A tribute to Padma shree Prof. N. Kumar

Some condolence emails from his friends, colleagues, and students.

(29th August, 2017)

With profound grief and heavy heart, we inform the sad demise of Padma Shri Prof. Narendra Kumar, ex-director of Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore. Prof Kumar passed away in the early hours of Monday morning (1.00 AM, 28th August, 2017). With his demise India has lost a great scientist, world famous physicist.

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Below, I have appended emails received from Prof. Kumar's friends, colleagues, and his students on 28th August.

With heavy heart,Navinder Singh, Ahmedabad.

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Kumar's passing has left a big hole in our lives. The wound will not heal but will become less raw with time. For many of our generation, Kumar was a unique person, a warm friend and more. Things like expressing one's feelings to Ann, Revati, and Rohini will be done, there will be condolence meetings....

Your collection of the immediate reactions of the large number of people whom he directly affected, will be a special thing.

With warmest regardsyours trulyRamakrishnan_________________________T V RamakrishnanVaranasi and Bangalore

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I was a doctoral student of his from 1973-1978 along with Ravindra Amritkar (we joined the same year) and a colleague of Baskaran, Nandakumaran, Rajaram and Swaminathan. Arunachalam was also a integral member of our group.

I have been hearing of his failing health for a while. While we are all aware of the eventuality of our fragile lives, we tend to hold on to the fantasy of having some people such as Kumar (as we always called him) living on forever among us so as to keep on seeking his advice, learning from him and enjoying those moments of new discoveries when he would close his eyes and revel in having found a new result.

I spent my first post-doctoral year (1978) at the University of Warwick while he was a Visiting Professor. His first daughter, Revathi, was born in May of 1978 and I spent many a time playing with her. His wife Ann was always such a gracious host. I was so fortunate in having them with me during that year, that made my transition to a foreign land so much more easy and comfortable.

My work with him was so educational as well as enjoyable. I always enjoyed his sense of humor. Everytime he lost a game of billiards or table tennis he used to quip with a twinkle in his eye, “Remember, man is superior to the forces that defeat him.”

Please convey my heartfelt condolences to his wife Ann. I will mail a letter to his home address in Bangalore. I hope it is still correct.

I hope we share memories of our interactions with him over the next few weeks. I am attaching a few of my favorite quotes about death, which always gave me comfort when a few of my own near and dearpassed away.

This is a terrible and unbearable loss. Let us keep his family in our prayers. Let us all keep in touch.

- Anil

Kumar, Abburi <aakumar@pvamu.edu>

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Dear Colleagues,

With profound grief and heavy heart, we inform the sad demise of Padma Shri Prof. Narendra Kumar, ex-director of Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore.

With his demise we have lost one of the last universalist of Indian science who worked in almost all areas of theoretical physics (from condensed matter to general theory of relativity) and produced profound insights and results, including their much celebrated DMPK (Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar) equation. Prof. Kumar's method of research was very physical (I amlucky to be his student). Physics for him came first, mathematical formalism later. When I remember him the words like "curiosity", "simplifying a physical problem into its bare essentials","re-checking a calculation, and limiting cases", "beautiful hand writing", "everything well organized", and "notation", comes to my mind. We have lost a great mentor, a warm human being. Prof. Kumar we love you, and we will miss you!

We are with his family members in this time of profound grief. We hope they will find the strength to come to terms with this great loss. May his soul rest in peace.

.........Prof. Narendra Kumar was born on 1st February 1940 at Bilaspur, Madhyapradesh. He was the recipient of S S Bhatnagar Prize (1985); Hari Om Ashram medal (1985-86); TWAS Prize in Physics (1992); Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Bombay (1996); Mahendra Lal Sircar Prize in Physics (1997); Goyal Award in Physics (1998); FICCI Award for Physical Sciences 1988-89; CV Raman Birth Centenary Award (1999-2000); Meghnad Saha Medal (2000); MRSI Distinguished Material Scientist of year 2006 award; R D Birla Award for Excellence in Physics (2006). Professor N. Kumar was awarded Padma Shri by the Govt. of India in 2006. ......._______________________Navinder Singh, Ahmedabad

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Hi Navinder,

Thank you for your beautiful summary of what Kumar represented. I would add that his physics was only matched by his humanity and his ability to bring out the best in everyone.

