One Year for the Departure !!

It was a day in June. Was it raining? I don’t remember now. I was busy for the whole day. We had to write an article on etd@IISc. etd@IISc was our project at NCSI and it was almost delayed to send an article to an International conference to be held at Australia. It had been decided on the last day that we have to write the draft and he will be reviewing it a day later. Ironically in that meeting he told us “Perhaps we can ask our Chairman to review the article, as he is a well-versed expert to review up to the standard”. For a moment I kept wondering in my mind “Oh...an eminent writer like you are saying this?? Actually what’s the need for it if you can review the same ...?”

Meeting was over and it was our task now to prepare a draft of the article. I didn’t have any clarity in putting up the things. And the article remained unfinished though the clock on the wall at NCSI moved a long way in late night.

I planned to get up early and finish the article so that he can review it in the morning hours. It was one of the bad nights for me. I closed my eyes only to face it’s resistance to embrace the state we call “Sleeping”. I believe I must have slept, at last, expecting the alarm ring to awake me. But instead my phone rang loudly only to hear a cursed news; only to feel a deadly shock: “He is no more in this world”
TBR was no more when I started writing the article for his review..!
It had happened in last day evening itself.



Gracefully I thank my friends helping me to be stable in those hours. We were consoling each other. But it was beyond all our strength and belief. And we understood all are same in his love and influence. All were equally sad and all were equally affected.

I remember that evening. We sat on the cement bench in front of the vast ground at IISc. There were noise and arguments among the hockey and cricket players. I looked at the trees which border the ground. It seemed like dark thick forest. And every evening we sat there after spending the most cursed hours in NCSI. We didn’t play cricket for several weeks. And it was raining that followed the days after.

Ram, KK, Joby...all got separated now. Staying miles away. And Dr TBR too, is away..; far away from us. But the inspiration continue still. His voice and smile is alive in my mind.

And it’s now exactly one year for our pains!! A year old now TBR in our memories!!