TRIBUTE TO VIKRAM

by 
Prof.J.Srinivasan, Jayant Baliga, Rajaram Bhat, Mutharasan, Vedamanickam & Kalyanasundaram

I met Vikram soon after I joined IIT Madras. Since we were from Bangalore, we travelled back to Bangalore together on many occasions. Both of us were keenly interested in academics and hence had many intense discussions on how a subject should have been taught. 

After graduating from IIT Madras both of us got Assistantship at SUNY, Stony Brook. Vikram, Jayanth Baliga and I travelled together to USA in September 1969. We had  a wonderful travel experiences in Zurich and London on the way to New York. At SUNY, Vikram and I were room mates during the summer. After his Master's degree Vikram went to Canada while I went to Stanford. We kept in touch and he visited me in 1974 and we travelled to Yosemite National park.

After I returned to India, Vikram ensured that he met me every time he came to Bangalore. I convinced him to go on the Annapurna trek in 1998 although I could not join him. 

On Saturday 28 December 2013, he came to my house and we had a wonderful time talking about the 1969 reunion and topics of mutual interest for 6 hours. He was very happy that he was able to take his mother and sister to the 1969 reunion.

He mentioned, in a lighter vein, that he was the best preserved person in our batch. 

During all these years I have never seen him get angry at anyone or abuse anybody. I remember his smiling face as he left my house and assured me that he will come every year since his mother was getting old. 

I was stunned when I heard the next day that he had died in his sleep on Saturday night. He did not suffer at the end but his mother, wife, sons and friends have to deal with this sudden loss of a gentle soul

J.Srinivasan

Indian Institute of Science,

Bangalore 560012

Phone: 91-80-22933068 or 23600450

email:jayes@caos.iisc.ernet.in
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Vikram was my best friend during our 5 years together at IIT-M. We spent countless hours not just studying together but more often going on long walks where we discussed many far ranging topics. Vikram always impressed me with his superior intellect and he was much more knowledgeable about everything. I envied his ability to grasp complex concepts easily and retain this knowledge while I had to spend many hours to reach his level of understanding. I am happy that we stayed in touch after our graduation from IIT-M, and I was extremely happy that he attending my son’s wedding several years ago.  Ironically, I just got back from a trip to India to attend a wedding and heard the tragic news. It would have been wonderful to meet with him again at J.S.’s place in Bangalore. J.S. informed me that Vikram was very excited about the IIT-M reunion and the joy of meeting old classmates. We will all miss him dearly.

Jayant Baliga

bjbaliga@ncsu.edu

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Vikram, as I remember him

Vikram’s passing has left all those who knew him a lot poorer.  They say that those who the gods envy die young.  This certainly is true in Vikram’s case.  I came to know Vikram at IIT.  The initial attraction was that we were both from Bangalore but it grew into a strong friendship in the five years we were together.  

With his ready smile and pleasant personality he made friends easily.  He was easy going and read voraciously on a wide variety of topics.  While most of us hardly found time to do general reading and struggled with the course work, he had no difficulty in keeping up and acing all the exams.  He was quite generous in sharing his knowledge.  I remember well him showing me how to use the slide rule more efficiently.  

He had the ambition of going to USA  and had acquired a detailed knowledge of the country.  He knew the various boroughs of New York, the streets in Manhattan and the location of all its landmarks!  

After IIT, I kept in touch with him.  He stayed with me at my parent’s home in Bangalore on his first trip back to India after he left to study in USA.  

His enthusiasm for travel and seeing places was evident even at that time as he had chosen to fly to India via Moscow so that the he could spend some time seeing the place.  

Like many of our classmates for many years we lived our lives without much contact with each other although I did keep track of him through common friends.  However, in the last 10 to 15 years as we got past 50 many of us reached out to rekindle old friendships.  The internet certainly made it easier.  

In the last few years Vikram, Mutharasan and I exchanged emails on topics of mutual interest (history, travel, books, etc).  He was a font of knowledge and could be counted on giving a very scholarly reply to questions on many topics.  Yet he was quite unassuming and humble.  He would recommend some books that he had read and give thoughtful and incisive analysis of them.  It was impossible to keep-up with him – he was such a fast and voracious reader!   

