Saturday, August 14, 2010
JNPT fondly remembers R.Vasudevan
JNPT fondly remembers R. Vasudevan and his plethora of achievements
Conceiver & executor of PPP in ports
1st box terminal with pvt. participation (NSICT)
Signatory to historic JNPT-NSICT Licence Agreement
A condolence meeting was held on July 26 at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) here to mourn the demise of Mr R. Vasudevan, IAS (Retd.), former JNPT Chairman and Secretary (Shipping and Transport), in Mumbai the previous day. Mr Vasudevan, an IAS officer of the 1964 batch of Maharashtra Cadre, had served as Chairman of JNPT during 1996-1998 before he was appointed Secretary (Shipping and Transport).
Some of the other important positions held by him were Director-General of Shipping, with additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director of Shipping Corporation of India, Secretary to the Union government, Inter-State Council Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Vice-Chairman, Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal.
Mr Vasudevan’s tenure as JNPT Chairman was fondly remembered, in particular, for his contribution, with great determination, to the development of the Port and for making JN Port what it is today.
A dynamic visionary, Mr Vasudevan came to be credited with the conception and implementation of the public-private partnership (PPP) concept for ports, and he ensured that such a bold step of the government would prove to be successful. The setting up of the first container terminal with private participation, viz. NSICT, was the result of this initiative and Mr Vasudevan was a signatory to the historic Licence Agreement between JNPT and NSICT.
The condolence meeting was chaired by Mr N.N. Kumar, IRS, Chairman-in-Charge, JNPT, and attended by the representatives of the private terminals, Mr Bhushan Patil, Trustee, JNPT, and other senior officers of JNPT, who expressed condolences and deepest sympathy to the bereaved family. Ms Vandana Vasudevan, daughter of Mr Vasudevan, was also present at the meeting.
Mr S. K. Kaul, Chief Manager (Admn.) and Secretary, JNPT, in his speech, said that the tenure of Mr Vasudevan as JNPT Chairman would be remembered forever for his dynamic leadership and for the bold decisions taken by him.
Mr Bhushan Patil described Mr Vasudevan as "a dynamic personality who was sincere and straightforward in every approach". He would be remembered by one and all for his contribution to the development of the Port, he stressed.
Mr Kaul also read out the condolence messages of Mr S. S. Hussain, ex-Chairman, JNPT, and Ms Maya Sinha, ex-Deputy Chairperson, JNPT.
Friday, August 13, 2010
A dignified, scholarly and unbiased judge
R.Vasudevan was Vice Chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) between 2001 to 2006 where his passion for justice was evident in numerous court cases. Advocates would love to be in his court because of the lively atmosphere peppered with humour. His then private secretary Mr.Nair and the then registrar Mr.S.K.Joshi recall how even after the diagnosis of cancer in 2005, he never let the pace flag and would come for an afternoon court session with the IV still attached to his wrist after a morning chemotherapy session. I recall telling him to take it easy when he would sit late into the night reading cases. He wore the judicial attire of white shirt and white pant with pride and was conscious of the responsibility it conveyed. Dad would come home for lunch and take a short nap of about 20 minutes.But he would never linger. Like clockwork he would be up and away to attend the post lunch session. Despite the cancer, he completed his full term till September 2006.
The MAT community held a condolence meeting as part of the court proceedings on 5th August 2010. The two speeches made on that ocassion, posted below, are testimony to the high regard they had for Mr.Vasudevan.
Tribute by Chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal
The MAT community held a condolence meeting as part of the court proceedings on 5th August 2010. The two speeches made on that ocassion, posted below, are testimony to the high regard they had for Mr.Vasudevan.
Tribute by Chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A brother-R.Narayanan remembers Vasu's love for books and music
Even in his school days, he was always seen reading some book or other in english, Hindi or tamil. He had read almost all the novels of Kalki and Devan before he was 16! Even by the age of 12, when he was a Praveen in Hindi, he had read all the novels of Premchand, a great social reformer. He had a great admiration for Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Shakespeare and Winston Churchill. When he was preparing for IAS exams, I have seen him discussing with 'Delhi' a man of erudition on the famous books of Will Durant and Arthur Kolstyler ,great philosophers. His taste for all good things in this world is something astonishing and could never be copied. It was God's gift to him.
Vasu was also a great music lover. He enjoyed Ariyakudi and GNB so much that in his leisure time, he was imitating their voice to entertain his brothers and sisters. He loved film music too. But we used to make fun of him on his face, when he attempted to sing like Mukesh. He used to call Mukesh as Moookesh to mean that he was singing through his nose. He aways supported me for my interest in Film music and encouraged me when I took to playing the harmonica.
I was a great fan of Shankar jaikishan. When he was collector of Alibagh where Shankar was having his beautiful bungalow he invited me to Alibagh so that he could arrange for my meeting with Shankar. It was really thrilling for me that I would be meeting a great music director with the help of my brother but due to certain circumstances beyond my control, I could not make it to happen. But after about 20 years, after this
incident, I went to meet Vasu in Shankar Jaikishan avenue at Church gate!