I am yet to reconcile to the fact that I will never see him again....

Take CareAndal, Bangalore.

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Just heard the sad news of demise of Prof N Kumar.

Kumar shaped my career, also generations of other's. He was a most friendly and fatherly mentor anda very special human being.

I am speechless.

Baskaran, Chennai.

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I wasnt expecting this sad news but thank you for kindly breaking this news to me. Now upon enquiring I came to know that he was hospitalized few days back recently... and that his family has commenced upon the processes already now..

I now have to regret my decision of not visiting India during this summer. I was hoping to meet him in Bengaluru this December... My condolences to his family and to the community of we people who were fortunate to be associated with him.Am absolutely unprepared to say more at this moment, but, I am sure, you this know very well, first hand, that anybody -- like me or you -- who came to be associated him would have so many anecdotes to tell about, so many ways to remember him. I shall write more sharing a few of them..

Thanks and regardsRanjith,Cagliari, Italy.

RanV <ranquest@gmail.com>

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Dear Mr. Navinder Singh,

Thank you for informing me of the passing-on of my good friend, Narendra, my dear classmate from the 1962 batch of IIT Kharagpur.

He exhibited this "universalist" quality in college, where he described his hobby as being "the pursuit of knowledge". A term that the rest of our class only dimly comprehended as being important.

With best wishes,

Ashok Bhojwan

Ashok Bhojwani <ashok.bhojwani@gmail.com>

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Kumar's passing is indeed a great loss to the scientific community.His scientific contributions were outstanding and seminal (Ipersonally learnt a lot from the DMPK paper) and he was a very warm,witty and genial person. I regret the fact that I never got tointeract with him extensively but did thoroughly enjoy the few briefconversations I had with him. My sincere condolences to his family andyou as well.

Best,Subroto, Bangalore.

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Dear All:

It was with great sorrow that I learned of the passing away of our colleague and good friend Narendra.No words suffice to express my pain...

I knew Narendra since more than 30 years. We have been collaborators and very close friends ever since. In addition to having written together several papers and a book (13 years ago), I've rarely found a friend with such an understanding of human feelings. He was always available when a pain invaded the soul of a friend; this I'll never, ever forget.Last time we got in touch was for last New Year, and I must say that I was not aware of his failing health.

Navinder, could you indicate to me to which address, conventional or electronic, should I write Ann to convey my and my wife Laura's condolences?

We all feel this as a terrible loss. However, his memory will be always among us...

Pier A. Mello.

Pier Mello <mello@fisica.unam.mx>

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Words don't suffice to express my sadness. So many memories rise to the surface. His infectious enthusiasm for getting at the physical essence of a problem, and then looking at it from general principles, was unparalleled. As everyone knows, his lectures were legendary for this reason, not to mention his ability to inject humor that would unfailingly engage his audience. I remember the many times that you both would be huddled together, discussing something intently while seated at one of thecottages in the Village. The many times that he and I would discuss an atypical physical problem over acup of coffee at the canteen, constitute very happy memories, that, I am sure, many others would share. Having lost this great scientist and wonderful human being, this world is indeed a lonelier place.

God Bless our beloved Prof. N. Kumar. Our prayers are with his family.

Regards,Srik, Bangalore.

Srikanth R. <srik@poornaprajna.org>

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Just learned about the sad demise of Prof. Kumar.

It was indeed a privilage to be his student. He taught me how to think. Not just about physics but abouteverything that is around us. There is beauty in everything around us and more you think about it, morebeautiful it becomes.

I met Prof. Kumar two years back. He was not well and Ann gave me only 5 minutes. I wished him good health, touched his feet and came out.

It is a great loss to Indian physics. I am with Ann and family in this hour of grief.

Amritkar, Ahmedabad.

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I am very sorry indeed about the sad news of the passing away of my dear friend, colleague and severaltimes co-author, Narendra. I will miss him, as I always relied on his recent messages for keeping our long-term friendship going.

Affectionately, and sadly,

Professor Julian Chela-Flores, 28 August 2017.

