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There are very few people who touch your life and leave an indelible imprint on it.
Professor GP Sastry with whom I had a brief interaction during a UNESCO Program for University teachers at Physics department of IIT KGP in 1999, is one of them. He delivered some 'informal' lectures on special relativity and introduced the participants to two very beautiful computer programs gifted by Professor Edwin F Taylor of MIT. These programs gave a 'hands on' experience of special relativity which was really educative and provided a feel for relativistic phenomena.
For some time, I remained in contact with Prof Sastry through e-mails and he published a paper in Physics Education, giving me the honor of being one of his coauthors. After his retirement from IIT KGP, I lost contact with him. However, he was always in my mind, and in 2013, when I visited my son in Hyderabad, I could find him again through his blogs on internet. This time what better luck could have been there than having him as a neighbor in the same gated society in which I had purchased a flat in same block.
Providence provided me a golden opportunity of having plenty of personal interaction with him and a close exposure to his multifaceted personality.
Apart from having detailed discussions on various topics of Physics and asking him questions which I wanted to ask but was always afraid of asking, I read almost all his blogs and developed an addiction for his English prose. I had a liking for stories of Ruskin Bond and RK Narayan. Prof Sastry's Ishani booklets which narrate his experiences, especially at IIT KGP, are a source of joy because of the wit, humor and his unique style of story telling. These blogs are in the same style as that of these great writers.
In addition to Physics, his long chats on a bench in our society could be on any topic like Upanishads, Telugu literature, Ram Charit Manas, Rama Krishna Paramahamsa or Ramana Maharshi.
I kept wondering about the depth of his knowledge, analytical thinking and amazing memory.
It is said that people learned Hindi to read 'Chandra Kanta Santati' of Devki Nandan Khatri.
I too tried to learn Telugu so that I could read his Telugu verses.
Fortunately, he has restarted his blogs in English.
Due to Covid, I missed his company this winter.
I pray for his long, healthy and creative life...
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