I last saw Vikram in 2008 at Jayant Baliga’s son’s wedding.  It is hard to accept that he is not with us anymore.  However, we should all be thankful of the time we spent together and the thoughts we shared.  He lives within us.

Rajaram Bhat
Corning, NY, USA
rbhat@stny.rr.com

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It was indeed a real shock to hear of Vikram's passing.  For the last 15 years or so we had grown close due to our common interest. Rajaram, Vikram and I would exchange notes regularly about literature, history, travels, but rarely on politics.  Vikram is a voracious reader, and he was very kind in sharing a brief summary on his most recently read book.  His writing is precise, and captures the most important aspect(s) of the book. I was planning a Himalayan trip two years ago, and since Vikram had done one some 15 years ago (alone), I sought his suggestions. He was extremely helpful and thoughtful.  

To illustrate the interaction, a email conversation of our interaction on history is included below.  The conversation starts with an ancient visitor to India and his travelogue which Vikram had read. You will note an analytical streak in his responses.  I was fortunate to have had several such conversations with him.  

Vikram is a traveler.  He has traveled to all continents except Antartica.  He was really excited about his recent trip to New Zealand, and has planned it for more than a year.  He was equally excited of his trip to the Andes a few years ago.  

We shared the room at the Florida reunion.  A quiet sleeper, and a thoughtful person.  He shared at that time, that during IIT days he was all books, and did not apply himself in other endeavors.  He said he switched after he left IIT, and engaged himself fully in everything in life other than his subject field.  He gave this as his reason why he left his PhD program.  He had no regrets, but was very happy with his life's trajectory.

For the reunion 2013, I was recruited to promote it in the US, and call on our friends.  I recruited Vikram who readily obliged and make his share of calls.  He was a team player, full and full. 

Karpagam and I are very sorry that we have lost a wonderful friend, and distant brother.  May his soul find peace and joy. [written with tears ebbing in my eyes]

Raj and Karpagam Mutharasan
mutharr@drexel.edu

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Dear Chandra:

Mallika and I were shocked to hear of Vikram's sudden demise, just after the batch reunion in Kerala, which I did not attend.

In early  2007, when my wife and I visited Washington DC, Vikram, yourself and my Metallurgy batch classmate Nagarajan, caught up with us. We all went out to lunch and had a pleasant time. 

It was an honor to have known such a fine gentleman and scholar as Vikram. 

Mallika and I offer our deepest condolences to you, your sons Vinnie & Nithin, Vikram's mother and sister Kiran. May God comfort you all during this terrible ordeal.

Ved Vedamanikam

Austin, TX

pmved@live.com
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It is hard to write about Vikram, in the past tense, as he always exuded a positive lively persona.

Vikram was one of the members of close-knit Bangalore group in the IIT admission class of '64, known for its serious approach to studies and academic excellence. This was carried through the 5 years and he graduated with flying colours. As classmates in the same ""D" section, during the first 2 years, we interacted, but not a lot. After graduation, he went to SUNY at Stony Brook and I visited him, and J Srinivasan, there in 1970. We lost touch after that and even though he was in Canada for a few years in BNR and I at the sister organization, Northern Telecom, we did not connect. 

Our regular contacts began, thanks to the formation of IITMAA1969 egroup (later Yahoogroup), and the association is full of happy memories. Vikram was one of the early adopters of the group and instrumental in reaching  out to other classmates to rejoin the group. From our first meeting in Philadelphia (at Muthu's place) in 2001 to the reunion in Orlando in 2002, our interactions increased, thanks to the regular reunions and an active yahoogroup and we found a lot of common interests, such as books and travel. I envied him for some of the places he had been to and hoped I would go there some day myself. I also had the pleasure of his visit once to my house in Mississauga, Canada. 

In all his personal and group interactions, Vikram always seemed to gravitate to areas of convergence, rather than divergence. Every thing he said was accompanied by a smile, and likely when he was writing to the group also, he had a smile on his face as well. It is this image that will stay with me, and I am sure many of our classmates, when we think of Vikram. His sudden passing is a shock, coming so soon after the recent reunion, which he attended with his mother and sister. The loss that his immediate family would be experiencing, is far greater and not measurable. My sincere condolences to his wife Chandra, his sons, his mother and his sister and I hope that the warm memories of his life will sustain them in their sorrow.

Kalyan 

Canada

ksundaram_2000@yahoo.com