Obituary – The KGP Chronicle

The Soul Set Free

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom-filed room
Why cry for a soul set free?
Miss me a little – but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared
Miss me but let me go
For this is a journey that we all must take
And each must go alone
Its all a part of the Master’s plan
A step on the road to home
When you are lonely and sick of heart
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds
Miss me but let me go.

IIT Kharagpur community bids adieu to Prof. Kailas Chandra Sahu who left for his heavenly adobe on 14th April 2023 from his Los Angeles home. Prof. Sahu received his B.Tech, M. Tech and PhD degree, under the guidance of his revered mentor and supervisor Prof. R. Misra from IIT Kharagpur. He began his teaching career from his Alma Mater IIT Kharagpur and was also the Director of National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Mumbai. The Department of Industrial Management Centre was founded in 1973 under the leadership of Professor Sahu.

Among his many accolades, he was the Founding Head and Professor of Industrial Engineering & Management (IE & M) between 1972 and 1996. He was the guide and mentor to countless students at IIT, including 21 PhD scholars. Many of his students have made notable contributions in their careers. Along the way, he published over 135 papers and 8 monograms.“Works Organization and Management”,“Industrial Organization and Management” and “Education and Social Change” are some of the books that he authored and co-authored which made significant impacts. He consulted widely for various public and private sector entities and headed various Expert Committees for government organizations along with active involvement in numerous professional organizations. His memoir “Made in IIT” was published in 2012.

Prof. Kailas Chandra Sahu

Prof. Sahu was an inspiring teacher. He won multiple awards and recognition, including the Distinguished Alumni Award by IIT Kharagpur, the Distinguished Teacher’s Award by IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the IIT Alumni Association of Southern California. He was the National President at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), the National President at Operational Research Society of India (ORSI) and was an Advisor for DRIEMS, a premier technical university in his birth village, Odisha. He has also served as a member on the Board of Governors for IIT.

Academic accomplishments aside, Prof. Sahu immersed himself in student life throughout his tenure at IIT Kharagpur. Being an Azadian himself, he later served as the Warden of Azad Hall, then the President of Gymkhana, and as the Dean of Student Affairs. These prolific roles nurtured his bonds with his Alma Mater and gave a sense of fulfillment.

“Professor Kailash Chandra Sahu, my Guru was a great student friendly teacher par excellence. He was an Institute Builder, a motivator and had a superb personality with all the qualities of a Kgpian. Truly, he was made in IIT Kharagpur for IIT Kharagpur. He considered his students, faculty members and employees of his department as extended members of his family. He was a professional and was regarded at a very high esteem. He was the founder of the current Department of Industrial and System Engineering of the Institute. His contributions to Institution building as President Students Gymkhana and as Dean Students Affairs will be always be cherished and remembered. His loss is truly a loss of gem to IIT Kharagpur and to the Industrial Engineering Community and certainly a personal loss for me,” said Prof. Damodar Acharya, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur.

Throughout his lifetime, he was a proud IITian and held IIT Kharagpur very close to his heart and would often reminisce about specific moments and times that he spent with his friends and colleagues here. Our sincere condolences to his wife and partner Mrs. Bimala Sahu, their four children Ranajit Sahu, Nivedita Sahu, Sanghamitra Sahu, and Sucharita Sahu, and his grandchildren. May the Almighty give all of them enough strength to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace for his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action. IIT Kharagpur will forever acknowledge his contributions to the Institute.

Inputs by: Prof. Damodar Acharya, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur
Email: acharyadamodar94@gmail.com

Edited By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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A Compassionate Patron

You were the beautiful melody in the rhythm of life where the music of your life lives on
To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die…

IIT Kharagpur mourns the loss of our beloved alumni, Mr. Gulab Bhavnani. Though our words can do a little, we hope our prayers will comfort his family and friends in his absence. A man of honour and compassion, Mr. Gulab Bhavnani, encourages all of us in so many ways to be kind and generous. Your Alma Mater will always remember you.

Mr. Gulab Bhavnani, is one of the most eminent alumni of IIT Kharagpur, who left for his heavenly abode on Monday, March 13, 2023. He completed his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1966 and further proceed with his studies at Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia.

