Sitting here with tears that have dried up, I think of my dad who passed away 4 days ago. He was a wonderful person; I know all of us think of our fathers the same way! Born a Brahmin to a post master, the man worked his way thro high school, then engineering where he did exceptionally well to get an entry into the then world famous Tata Institute. He would study aeronautics under the able guidance of Dr Satish Dhawan, his mentor. He would go from there to the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne where he got his Ph.D in Aeronautics.
Where most people would have stayed back in the USA, he decided to come back to India. He joined the Tata Institute as an Asst Professor and was there for two years when he was recommended, by Dr Dhawan, to head the Dept of Aeronautical Engg at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. While most of the family was excited about this opportunity, being very young at the time, I didn’t want to leave my cousins!!!! My sister was 1 and would have moved to the moon without a problem!!
Thus began our life up north! We would spend the next seven years in Kanpur! I was confused more than usual, having just mastered Kannada and then moving north where Kannada made no sense and quickly earned me the title of Madrasi! Well, my dad was always there to help us though he was busy setting up the now-world famous aero engineering dept.
He was never happy staying put at one place! This was evident in his moves from Kanpur to Bangalore, then to Libya and finally to the USA, where he worked at the NASA Lewis Research Center as a Chief Scientist till he retired! We figured retirement would slow him down a bit but that was wishful thinking! He took trips to different parts of the world with my mom as his partner. They would go to Europe, eastern parts of Asia and India. Within India the two would go to Mount Kailash at nearly 22,000 feet and different parts of India. While this would have been more than most could handle in one single trip, the man visited IITK as a guest speaker! All this in his early 80’s. For the next 8 years, he regularly made trips to India with my mother.
In the last year, he slowed down considerably, mostly caused by a minor stroke he suffered. He was mobile and loved his Volvo but we took his keys away. That was probably his worst day, but he quickly understood.
He was proud of all of his kids and grandkids doting on them as and when he saw them. My son, at the time 15, used to jovially address his grandfather as “young man”. My dad was a cleanliness fanatic and drove my mom crazy.
Today, before his cremation, a friend of his told me “you children will never now what a legend he is in Indian Aeronautics!” He’s right! To us he was just Dad! The person who solved most problems I had! Who was so good at mathematics, it was scary!! I inherited his skills (at least some of them) and so did my sisters!
Dr Ramachandra, you will always be my role model! Dad, we didn’t understand what you were to Indian Aeronautics till we were told by others. All of us are proud of you Dad! We will miss you more than ever!! You will be in our thoughts every single day!!
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