Vasu was also a great music lover. He enjoyed Ariyakudi and GNB so much that in his leisure time, he was imitating their voice to entertain his brothers and sisters. He loved film music too. But we used to make fun of him on his face, when he attempted to sing like Mukesh. He used to call Mukesh as Moookesh to mean that he was singing through his nose. He aways supported me for my interest in Film music and encouraged me when I took to playing the harmonica.
I was a great fan of Shankar jaikishan. When he was collector of Alibagh where Shankar was having his beautiful bungalow he invited me to Alibagh so that he could arrange for my meeting with Shankar. It was really thrilling for me that I would be meeting a great music director with the help of my brother but due to certain circumstances beyond my control, I could not make it to happen. But after about 20 years, after this
incident, I went to meet Vasu in Shankar Jaikishan avenue at Church gate!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Rarest of Rare Human Beings- Kamal Kothari, Ex-Director, Shipping Corporation of India
Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 11:57 PM,
I have just learned that Mr Vasudevan is no more with us. He has moved from his earthly house to His House. He leaves all of us very sad, deeply disturbed, distressed and dejected. We think about him, relive our memories and worry about him. But let us not forget that he is in His abode. For years when he was sick all of you looked after him with loving and tender care bearing all the strain. That made his life comfortable. Now God looks after him and that is our solace.
I have just learned that Mr Vasudevan is no more with us. He has moved from his earthly house to His House. He leaves all of us very sad, deeply disturbed, distressed and dejected. We think about him, relive our memories and worry about him. But let us not forget that he is in His abode. For years when he was sick all of you looked after him with loving and tender care bearing all the strain. That made his life comfortable. Now God looks after him and that is our solace.
For the long years I have known him he was the rarest of the rare human beings. Forthright, absolutely straight forward and honest to the core –that was Mr Vasudevan. If administrators in India were like him the country would be a different place. My association with him was an enriching and learning experience. Every time I met him he would come up with interpretation of events and situations which were unique. His depth of knowledge, foresight and wisdom were amazing. As was his simplicity. He was a rare human being and his breed is getting rarer by the day. To me he was a mentor. He is not with us but his memories are everlasting.
Mr Vasudevan has moved to his abode in heaven. At one level we deeply grieve for him. But then we are grieving for his journey to Him. Lord Krishna enunciates in Bhagvat Gita:
All beings are unmanifested in their beginning O Bharata
Manifested in their middle state
And unmanifested in their end.
What is there to grieve about?
Yet we grieve. We grieve because we live in a world which is illusory-which is Maya. Just a few weeks before Einstein died he wrote:
“The universe is an illusion –but what a persistently stubborn illusion.”
We all are a part of this stubbornly persistent illusion. But as long as we live in this Mayavi world the separation, the pain the sorrow and the grief are as real as it can be. Your loss, pain, grief and the sorrow is stupendous and anything I write can hardly mitigate it. But I pray to God to give all of you courage and fortitude to bear the unbearable.
I join all of you in praying for the peace of the departed soul.
Yours in Grief
Kamal Kothari
An unblemished jewel -A tribute by V.S.Gopalakrishnan, friend and colleague in the IAS (batch of 1962)
A great and a gentle soul- A tribute to late Mr.R.Vasudevan
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 7:31 PM
When I heard that my close friend Rangaswami Vasudevan passed away on 25 July 2010, I was not only assailed with silent grief, the event also brought to my mind a flood of old, personal recollections. He belonged to the 1964 vintage of the I.A.S. and was just two years junior to me. I can say in all honesty that I have come across very few individuals of great qualities like him. One of his last postings was Secretary, Ministry of Shipping and Transport.
In the years 1964-66, I was a Sub Divisional Officer in Balapur in District Akola, Maharashtra State with an independent charge. That was the time he was posted to Akola for the purpose of “district training” with a flamboyant designation called “Supernumerary Assistant Collector” invented by the British. I discovered in him not only a fine colleague but a great friend.
District life for bachelors like us was devoid of any sense of romanticism which we compensated by intellectual discussions, within our limited knowledge at that young age, on a variety of topics such as history, religion, philosophy, politics etc and the subjects were endless. I remember his profound admiration for Rajaji and his writings, which was born from his being an Iyengar as I would occasionally tell him in good humour. He would often refer to passages from the book “Vyaasar Virundhu”, the wonderfully written Tamil version of Mahabharata that Rajaji had written.
If anybody was a stickler for honesty and rules, it was Vasu as we used to call him. I remember that he was fond of Hindi movies, the only source of entertainment in Akola then, just the way I was. The theatre-fellows would often hesitate to take any ticket money knowing that we were bureaucrats. Once, he insisted on paying at least the ‘entertainment duties’ that were part of the ticket-price since the Government was not to be denied its due revenue!
Sometimes, he would not recommend some movies to be seen. Once he strongly held the view that a particular movie was very bad and senseless and felt that it should be avoided. When asked ‘why?’ he said that he should know since he had seen it three times! Vasu had a great sense of humour. Indeed, once he accompanied another young colleague of his who was going from shop to shop to buy a bush shirt. Once, when that person was disrobing for the purpose of a ‘trial’, he saw his banian and told him, “Hey, you actually need a banian and not a bush shirt! It is full of holes!”