Being an entrepreneur, Mr. Bhavnani was the Program Director of WHEELS which is a partnership program initiated by Capital IIT Association, designed to stimulate social entrepreneurship and encourage skilled professionals to create job opportunities for the improvement of lives of US and Indian citizens. Mr. Bhavnani was also a Managing Partner of Anchor Systems Corporation, and was the Director of IT Delivery for the American Red Cross.

On the humanitarian ground, Mr. Bhavani always came forward to give his half, be it for any charitable or societal cause or any other initiatives and programs held in his Alma Mater.

In the memory of Late Mr. Gulab Bhavnani, his batchmate Mr. Suresh Shenoy wrote:
“It is with deepest regret that I report the passing away of our friend and colleague, Gulab Bhavnani.. May his soul Rest in Peace. Gulab was a founding member of WHEELS, and I considered him a solid rock of a supporter and among the most reliable ‘go to’ persons. I don’t remember any time when he said “No” to a request! Gulab was always on call for anything related to IIT – our events, gala, charitable endeavours and each time, he gave it all!
Gulab will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, my friend.
In sadness, but left with fond and lasting memories of a great friend.”

In the remembrance of Mr. Gulab Bhavnani, IIT KGP fraternity mourns in sadness after hearing the news of his demise. Our sincere condolences to his bereaved family. May almighty give enough strength to his family to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace of his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action. IIT Kharagpur will forever carry forward his legacy and acknowledge his contributions to the Institute.

Inputs by: Ms. Namrata Sharma, Office of Outreach & Alumni Affairs, IIT Kharagpur
Email: namrata.iit02@gmail.com

Edited by : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp; Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
For news visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/

The Lost Heart

Death is a shout of silent breathe
I shall reside in your airy heath
You will be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
This journey of life has been a pray
Nothing is hurt and nothing is lost
A brief moment that will soon exhaust
For this is a journey, we all must intake
We shall laugh at the parting ways
For we will meet again
I am the soft star that will remain
And if a tear starts to fall
I shall catch it through it all
I am with you when the times are good
To share a laugh or two
I shall be with you when the times are bad
To reminiscence the memories we once had
Forever may be less for the days we spent together
This life will not be our last adventure

– Poulami Mondal

Bidding adieu to Prof. Debabrata Sen, retired faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur who served the institution from 1966 until 1986 in a paradigm of portfolios. A survivor of the territorial partition of India, Prof. Sen joined the institute as a professor at the department of Chemistry. He overcame all the hurdles of life and finally found his roots in Bengal. After having a tryst with destiny in the Partition of Bengal, Prof. Sen finally got his silver lining by pursuing academia. Hailing from a modest family background, his journey of life is an inspiration to all of us to make a life with just the basics. On February 28, 2023, Dr. Debabrata Sen, former professor at IIT Kharagpur, breathed his last at his residence in Kolkata.

Prof. Debabrata Sen, Ph.D, DSc.
Former Professor in Department of Chemistry
(1925-2023)

The journey of Professor Sen from Chittagong, Bangladesh (then part of undivided India) to IIT Kharagpur is a chronicle of how education became the survival tool for a well-settled middle class family which was uprooted and devastated by the Partition of India in 1947. Surviving on scholarships and generous relatives in Kolkata, he completed his doctoral degree from Calcutta University under Professor Priyada Ranjan Roy.

His Post-Doctoral studies took him to the United States of America in 1951 – first to Pennsylvania State University and then on to University of California at Berkeley. He returned to India in 1954 to join the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre at Trombay as one of the early group of scientists to set up India’s Nuclear Programme. In 1958, he joined Jadavpur University to engage in teaching and research.

In 1966, he joined the Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, as a professor and served in various capacities until his retirement in 1986. Professor Sen has been the Head of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Planning and Coordination and a nominated member of the Board of Governors among the others.

