Posthumous recognition

By Nandagopal Menon (Nandu, acj, 98)

I remember my last encounter with Jyoti for all the wrong reasons. It was in late 2005 and he tried to recruit me for a rather unpleasant cause, to say the least. I almost signed up. But, fortunately, one of my colleagues (who also happened to work with Jyoti in The Statesman) saw through it and warned me. I don't want to go into the details of the episode. At least some of you ACJians, especially my classmates, know about it.

That said, I have to add that I have always respected Jyoti's brilliance and passionate commitment to his work. I believe that when alive, he did not receive the recognition he deserved. Part of that, of course, was because of his hot-headedness and unenviable skill to alienate people. Now that he is no more, hopefully people will judge his work and not the person. And, for sure, his work is near-flawless. Some are born posthumously. Perhaps Jyoti is one among them.