Friends, When I heard the telephone ringing at my residence during the odd hour at 4.45 am on 4th I could lift the phone with unknown fear. It carried the shocking news intimating untimely and sad demise of my friend and professional colleague Dr. TBR due to tragic accident the previous evening. Since my digital organizer was new it had very few numbers to inform friends, colleagues and students of Dr. Rajashekar. I could inform as many as I could using BSNL Telephone Directory including NCSI colleagues and in turn requesting them to inform others. I am sorry if I could not inform some of you in time due to nonavailabilty of telephone number. In spite of being Saturday a good number people could give their last respect and tearful farewell to TBR. The news spread like a wild fire and phone calls were flooded from all corners of the country for 2-3 days. TBR and myself were classmates and housemates at DRTC. Even as a student he was hard working and dedicated to the professional cause. He was more fond of developmental and academic activities than routine administration. His contributions to the professional developments both at national and international level are remarkable. He was associated with NAL in a big way by way of helping us to deliver lecture in workshops, conferences and having common projects. He helped us to develop our institutional repository using E-Prints (Will be announced soon). Probably we have been the major beneficiary of his services through seven of his students and even now four are with us. Most of the Digital library activities and related services, open archive movements in the country had the benefit of his expertise. DL related conferences used his service for tutorials. More than anything else he was very calm, but with charismatic qualities. To tell in one sentence his death is a great loss to his family, friends, LIS and IT profession and many past, present and prospective students of NCSI. We had a condolence meeting at our Information Centre and like wise I got the news of similar meetings already held and also planned shortly in different parts of the country. May the Almighty give the strengths to all of us and specially his family members to bear this irreplaceable loss and may Raju's soul rest in peace. Goudar -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I.R.N. Goudar Tel: 91-80-25086081 Head, Information Centre for 91-80-25235315 Aerospace Science and Technology Fax: 91-80-25268072 National Aerospace Laboratories E-mail:goudar@css.nal.res.in Airport Road, BANGALORE-560 017 India http://www.icast.org.in/staff/goudar.html