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This morning I got an e-mail that my former mentor and thesis advisor, and someone I am very proud to call a friend, Professor Narendra Kumar, has passed away. He was 77 years old. I was a doctoral student of his from 1973-1978 along with Ravindra Amritkar (we joined the same year) and a colleagueof Baskaran, Nandakumaran, Shankar, Rajaram and Swaminathan. Arunachalam was also a integral member of our group.

I have been hearing of his failing health for a while. While we are all aware of the inevitable eventuality of our fragile lives, we tend to hold on to the fantasy of having some people such as Kumar (as we always called him) living on forever among us so as to keep on seeking his advice, learning from him and enjoying those moments of new discoveries when he would close his eyes and revel in having found a new result.

I spent my first post-doctoral year (1978) at the University of Warwick, England, while he was a Visiting Professor. His first daughter, Revathi, was born there and I spent many a time playing with her.His wife Ann was always such a gracious host. I was so fortunate in having them with me during that year, that made my transition to a foreign land so much more easy and comfortable.

I always enjoyed his sense of humor. Every time he lost a game of billiards or table tennis he used to quip with a twinkle in his eye, “Remember, man is superior to the forces that defeat him.”

My work with him was so educational as well enjoyable. He was one of the few people I met who literally could think on his feet, so to speak. Once when we were working on an intricate problem, we came across the same equation in a totally different context, that made its solution more easy. I was sitting next to him when he said, “Give me a few minutes, I want to enjoy this moment.” Reminded me

of another of my patron saints, Richard Feynman, who used to jump while lecturing on the stage, everytime he observed the incredible similarity between the Coulomb’s Law of Electric Charges and the Newton’s Law of Gravitation.

Kumar was a deep thinker. He worked on so many problems in so many different disciplines. In an era of increasing production of “specialists,” he was a generalist – deep and broad – a rare but much needed trait in today’s world.

After his tenure as a professor and department head of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science where Iwas his student, he became the director of the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. He was such a frequent international traveller that, on one of his returns our department head Professor Raja Gopal quipped, “How long is your current visit to Bangalore?”

You can learn more about him at: http://www.rri.res.in/…/imprints_collection/bios/nkumar.html and http://www.rri.res.in/~nkumar/nkcv.pdf.

My heart goes out to his wife Ann, and daughters Revathi and Rohini.

He will be missed.

Anil Kumar.

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Dear Anne,

It was with great shock that I received the news about Kumar passing away. Kumar and I knew each other for almost fifty years and I can never forget the most beautiful and educative interactions I had with him, particularly in the late evenings,almost running to late nights discussing Physics over cups of tea,in Pune during late sixties.

Of late though our meetings have been very irregular and few, but in every meeting we used to remember the old times and had a hearty laugh. Apart from physics what I enjoyed most with Kumar were the recollection of Wodehousian episodes (Jeeves and Elmsworth) which were always cheerful and full of mirth. Amongst all my acquaintances in the Indian scientific community, I consider him as the most outstanding both as a scientist and a human being.With his sad demise we have lost something irreparable.May His Soul rest in Peace.

Prasanna. Ahmedabad.

Dr K.N. Ganesh, Director , IISER Pune forwarded me the news of the demise of Professor Kumar. I hope his end was peaceful.

This is indeed a sad news. He was such an outstanding scientist and above all an excellent human being, modest to the core. I was privileged to know him

Professor Kumar did his first degree in Electrical and Communication Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and joined NCL, Pune as Scientist B in 1965. He stayed in NCL till 1968, when he moved to IIT Bombay with Dr K.P. Sinha ( who moved from NCL to IIT Bombay) to continue his PhD under his supervision in the area of Magnetic Soilds.

While at NCL he was assigned the task of maintaining the nmr spectrometers of those days! It was Dr K.P.Sinha who spotted his brilliance and encouraged him to begin his PhD. It is amazing that the scientific administrators of those days did not see any dichotomy between his early academic training and his choice of subject for PhD. Trained as an engineer, he worked for his PhD with a Theoretical Physical Chemist and obtained his PhD in Physics from IIT Mumbai. In today’s world this would not have been possible because Professor Kumar could not have qualified in the NET examination ! We have lost something irretrievably in our current day science administration methods; Our chances of finding people of the caliber of professor Kumar will diminish with time.

