I only thought good things happen in multiples.
Close on the heels of Dr. Raja Ramanna, we also had to witness the demise of Mulk Raj Anand. He passed away on 28th September 2004, in Pune, India. And yes, like many a great player, he was out at 99.
He was amongst India’s few world-class authors whose stories and writings have held sway over the masses through whichever language they were translated into.
His books always worked towards making the higher-castes (read: those who could afford to buy and spend time reading books) aware of how stupid the ideas of caste-ism were when taken to extremes, or otherwise.
My first interaction with him was through a middle-school hindi literature text-book. But I’ve been a happy fan since. His writings affect everyone, more so people who realize the rigid structure they are built into and are trying to break-free.
Here are thanks and good-byes to a great Indian author, who had the education to make him an NRI, but he decided to stay mostly at home and work with the problems of the caste structure.
PS: What I find amazing is, his wikipedia entry was already updated with additional information, a few hours after the news of his demise.