Raphael welcomes Pasha Biswas, retired Colonel of the Fourth Battalion Parachute Regiment, as its new Administrative Officer. He is responsible for logistics, maintenance and staff welfare.
Colonel Biswas grew up in Shillong in the state of Meghalaya in the north-east India. When the family moved to Dehra Dun, Pasha joined the National Defence Academy as a cadet.
Colonel Biswas took early retirement from the army. He worked for the Nirmal Ashram Eye Institute where he established a 200-bed eye hospital in Rishikesh. He then managed several sugar mills. Later he was appointed Registrar of the College of Engineering, Roorkee.
Colonel Biswas learned of Raphael through a chance meeting with Raphael’s previous Administrative Officer Colonel Hansen at the Defence Service Officers Institute of Dehradun.
“I spotted Colonel Hansen whom I knew as he had been in the Fifth Battalion parachute regiment. After he had learned what I had been up to since leaving the army he looked me in the eye and said ‘I think I know where you should be next’. I had been shoulder tapped.”
Colonel Biswas lives on site at Raphael with his wife Indrani and their son. Their daughter lives in the United States.
When asked about his time so far at Raphael, Colonel Biswas says it is the compassion he sees and the sense of service. “What I have learned most since arriving at Raphael is the beauty of so many of our residents. Let’s surrender to that”.