1st July 2010,
My dear friend librarian at large Shri Kalyane,
I never realised last time may be about 7 months back when I met you at your residence that that could be the last meeting with you. The amount of time available with me at your residence roughly say about two to three hours in let us say about three times was never sufficient forme to talk to you. And I could see in your eyes that you wanted me to stay at your place for some time. What to to do I had to go to Thane ... Kalwwa to reach my residence..... by train. I really wanted to speak to you when you were alone with me some times may be on a road side ... or under a tree or .... may be a lot of time when we could walk a lot ... kms together. My dream and wish of spending endless time with you could not realise. The so called desire to communicate....exchange views ... remained unfulfilled. My mind never agrees to the fact that you are not around in a physical sense. You are so much mixed up in my thoughts and ideas … and ofcourse philosophy. Now there is no need of any email or phone or wireless to communicate to you….. you can very well read my lines as I type…from where ever you are. Shall I think that my meetings….discussions with you ended…with your detachment from your body……Idont think so ….. the physical connectivities have their own limitations….now you are beyond your limitations….may be I am right…. I can get connected … as and when I want…as and when I feel like. There is so much to be discussed…. There is so much to be argued… … how do I find you live with me … There are many subjects and topics which we both did not deliberate… I am so curious to have your point of view … philosophy on so many diverse topics. What do I do dear? How do I elicit your thoughts now. ?... May be I look foolish in thinking the way I am thinking now. May be whatever you shared in terms of ideas …. Represent … n number of thoughts … and opinions … May be if I start reading whatever you wrote and published ….could be I may get a glimpse of your other thoughts.
The glowing face of that Kalyane …. Young energetic ….thoughtful… is so green in my mind. May be initially you took some time to decide whether you should ever interact with me. Ya thosedays … you just arrived at my institute from a sister organization of ICAR. The very look , attitude … drew me towards you. Your dry…passionate …non childish attitude towards knowledge, writing, publishing …. And a craze for writing and publishing drew me may be close to you. Ya I can remember now … you were not realy liking the things you were doing for your job. You had some other things .. close to your heart. How can we expect our likes and dislikes to pair with job and its requirements. May what we are passionate about .. may or may not be linked to our professions and jobs.
Ya … you used to ask me … mumble… like “ I should have been more into active science … than science communication or science administration, …. How do I coincide my interests with that of my job and work” . If if I remember wel I told you … don’t try to relate … do what is close to your chest … in your free time. But then you did not still discover … what is that which is between librarianship….. science …. And philosophy. You know we had endless sessions in discovering …. A subject…. Topic for you to get fruitfully engaged in. And it was not for so long … a wait for you to stumble at some areas like “Productivity Studies”. Ya you did and were doing something about Sugarcane Breeding Institute….ya those exercises became … one of your first few published papers. Then you stumbled upon terms like Science of Science and Sociology of Science .. gradually to discover …. What later engaged you for years together…. “Scientometrics”, Bibliometrics”, Librametry”, etc. The strikingly interesting was the fact of how yoyu will work l…… and where will you be able to get material and data for “Scientometric Works”. May be we then suddenly … got fascinated upon the idea of Individual scientometric portraits. As you realize… we were not sure … if it could ever be accepted by librarians or scientists …. We were not realy sure… how it is going to work further. And you got me involved with you in publishing informetric portrait of a botanist…….. and the story’s….first line was drawn….. And then you were drawn towards areas of my interests … u know we ended up publishing papers on “empathy in public librarianship”, Round the clock Librarianship etc. Then you came to Mumbai and my be you came a bit closer to what is dearer to your heart….. that is the world of Publication….hope the days you spent at Mumbai as Publication Officer were gratifying for you.
I still remember those endless hours at Hyderabad … which we spent on road sides… or under a tree … making our families wait for us behind at homes. It was indeed an intoxication which we were in … and were really not bother about what people thought about us. Hats off Kalyane …. You had the charisma to draw like minded youngsters towards topics of your interest …. Ramesh, Hanji, Venkataramana, me at Hyderabad and Kademani, Anil …and Idont remember many names of your co-authors at Mumbai… cannot ever be able to forget you and their association with you. You really deserve to be called an “author maker”.
People must be talking a lot about your contributions now ….must be talking a lot about how you carelessed your family. I am sure your wife and your lively beautiful kids will never complain about what you did not do to them. I am sure what you did … overpowers on what you did not do to them. Let God give shower all courage and confidence to them … to excel passionately in whatever they are engaged in.
People say .. you suffered a lot in your last days …. But I am sure you ended your journey gracefully. All great things in life take their fitting prices / fitting tolls. And you paid for it!!!
You became an unforgettable name in Indian Librarianship by initiating new chapters in Scientometrics, Informetrics and Bibliometrics. You were indeed a librarian by passion, zeal and interest and now you are a librarian at large!!! Indeed now you are a librarian at large!!! Hats off to you my friend. My interactions with you now I believe are more intense than when you were around. Best wishes … may your soul rest in peace. Hats Off.
Lbn.Rajashekhar Devarai
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