Dr. Arvind C. Ranade , a chemistry professor passes away.

Dr. A. C. Ranade was a faculty in University of Pune , chemistry department. He passed away on Friday 27th November 2009 in Pune, India.

Dr. A. C. Ranade taught a course in Synthetic Methodology and Heterocyclic chemistry when I was a student of M. Sc ( Organic chemistry) course in this department. It was some 30 years back today. In those days, Google didn’t exist . Neither Wikipedia nor SciFinder were born. We depended completely on the notes we managed to scribble on our 200 page notebooks. The literature search was carried out in library by bicycling a steep road up to National Chemical Laboratory which was 20 bicycle-minutes away from our department. Yes, I did visit NCL library thrice on a particular day when I failed to find a reference which Ranade Sir wanted me to get. I returned twice to his ground floor office in the department reporting my failure to fish out the reference, and surely enough; I was sent back to NCL. Unfortunately I failed to find the particular reference . It was Dr. Deshpande - then Dr. Ranade ’s Ph. D student who bailed me out by swiftly scootering his way to NCL and returning with required paper.
I was not the only student who got lessons of tenacity , thoroughness, accuracy & precision from Dr. Ranade.
His research work in Germany or his Humboldt fellowships were among the myths which surrounded him in those days. Barring some exceptions , the university professors in those days never socialized with students. Dr. Ranade also was selective when it came to being too friendly with students.
What transformations we learnt in his lectures on synthetic methods, we saw them applied in the long synthetic sequences which Dr. M. S. Wadia taught us in Natural Products lecture. He carried his notes in the class room. By referring to those papers he filled the black board with heterocycles.
If I remember correctly, he was the only teacher in chemistry department in 1980 who obtained a written appraisal or a feed back from his students. That was the first time I wrote my opinion on my teacher’s ability to teach. Believe me, it was a rarity in those days in the city of Pune.
After I graduated from department , I kept in touch with him until an year back or so. We talked atleast once in a year on telephone. He used to read profusely outside of chemistry . The ‘Razer’s Edge ‘ was the book he once recommended to me as a good read. The last time in 2008 we interacted closely , he borrowed a few audio tapes from me on some training module on “Improving Personal Productivity”. He must have been past his age 75 in 2008 & yet eager to know how to build tangible progress at personal level !
I do not recollect noticing him in a ‘nostalgic mood ‘. His optimism & pragmatism were seen in all his actions. He was sort of “ connected “ in his own way with the newer happenings around him. He was one among 3 chemistry professors who deeply influenced our professional careers as organic chemists.
I represent my 1980 class of M. Sc when I bid a farewell to his soul .
Thank you Dr. Ranade and a good-Bye to you Sir.

Vidyasagar Mahajan: An Untamed Maverick

1956 - 2009

( Photo by Mr. Charudatta Vartak, Pune, India)

When majority of activities in this world are carried out as per standard procedures and things are progressed on trodden paths, the Gaussian distribution expects some folks to evolve new pathways and generate new protocols for others to follow.

Vidyasagar couldn’t have been anybody else but an untamed Maverick of art-forms in multilingual arena.


Vidyasagar left this world in early morning hours on 9th June 2009. The blood cancer (AML) showed up in him in April 2008 and after about 14 months of glorious fight, he moved on to carry out different things in different world.

He was born to a fine pair of Freedom fighters in 1956 and was educated in Pune from KG to MA. German language was his passion which he taught for 25 years and Spanish was the second love which he mastered & taught over last 10 years.

Handling different Art forms was his habit and the drama, poetry and translation were the habitats. He never left his ‘addictions’. His every New Year resolution got his students and coworkers addicted to newer forms of theatre & multilingual translations. He had unlearning disability! He seriously played with words. He coined new words in Marathi during his German/Spanish translations.

He was 53ish on the day he expired. He professionally lived and created in the midst of turbulent cultural climate of last 3 decades. Onslaught of electronic media, commercialization of every art-form and de-linking of creativity from expression have been the critical climatic changes.

