Dr. Nene, I had the opportunity, to interact with in person. In Pune, at a birth centenary celebration of Prof. D D Kosambi. Courtesy Prof. Ram Bapat. Prof. Nene was too close to Kosambi. Prof. Mira Kosambi was also there.
Prof. Nene was gracious and kind enough to grant the copyright waiver for the 'Exasperating Essays' to be carried by the Marxists Internet Archive (may like to look up: < http://www.marxists.org/archive/kosambi/exasperating-essays/x01/index.htm>). He was the copyright holder for Prof. Kosambi's works. We used to have some exchange of mails from time to time. He was a strikingly unassuming person. Here is my chat with him wherein I had informed of the uploading of the 'Exasperating Essays'. The disarming modesty is for all to see. 19/09/2009 23:54 me: Thank you sir! Exasperating Essays have been finally uploaded! 23:55 http://www.marxists.org/archive/kosambi/exasperating-essays/x01/index.htm 23:56 An intro would come soon. R: Glad you informed me. me: It has been uploaded today only. 23:59 R: I receive some interesting mails frequently. If It does not bother you I can forward then to you nene me: That'd be great. 00:01 R: Good i will send some of them to you off and on. me: Thanks a lot. R: Good night. 00:02 me: Good night! I do deeply mourn his death. Sukla From: "Dr C. K. Raju" : Mr R. P. Nene, leftist activist from Pune, passed away a few hours ago. In his last email to me, he had said that he was unwell, but would definitely get well, though he didn't know when. My response on Holi was answered by his brother saying that he was admitted to the ICU with a mild paralytic attack. Subsequently, my wife and son both went to Pune to see him, but he was completely paralysed and unable to communicate. Nene became a family friend when I was in Pune. During the 1980's we formed a small study group on nuclear strategy, and worked extensively together on issues related to peace and disarmament, organizing demonstrations, film shows, talks, conferences etc. Our activities extended to street theatre which also involved various trade unions, still active then. (One of our plays was in the charged atmosphere of the Telco strike, at midnight, another during a mammoth rally with 1 lakh people.) Of course, Nene's interests were extremely wide. Starting from the Popular Book Depot he was popular in Pune, and he was part of almost every important political and social activity in Pune. Always very helpful, and always willing to take up a cause. I am sure others will bring out further details of his varied activities. His other great interest, from an early age, was D. D. Kosambi. He probably had the most complete collection of papers by D. D. Kosambi. (And I hope we will be able to find an appropriate place for it; last I heard of it, he said it had gone for binding.) Recently, on the Kosambi centenary he had organized a series of talks in Pune. Way back in the late eighties he had approached me with a request to write on Kosambi's mathematics, and I eventually wrote it for EPW in time for his 80th birthday, acknowledging his many inputs. Various activists had organized a meeting to celebrate his 80th birthday. I could not go, but many people were there. I was told that Vivek Monteiro, who used to come for many of our programs (along with P. Sainath) apparently played the guitar and sang on the occasion! Javed Alam gave a speech. Nene did not marry, and had no children. Fittingly, he passed away on Shahadat Day. C. K. Raju -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