During his two visits to NCL (he visited at my invitation) he fondly recalled his early career and the inspiration he received from Dr Sinha to pursue his studies. I admired his ability to make compex concepts in Physics so simple with a few over the table demonstrations.

I also had the unique pleasure of receiving the Padma Shri in 2006 from the President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam on the same day. To share the event with him was a personal honour to me.

Regards

sivaram

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Dear Ann,

I am still in shock since yesterday after coming to know about Prof. Kumarpassing away. I regarded Guru ji, as I used to call him, literally like myfather. As a teacher, he molded my attitude and approach not only toScience, but verily to life itself. His simple child-like curiosity,vast scientific knowledge and understanding, insistance on scientificrigor as well as simplicity, hardwork - these inspired me and every otherstudent at RRI endlessly. His kindness, generosity, zest for life,aversion to narrow-mindedness mark him out as a great human being.

Guru ji was truly "Narendra" - King among mortals (Naraanaam Indrah). Hegenuinely believed in seeing only the best in other people, was extremelypatient and could induce the best out of others. Everybody who went in toa meeting with him came out feeling happy due to the pleasant interactionsregardless of any other outcomes.

Having been able to carry out my PhD under his supervision has been mygreatest fortune. Both as a scientist and a teacher, my life's goal hasbeen to try to emulate him.

I have been aware of the health problems that had been creeping up on Guruji over the past few years. But he had bounced back each time he had beenconfronted with a crisis. I had such a nice meeting with him and you atyour home in July and as I left after touching his feet, I could havenever suspected that it was so close. Guru ji was quite in his elementsand so affectionate on that day, I will hold on to fond memories of thatmeeting for the rest of my life.

You have suffered the greatest loss amongst us all. I offer my heart-feltcondolences. His mortal body may have gone, but Guru ji's thoughts willalways dwell in our hearts.

With best regardsAnantha, IIT Kanpur.

It is one of the saddest events to affect us and one for which I feel a great sense of personal loss.

Although I first met him in RRI many years ago, I had the good fortune to interact with him on some scientific problems of mutual interest since Nov, 2011.

I have never seen anyone else who exuded as much enthusiasm and passion for physics as him. Nearly every subject interested him, and he was knowledgeable about each. Being in his presence was always intellectually stimulating & invigorating -- I always learnt something new when I visited him in his office.

Though a person of great eminence & fame, he was humble and modest to the core, ever willing to learn, and easily accessible to all. He was a wonderful human being, full of life, ever helpful, always encouraging, and a very decent gentleman. I will miss him sorely.

May his soul rest in peace. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

Janaki Balakrishnan. NIAS, Bangalore. (janaki05@gmail.com)

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Sad to listen the news. During my Ph.D in superconductivity at CSIR-NPL with Prof. A.V. Narlikar on couple of occasions, I had the fortune to interact with Prof. N. Kumar. Those were the days of early 90s, I till date remember. Very few persons do leave a long lasting impression. Sir, Prof. N. Kumar willbe remembered for years and years to come.

Dr. V.P.S. Awana, New delhi

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IISER Pune is very sad to hear the passing away of Prof N Kumar. We were fortunate to have him as the First Chairman (Founding), Board of Governors of IISER Pune constituted in sometimes in Jan-Feb2006. He was an inspiring personality, always talking with passion about science and in particularl the way in which it is to be taught. During the first inaugural function of IISER, he made a deep meaning statement: Teach science as it is to be practiced and practice science as it is taught. He even performed an experiment on a transparency projector, by spinning a coin to illustrate the relation between the frequency of sound of spinning and the tilt angle. During the BoG meetings, he participated mostly in academic matters, not so much in administrative issues. He would often be seen thinking deeply or even writing some equations during the BoG meetings!. He interacted with students and faculty during every visit to IISER. IISER Pune greatly benefited by his academic directions. He was a man of few words, but those words though soft had powerful meanings. He has made immense contributions to the establishment of IISER concept and to its growth.