He also headed the Rubber Technology Centre for a brief period during 1981-1982 as the first Head. Professor Sen returned to the United States as a visiting faculty at Brigham Young University, Utah, and was also DAAD Fellow at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

“Prof D. Sen, former professor & first head of Rubber Technology Center has left for his heavenly abode on 1st March, 2023. He was about 97 years. He was a simple and a cordial academician, who was widely respected among his students and colleagues. We pray for eternal peace for the departed soul & also pray Almighty to provide enough strength to overcome this huge loss & void in the lives of his family members, other near & dear ones,” said Prof. Ramgopal Maddali, Dean Faculty & Engineering & Architecture (FoEA).

Professor Sen is survived by his wife Mrs. Sukla Sen, his three sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, and leaves behind a rich legacy of academic work, students and people who will cherish his memories always.

In remembrance of “The Lost Heart”, IIT KGP fraternity mourns in sadness after hearing the news of his demise. Our sincere condolences to his bereaved family. May almighty give enough strength to his family to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace of his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action.

Inputs by: Prof. Dr. Kinsuk Naskar, Professor & Chairperson, Rubber Technology Centre, IIT Kharagpur
Email: knaskar@rtc.iitkgp.ac.in

Edited by : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us on: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp; Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
For news visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/

The Fallen Star…

What’s with a fallen star?
Blazing past where loved ones are
Close to earth, searching far…

Closing eyes in heavenly prayer
For flames burn out in the shallow air
God lights the way where angels glow
With streaking stars of love that flow
Loved ones who completed your life
Reminiscence your memories to survive
God sends this message from a far
Down to earth, close to where you are
Worthy Warrior, fighting the battle for life
Praise the fortitude with every extra mile
Night stars will shine high
Bright streak will stream through the night sky
Good awaits you, for you said the toughest adieu
You bid him hello and the world a good bye.

– Poulami Mondal

Bidding adieu to Mr. Rajiv Sinha (ECE/69-74), an Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, who left his heavenly abode on 28th August 2022. A B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur in Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering from the batch of 1969, he completed his MS in Computer Science from Columbia University, New York.

Mr. Rajiv Sinha
1974/BTech/ECE/NH

Mr. Sinha endorsed specialized skills in the domain of Cloud Computing, Enterprise Software, Distributed Systems, SAAS, Virtualization, LINUX, Scalability, Product Management, Application Security, Network Security, Agile Methodologies etc. He worked in both large corporations and in startups across United States of America. In 2004, he became the Vice President of Engineering, Networking and Analytics at Citrix Systems and along the way, he co-authored and published numerous patents which are testaments of his professional excellence in engineering. Before joining Citrix, he was Vice President of Engineering at Netli, Inc. in 2003 and NetScaler Inc from 1998-2002. Prior to this, he was also Director, Software at Unisys for 6 years and Harris Computer Systems for 7 years respectively.

Mr. Rajiv Sinha has filed many patents including patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Using service graphics to compare performance of a plurality of versions of a microservice; System and methods for managing client requests to access services provided by a data center; Systems and methods for providing a single click access to enterprise, SaaS and cloud hosted application; systems and methods for providing a multi-core architecture for an acceleration appliance; Apparatus, method and computer program product for efficiently pooling connections between clients and servers; System and methods for accelerating delivery of a computing environment to a remote user; System and method for performing flash caching of dynamically generated objects in a data communication network; Systems and methods for application fluency policies etc. were some of his filed patents (see Rajiv Sinha Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications – Justia Patents Search)

Rajiv with his group in 2003

IN MEMORIAM

Looking back to the days they spent in IIT Kharagpur, Mr. Roy Da Silva (EE/74/RK) wrote – “Rajiv Sinha was my batch mate. We met as freshmen in IIT Kharagpur in 1969 and we graduated in 1974. Rajiv grew up in Rourkela and around other steel cities in India. He went to St. Xavier’s High School in Hazaribagh after which he joined IIT KGP in the ECE Department and was a resident of Nehru Hall. I grew up in Bombay and was in the EE Department and an RK-ite. We had a common friend Ravindra Nair, also in the ECE dept and an RK-ite who went to the same school as I did in Bombay . He was the one who was responsible for connecting us.

