by H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air”
— Thomas Gray
My friend Dr. L.R. Kadiyali died on 17th instant in Delhi at the age of 83. He is from Karnataka and his father Ramabhatta was a teacher in Kodagu.
He leaves behind his wife Bharathi and two daughters, Vrinda and Vasuda. Dr. Vrinda is an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Marketing and Economics in Cornell University.
Dr. Kadiyali graduated from Poona Engineering college securing first rank. He took premature retirement and established his own firm called Kadiyali Associates. It was a consulting firm which did work in the field of Highways all over India. This Kannadiga was a shining star in the firmament of engineering profession and has left many footprints in Karnataka’s prestigious Highway projects.
It is not merely a personal loss because he was my colleague in the Ministry and later became my boss and mentor when I worked in Orissa. We were also family friends. In his death India has lost an outstanding engineer.
He has left an indelible imprint with his works and also with two important books titled ‘Traffic Engineering’ and ‘Transportation Planning and Highway Engineering’ which are like a bible for engineers. They were the reference books for doctoral thesis for many students. Dr. Kadiyali has also done monumental research work funded by the World Bank titled ‘Road User Cost Study,’ which specifies the optimum speed for various types of vehicles to consume minimum amount of fuel. He was passionate about concrete roads and an authority on concrete technology. He was given the Life-time Award by Vizag Engineering College and in 2015 he got Life-time Award from the Indian Road Congress also. His firm, Kadiyali Associates, did not grow nor survive because he followed the strict principle of not bribing to get contracts.
He was soft spoken, simple and lived a spartan life. Dr. Kadiyali donated one of his kidneys to his relative when he was alive. And after his death he had asked his people not to do any havan or other ceremonies including shraddha. He had also instructed that nobody needed to come for his last rites but wanted his daughter Vrinda to press the button at the electric crematorium.
Later his daughter Vrinda sent me an e-mail which said: Thank you uncle.
He had a great life and a great end, we should all be so lucky to go this way.
NOTE: I must immensely thank Bapu Satyanarayana for sending this tribute for publication. Very thoughtful of him in these days of ‘blind-liberal democracy’ where every other Tom, Dick and Harry gets an award sponsored by the State and the State-funded Cultural, Sports and Academic institutions but not those like Dr. L.R. Kadiyali.
Reading this mere pen sketch of a profile of Dr. L.R. Kadiyali, I am wowed. People like him are the patriots, they know the real meaning of ‘Nationalism,’ unlike those leaders who visited JNU to cheer those who are still in the dark even after 69 years of independence to understand what ‘Nationalism’ means for India.
Nationalism should not be equated with secularism. In Hindu majority India, specially after partition on the basis of religion alone, Nationalism means simply loving your land first, then your religion or whomsoever (your party leader and the family, for example). Therefore, for all Indians, Nationalism should simply mean Bharat Mata ki Jai or Jai Hind or Vande Mataram.
No doubt Dr. Kadiyali is one gem among many, with purest ray serene stuck in the dark caves of unfathomed ocean called India and a flower born to blush unseen wasting its sweetness on the vast merciless Indian desert air, to add my voice to Thomas Gray’s regrets in a poem quoted in the beginning of this tribute. Which is why he did not even get a Padma Shri.
Looking at our roads, I wonder how many road building engineers might have read his books!
As in life, in death too Dr. Kadiyali has kept his ‘sacred’ sense of understanding life in its natural state and equanimity seen in the manner he wanted his mortal body’s disposal. Everything to the furrow, nothing to the grave. Even in death this man only thought about common good to all. To speak the language of Shakespeare:
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might start up
And say to all the world, “This was a man.” — KBG
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Monday – February 29th, 2016