These are a few amongst several old memories with me. While he had such a unique sense of humour on the one hand, he was on the other hand, a mixture of a Puritan, Non-Partisan, Spartan, Good Samaritan, Rationalist, Socialist and a Task Master. All these qualities governed his personal as well as his official life as he climbed his official ladder from district postings to the Maharashtra Secretatiat to the Government of India.
At an official level, he was a tireless administrator and knew how to get work done from the subordinates whom he used to impress with his personal example, candour, affability and good humour. He was honest to the core, and for him integrity was next to godliness. He was fearless with his political bosses and begged education in the art of currying favour with them or doing anything out of the way for them. He perhaps paid a little price occasionally for being forthright with his bosses. However, on the whole his character and ability won him the support and admiration of his seniors.
Vasu was not just a karma-yogi as far as work was concerned. He was also a gnyana-yogi from his deep learning from books and scriptures. He excelled in his strict orthodoxy and took pride in his provenance from the temple town of Srirangam . I admire him most for some of his qualities other than the benisson given to him as a karma-yogi and a gnyana-yogi, since those qualities are indeed most rare in modern times. There was a great sense of purity in his being which is legendary only amongst angelic characters. In that sense he shone like a ‘Manikkam’, unblemished jewellery. He was a pure soul, incapable of harbouring any negative quality such as jealousy, spite, ill-will etc. He was a non-smoker, a non-drinker and a person of disciplined habits. It is sad that he was afflicted with a carcinoma of the liver that eventually took his life away. May his soul rest in peace.
Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010 7:31 PM
When I heard that my close friend Rangaswami Vasudevan passed away on 25 July 2010, I was not only assailed with silent grief, the event also brought to my mind a flood of old, personal recollections. He belonged to the 1964 vintage of the I.A.S. and was just two years junior to me. I can say in all honesty that I have come across very few individuals of great qualities like him. One of his last postings was Secretary, Ministry of Shipping and Transport.
In the years 1964-66, I was a Sub Divisional Officer in Balapur in District Akola, Maharashtra State with an independent charge. That was the time he was posted to Akola for the purpose of “district training” with a flamboyant designation called “Supernumerary Assistant Collector” invented by the British. I discovered in him not only a fine colleague but a great friend.
District life for bachelors like us was devoid of any sense of romanticism which we compensated by intellectual discussions, within our limited knowledge at that young age, on a variety of topics such as history, religion, philosophy, politics etc and the subjects were endless. I remember his profound admiration for Rajaji and his writings, which was born from his being an Iyengar as I would occasionally tell him in good humour. He would often refer to passages from the book “Vyaasar Virundhu”, the wonderfully written Tamil version of Mahabharata that Rajaji had written.
If anybody was a stickler for honesty and rules, it was Vasu as we used to call him. I remember that he was fond of Hindi movies, the only source of entertainment in Akola then, just the way I was. The theatre-fellows would often hesitate to take any ticket money knowing that we were bureaucrats. Once, he insisted on paying at least the ‘entertainment duties’ that were part of the ticket-price since the Government was not to be denied its due revenue!
Sometimes, he would not recommend some movies to be seen. Once he strongly held the view that a particular movie was very bad and senseless and felt that it should be avoided. When asked ‘why?’ he said that he should know since he had seen it three times! Vasu had a great sense of humour. Indeed, once he accompanied another young colleague of his who was going from shop to shop to buy a bush shirt. Once, when that person was disrobing for the purpose of a ‘trial’, he saw his banian and told him, “Hey, you actually need a banian and not a bush shirt! It is full of holes!”
These are a few amongst several old memories with me. While he had such a unique sense of humour on the one hand, he was on the other hand, a mixture of a Puritan, Non-Partisan, Spartan, Good Samaritan, Rationalist, Socialist and a Task Master. All these qualities governed his personal as well as his official life as he climbed his official ladder from district postings to the Maharashtra Secretatiat to the Government of India.
At an official level, he was a tireless administrator and knew how to get work done from the subordinates whom he used to impress with his personal example, candour, affability and good humour. He was honest to the core, and for him integrity was next to godliness. He was fearless with his political bosses and begged education in the art of currying favour with them or doing anything out of the way for them. He perhaps paid a little price occasionally for being forthright with his bosses. However, on the whole his character and ability won him the support and admiration of his seniors.
Vasu was not just a karma-yogi as far as work was concerned. He was also a gnyana-yogi from his deep learning from books and scriptures. He excelled in his strict orthodoxy and took pride in his provenance from the temple town of Srirangam . I admire him most for some of his qualities other than the benisson given to him as a karma-yogi and a gnyana-yogi, since those qualities are indeed most rare in modern times. There was a great sense of purity in his being which is legendary only amongst angelic characters. In that sense he shone like a ‘Manikkam’, unblemished jewellery. He was a pure soul, incapable of harbouring any negative quality such as jealousy, spite, ill-will etc. He was a non-smoker, a non-drinker and a person of disciplined habits. It is sad that he was afflicted with a carcinoma of the liver that eventually took his life away. May his soul rest in peace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)