Ravi and I stayed in the same wing of the RK Hall (C-West Ground) during our freshmen year. Rajiv was Ravi’s lab partner who stopped by his room occasionally to “compare notes” (topo-ing describes it more precisely), and it was at one of these visits that I met Rajiv. This was the start of a friendship that lasts for more than 50 years and counting, between the 3 R’s… Ravi, Raji, & Roy. Ravi was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal and came to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for his Master’s. He then went to work for IBM and I did my Master’s in Business from Bombay and worked in India. Then I migrated to Silicon Valley in 1984. Rajiv had come to Columbia University and then started his first job at Harris in Florida. We had not been, in touch with each other during that time. I again reconnected with Rajiv in 2000. He had come to Silicon Valley from the east coast in 1990 and we quite accidentally discovered that we were neighbors, living just a mile away from each other. We met on a number of happy occasions; the most memorable being at a “Reunion of 1974 RK Hall Wing mates”, that took place at my house in 2003. Neither Rajiv nor Ravi was told that the other would be present at the same reunion and when they did meet face to face, it was totally an electrifying experience. Both were ecstatic to reconnect as they had not seen each other since 1974. We connected years later in Silicon Valley. All was well till about a year ago, when Rajiv was diagnosed with colon cancer which had already spread to his liver. Three different regimens of chemo that did not work led to him being placed on experimental drug treatments which was being administered in San Diego. I and Rajiv along with our spouses Viola and Savita, were supposed to have tea together in early September. But that was not to be. He took a turn for the worse and was admitted to the hospital and on August 28, 2022 Rajiv lost his battle with cancer and passed away.

Rajiv & Ravi in 2003

Arjun Malhotra and I have known each other since I was a freshman at IIT Kharagpur. Kiran, Arjun’s wife and Arjun are also friends with Rajiv and Savita. He encouraged me to write Rajiv’s obituary for publication in The KGPian. I felt that this tribute to Rajiv would be so much more meaningful if I could get some of his closest friends to say a few words, so I reached out to them to say a few words in his remembrance. On behalf of the entire KGP family, I take this opportunity to convey our deepest condolences and empathy to Rajiv’s mother, mother-in-law, his wife Savita and children Viraj and Nikita.

Rajiv with his family

“Rajiv, we will miss your intellect, humility, mischievous smile, and sense of humor that made you such great company. RIP my friend.”

From his lab partner and President’s Gold Medal recipient, Mr. Ravindra Nair (ECE/74/RK)

“Rajiv, a partner in most of my labs at IIT, will be remembered as an extremely intelligent person, articulate with his words, yet humble in his demeanor, generous with his ideas, and encouraging in his friendship. Oh! And I can’t forget that occasional mischievous humor that he often used to defuse a tense lab situation. Labs at IIT were notorious for being complex, but Rajiv made them fun!”

From the Nehru Hall Reporter which was made available by Mr. Manojit Sinha (CHE/74/NH)

“Rajiv was a fellow who helped in all literary activities without reservation, who was cool and unbiased in all his views, who stretched out a helping hand whenever the hall was in need, who kept his cool when others blew their tops, who felt the hall was his and he was part of the hall – what talent he has shown and may he put it to good use in his life.…….”

From Venugopal, Rajiv’s wing mate (Che/74/NH)

“Rajiv was one of the brightest guys I have met. Even at a young age he had a laser like focus. He was ever ready to give gyaan to anyone that wanted/needed it. Wise beyond his years, he had everybody’s respect.”
From his Friend and Neighbor, Mr. Madhukar Jalan, IIT Bombay (CHE)

“I will remember Rajiv for his vast knowledge on multiple subjects, as a voracious reader, an absorbing storyteller, and a good listener. Above all he came across as a total gentleman and was a very caring friend. He will be sorely missed.”

Rajiv with Madhukar Jalan

In remembrance of the “Unforgettable Soul”, his Alma Mater mourns in sadness after hearing the news of his demise. Our sincere condolences to his bereaved family. May almighty give enough strength to his family to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace of his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action.

Written by : Mr. Roy D. (da Silva), Alumnus, IIT Kharagpur (EE/74/RK)
Email: roydasilvaiit@yahoo.com

Edited by : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

Follow us: Facebook – IIT Kharagpur; Twitter – @IITKgp; Instagram – @iit.kgp; LinkedIn – Indian Institute of Technology
For news visit: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/