-togethers we had in Guwahati, and later in Delhi. It is impossible to forget the twinkle in his eyes that matched the smile on his lips. He didn’t want to be called sir (nor did Nandini Ma’am like being called Ma’am) and initially protested at frequent use of the word sir. His photographs from the Northeast are out of the world. As also the witty one-liners that described the pictures. This collection is a treasure. I used to often request him on WhatsApp to publish a few coffee table books with those photographs.
He was the best of the best of the Assam IAS officers. I have always admired him for his intellectual ability and unmatched sense of humour. I will miss him a lot.