He founded “Kalasakta” in 1995, an activity centered on presenting foreign literature on Marathi stage. Atul Kulkarni, Ila Bhate contributed to the stage-show: “Tikdun Aanlelya Goshti” as presenters of Marathi translations of Russian, German, Italian, Spanish & French stories. In year 1999 he started publishing a quarterly magazine Kelyane Bhashantar in which direct translations of stories / plays /poems from European languages into Marathi are published.


For such activities, no templates existed. No grant money was “budgeted, sanctioned & available to be spent”. Nevertheless, he attracted enthusiastic support from many persons of repute with honest desire to walk the un-trodden path along side him. His passion for making things work in their finest, perfect form motivated several students, colleagues and even mentors.

If others had any apprehensions about longevity of these activities, he didn’t notice them.

He taught German in National Defense Academy, Pune. He often traveled to Europe to learn nascent trends in Dramatics, Translation & teaching methods. He created viable relationships with reputed European publishing houses in connection with copyright formalities. He has one Marathi book –Dusrya Jodidarachya Shodhat on his name which is a translation of the German Novel by Eva Heller which depicts the moral and social fabric of contemporary Germany. The German title of the original novel means “With the new man, every thing will be different”.

About his “Tikdun Aanlelya Goshti” show, he was never worried about its media coverage on TV or news papers. As and when the art-form shall reach its finest destination, a need shall emerge for its wider publicity – he firmly believed.

The flexibility of presentation and emphasis on creativity attracted talented artists, writers and translators to his activities.

He stayed away from the cheap and sinister facets of performing or presenting the art and hence collected no baggage for which to secretly repent.

He has left behind a legacy of good clean creative expression, a couple of “validated Protocols” for trans-cultural studies and many blueprints on which multi linguistic art forms can be pursued, learnt and presented.

He was hard to tame since no bait worked for him. I wish him a jolly good time wherever he has checked-in now. So long Buddy!

Aaha! Draupadi in decision crisis for the first time

© Uday Gokhale

Of course she wasn’t the first time around. But then Sanskruti Rakshaks were yet to born and the grounds were in making for roman mythological scripts which would see furious revisions.

Version 1 : Enter the third century catholic priest St. Valentine in the times of Roman emperor Claudius II. Emperor didn’t want young couples to marry. He wanna catch them young & enlist in the army. St. Valentine was all for marriages though. No wonder he was sent back to heaven on Feb 14th.

Version 2 : Enter a prisoner called Valentine who loves the Jailor's daughter (now that is the definition of GUTS !). He signs his love letter as ‘Your Valentine’. Guess the Jailor would be reborn as 21st century Sanskruti Rakshak .

Heck, rest is history alias culture. Yes I am referring to Valentine Day brouhaha in India. By design or by default, Draupadi indeed was making templates. Boy, some templates! Her one fifth husband had the monopoly of diving into decision crises every now & then. Great Lord Krishna had to come out with fancy justifications and pep talks.

Whichever version you subscribe to, Valentine Day is here to stay. Any Junior KG attempts to ‘bar’ the so called western ideas will get plenty empty attention. The notions of some things being non-existent in ‘our’ culture are naïve at best; at worst one can put Draupadi in decision crisis: Which husband to talk to in Public? Let alone ‘to friends’ of her times.

Why Draupadi, I am in decision crisis too. Which font to use: Times New Roman or Bookman Old!

Now if I say that the journalists and column writers have a larger role to play, you can’t invoke supposedly primary function of ‘reporting the events occurring North East West South’.
Such Valentine commotions are excellent occasions to address the widespread myths & memes about our ‘culture’ which comprises Draupadi , Savitri and Meerabai. The hunts for homogeneity in primordial (or contemparary) cultures will hit many blind alleys & will be lost in unlit tunnels.

So what do we do? Just sit back & ignore? Nope, we address the events on the back drop of ever spreading plethora of Memes. It is time we begun exploring Memes of our time. But then that is another subject.
So long, Your valentine :-)