Thursday, October 30, 2014

Kothapalli Baburao RIP

Kothapalli Babu Rao from Repalle, a relative, childhood friend and a benefactor to our family passed away on Tuesday in Maryland, USA. It is a second generation friendship. His father Dr. Krishnamurthy was from Nagayatippa in Krishna District and went to school in Avanigadda with my father. We visited them requently during my childhood. Baburao did a Ph.D in Chemical enineering, went to USA on a post-doctoral fellowship and lated shifted to business.

In 1970, I was in USA on a short teaching assignment. My brother suddenly landed in USA after getting admission to some crappy college but without any scholarship or funds. I was due to leave in a few weeks and managed to get him admission in a better institution but I never saved any money and did not have funds for his stay. I tried to raise funds with some close friends saying that I would come back if necessary to return the loans if my brother could not manage it. But I failed. I did not ask Baburao since he was known to be frugal. But he himself came forward and funded my brother's education. He must have helped many more. Because he was shy, self effacing and frugal, his good deeds are probably not known. My brother went on to follow his example and helped many with their education. I am sure that Baburao will be remembered by many.

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