He completed his first term as Chairman of BoG in the beginning of 2009 and was appointed for a second term. Due to health problems, he did not want to continue as Chairman, but whenever I met himin subsequent days, he was always interested in knowing the academic progress of IISER Pune.

A true scientist, a deep thinker, simple, smiling and a great human being. We thank him for his valuablecontribution to IISER Pune and pray for his peace.

We request you to kindly pass our deep, heartfelt condolences to his family.

Krishna Ganesh, Director

On behalf of IISER Pune.

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I was very sad yesterday after seeing Prof. Kumar’s body inside the freezer box. Prof.Kumar was always so much enthusiastic, warm and verbal; I found it difficult to stay athis place yesterday. I was thinking about him the whole day and was feeling lost by theidea that I would not discuss with him again. Then, in the night I started watching thevideo on him from the IASc Oral History Archive. I felt much better again just seeinghim talking in that video about science and everything related to it. He will always bewith me for the rest of my life through my memories of our interactions and our researchtogether.

I am extremely fortunate to interact with him for the last thirteen years at RRI. I workedwith him during my Ph.D. at RRI from 2004 to 2009. It was a wonderful experienceworking with him. He was always there to listen and to give advice. He taught us a partof a course on statistical mechanics. For three years, we discussed almost every day forhours over tea at the canteen. He had taught me to develop a physical understanding ofproblems. I have been greatly influenced by his profound knowledge in various fields ofscience and his cheerful behavior.

When I returned to RRI in 2015 and shared an office next to his, I felt peace and joy tocome back closer to him again. He was already ill and was not coming to RRI regularly,but whenever we met, he was always the same affectionate which he was before. Wediscussed science, and I showed him my research, and he used to tell me the interestingproblems he was trying to recollect from his school and college days.

My last extended interaction with him was a few months before in his office at RRI. Wediscussed his childhood, college days, parents, the reason for studying engineering andmany other interesting stories from the period of his youth. For the first, I saw him sad,and his eyes were wet. We discussed death and some related Indian philosophies. Hislife was so much eventful from the early days; I requested him to consider writing anautobiography. He smiled like always.

I do not know his family personally but heard a lot about them from him. He was veryproud of his daughters as they are also active in science. I have lost a father figure in mylife and a guide to all type of science. I am sure their loss is much more terrible andprofound. I sincerely wish they will find peace from the memories of him and his works.

With best regards and wishes, Dibyendu, RRI, Bangalore.

Dear Baskaran,

It is such a loss for the scientific community.

At TIFR-Hyderabad this morning, we had an informal memorial meeting, where those who knew him, spoke of his wide-ranging interests, intense curiousity, kindness to young people, and those endlessly stimulating and jovial conversations.

The Centre Director is writing a condolence letter to his wife Ann and the family. But somehow, we were all, family.

And will miss him so.

In sadness,

Subodh

Subodh R Shenoy <subodhrshenoy@gmail.com>

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Dear Baskaran, dear friends:

Ramadas very kindly warned me yesterday of Narendra’s demise. We are all at a loss.

As a scientist, he has been one of the sharpest, deepest, and broadest theorists I ever met. You could make a note of any remarks he would make about anything, because it would never prove trivial. Only one thing was perhaps as important as physics was to him: and that was ways to help people, students, colleagues in need of support.

At the ICTP level, Narendra was among the earliest carriers of the great Indian flux of colleagues, students, ideas, that contributed so much to our mutual growth, culminating in jokes such as "ICTP=Indian Centre for Theoretical Physics”.He was I believe our Staff Associate of the Condensed Matter Group and a regular animator at many of our workshops and scientific occasions.

At the personal level, finally, Narendra has been a brother. A family friend who came to our house while in Trieste, and who welcomed us on our Bangalore visit to RRI eleven years ago.

Narendra Kumar is a great scientist, a great man and a wonderful human being — he will not be forgotten.

Erio

------------------------------Prof. Erio Tosatti

SISSA, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy

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“If I should go before the rest of youBreak not a flower nor inscribe a stone,Nor when I’m gone speak in a Sunday voiceBut be the usual selves that I have known.Weep if you must,Parting is hell,But life goes on,So sing as well” – Joyce Grenfell