On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Supreet Sethi <[email protected]>wrote:
> Yesterday's news, of Raj moving on, is shocking. I met him through ilugd > and came to know better of him through various activities of ilugd that he > helped organize. He was brutally honest and that made him special. He was > special because with those piercing words, he could get through to you > better. Yesterday night, I visited his drawing room, which played host to > many linux-dellhi events. Niyam playfully called it opium den. The opium > den was filled with people, Andrew, Gora and Friji. The trade-mark green > camouflage was lying life-less on the low diwan. For a second, I imagined a > cup of coffee and creme, which was kind of ritual commencement of > linux-delhi meetings, with Kishore bringing the coffee and Raj arranging > for cups and creme. The cup of coffee is not there any more, that table is > missing and more importantly Raj has checked out of the opium den. > > Raj had a heart attack at ~7 pm, on 12/12/12. It was during a phone-call with a client, who alerted Tirveni. Tirveni got through to his neighbours who took him to the nearest hospital, where, unfortunately, it was too late for any medical intervention. Friji, visiting Delhi, and Gora also rushed to the hospital, but were only in time to help the family with making arrangements for the morgue. His body was cremated at 3:00 pm, today. Thereafter, those of us from ILUGD who attended, repaired to Sanjha Chula, and reminisced about the occasions gone by. Fitting, as Kishore later told me - Twenty years ago, when he started a BBS out of Lajpat Nagar, the few who turned up went over to the same place - the start of the tradition of meeting and eating that was to be ILUGD. I got to know Raj seven years ago, when ILUGD was in transition from the tangible meet-and-eat, to the intangible list-that-is-now-[ilugd]. Along with Gora, Kishore and Mary, he proposed to seed the development of open source software within a university environment. We coordinated a nascent drug discovery software, bravely worked on by students largely from the RKGIT, Ghaziabad. Thereafter, were our meetings that lead to the use of the university as a base for initially Freedel, and later Freed.in. His sudden passing is a shock and a loss. However, his life was full, and rich with achievement. Besides the character traits of "Brutal Honesty", "Man of Principles", "Zero-Compromise", and his achievements to the FOSS world, I also rate highly the fact that he has served as a magnet and mentor for young hackers from the Delhi area, all of whom have gone on to do well on the world stage. And his strong belief that FOSS was not a charity or religion, but a philosophy and way of life, and livelihood, for an independent SME. I shall miss the coffee-and-cream. The vibrant discussions on FOSS. And generally hanging around with him listening to 70's rock, watching movies on his larger screen monitor and occasionally lapsing into a life before the digital age. Andrew _______________________________________________ Ilugd mailing list [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
