Story from Dr. R H. Tupkary

Leaving BHU, I joined VRCE, Nagpur on 15^th March 1970. I met A V Ramarao for the first time then as faculty member of department of metallurgy. It took some time for me to know him well. Till then we were just colleagues.

I got first glimpse of his personality when I attended his sister’s marriage, held at his quarter in VRCE campus that was just behind my quarter. It was after a couple of years after I joined VRCE. Ramarao carried out all the rituals of that marriage with love as his father would have carried out for his daughter with proper dignity and sobriety. It was in spite of the fact that Ramarao was not financially all that sound then.

The second time I understood his personality when he got Ph. D. degree. He had put in very hard work for it. Thereafter he continuously rose up in his academic career.

The third time I understood his personality when he went to Algeria for his overseas assignment. All these happenings helped him to develop himself as a knowledgeable professor of physical metallurgy. He was very methodical in his teaching and that helped him to become better rationalist in everything else in life as well.

He was excellent teacher and students liked him well for his style and contents therein. In fact I had asked him to write a book on physical metallurgy but he did not heed to it.

At the time of emergency I remember a dialogue I had with him before I was put in jail for nearly nineteen months. Because of stern warning from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had imposed the emergency, trains were initially running well on time. People felt discipline in almost all walks of life, but only for a while. It was certainly astonishing against the earlier background. That perhaps impressed him most. In that reference, one day he said that even if a thousand people are killed to bring in discipline it must be done. It was basically disgust he felt from within about the then prevailing sorry state of affairs. To that I had retorted that his comment presumed that those if killed would be some other people and not us. But it indicated that he was socially conscious. This social consciousness in him led him to write a series of articles in local English daily Hitavada. They were socially enlightening articles. It would be fine if some of them, with relevance even today are produced in these reminiscences.

Before coming to VRCE he had lived in then Madhya Pradesh or today’s Chattisgarh. He was very fluent in Hindi and no one could distinguish him as non-Hindi speaking person. He was occasionally very humourous and would narrate some jokes in Hindi at which everybody would loudly laugh. I still remember some of those jokes and reproduce when needed.

However on the whole he was bit reserved and did not open freely as many others including me would open up on any issue in the department while chatting on assorted topics in free times.

Long back once, when I was in Bengaluru at my son’s place I tried to see him along with Dr. RW Khare who is student of both of us. But he was not in a position to see and talk to anyone then. Thereafter I did not get a chance to see him again.

I wish him good health, happy life with his son and his family.

May God be kind enough to let him live one hundred years for all of us to celebrate his centenary with joy and fervor.