Tag: Pune

He Finished His Tea, and Then Held My Hand

He said, “You can go ahead. But I will live till 100 years at least.” He fell ten years short of his own promise. Remembering Dr. D. Y. Patil — Dada — and a photograph he would not allow to be taken until he had finished his tea.

In memory of Dr. D. Y. Patil — “Dada” — 22 October 1935 to 4 August 2026

We lost Dada today.

I met him for the first time on 25 April 2018, the day I joined as the founding Vice Chancellor of D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune. I had gone to him with a request. At the time I was working on digital avatar technology, and I wanted to build a digital avatar of Dada — to preserve his voice, his presence, his way of speaking to young people, for the generations of students who would come long after him.

He listened. Then he smiled and said, “You can go ahead. But I will live till 100 years at least.”

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6 Years at D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune(DYPIU)

In 6 years of its existence , DYPIU has been trendsetter in many ways for the whole country!

I completed my 5 years tenure at TIFAC on April 24, 2018. During farewell, my colleagues asked me what was my next plan. To keep suspense about my plans, I mentioned that I have 3 things in mind : (1) To catch up on sleep (2) To spend time with my grandson (who was about 5 months old at that time!) (3) To write a book.
However from TIFAC, I directly went to airport and took a flight to Pune in the evening. Next day (April 25, 2018), a press conference was organized to announce the starting of D Y Patil International Univ at Akurdi campus in Pune. I took a photo of nameplate and shared with my TIFAC colleagues about my next engagement and broke the suspense!

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