Former Director, National Institute of Oceanography, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research in comments to CSIR Family Group (CFG) on May 9, 2022
When I joined, Dr. Prasada Rao was already a Director and his style was something that I kind of envied … It was a magnanimous style, a large style … he brought everyone in his lab together. And I was learning. I was there admiring what he was doing. I don’t think I could I achieve one-tenth of that but he was a kind of a goal … a person who was diverse, who was encompassing, who was fatherly, who still took his lab to the front, who was innovative … he had everything.
I knew him more intimately at CFG. Sometimes I would stay off for long periods and he would invariably phone me up and just ask me how I was. Nothing special, nothing great, and I used to tell him. But when he would call, I would do whatever he asked me to do because he was old school, he was my type of guy, he was someone who represented my CSIR, my India.
So when he passed, it was a deep shock. It was something that I kind of treasured, it was part of my little world, and it wasn’t there, and it was gone. You can’t really encompass the guy with words, you can encompass him with concepts, with philosophies.
He was actually very deeply religious but his religion never impacted anybody or anything. He just shared and without any requirements. It was, it is and, it should be what India should be and I loved that about him.
We have a big hole in CFG … His departure is a big loss and I don’t know who will stitch and bridge that. I wish the family and ourselves a short healing period.
– Ehrlich Desa