Friday, August 14, 2015

Remembering MP Ranjan

Afternoon on Sunday 9th August when I received the terrible news from a friend, there was a sudden void and emptiness. Moments flashed as memories and it was difficult to accept the fact that the always smiling Ranjan is not amongst us anymore. Life is so fragile and unpredictable.
Indeed! 
But life goes on…

Photo Credits: Unknown 

My interaction with Ranjan was limited but that little has been significant enough.  

In 2006, when I joined NID as a PG Textile student, we had a 2 week DCC (Design Concepts and Concerns) class with Ranjan. That time I was kind of confused and disoriented about its relevance. Now, 9 years later I realize that how his teachings have developed me as a designer and made magic to me as a human being.

Later in 2009, Ranjan was in the Research & Publication panel at NID to review a craft research that I was working on. The feedback he gave me then, is a feedback that I give myself for every new project I work on. A holistic approach, multidimensional thinking, relativity of various methods, necessity and consequences of decisions, social and ecological impact etc. are some ways in which Ranjan’s teachings helped me evolve as a designer.

Ranjan – a design thinker and believer, a teacher, an encyclopedia within himself - was, is and will always be an inspiration. He will be missed by the entire design fraternity.

Here I think of few lines by Khalil Gibran on teaching:

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind. 

1 comment:

khan said... [Reply]

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