Major (Dr) R Thiagarajan

I was very sorry to learn of Major (Dr) R Thiagarajan’s passing last Friday. I would have written earlier, but for my Son-in-law (my eldest daughter’s husband) sudden demise, of a massive heart attack, last Wednesday (19th August) – he died within minutes, quite literally and chaos has ensued ever since. The funeral is tomorrow, 27th August at the West Berkshire Crematorium, Thatcham.
My very good friend, Thiaga and I were born on exactly the same day! We joined the IMA on the same day and commissioned into the Corps of Signals on the same day. We attended the YO’s course together in 1958 and the SODE Course too, in 1962-65. He was a brilliant Mathematician and Engineer – and was so dedicated to his studies that it took us, his coursemates, all our persuasive efforts to get him to apply for married accommodation. His final objection was that he did not have any personal transport – so we coaxed him into borrowing my Royal Enfield motorbike for the duration! This put paid to his last objection. He was eventually allocated family quarters, clearing the way for his new bride’s arrival in Mhow.
Both of us were retained as Instructors at the MCTE, Mhow, at the end of the SODE course, in 1965. After a year or so, I was posted to Ladakh while he continued at the MCTE.
Within a few months, however, both of us were detailed to attend a crash three month course in “Automatic Data Processing Systems” at the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, based on the IBM 1401 computer system.
Our careers diverged from then on – while he stayed on at the MCTE I was summoned to Signals Directorate to involve myself in the setting up of a new section – Sigs 9 – dedicated to the development up of “Electronic Data Processing Systems” for the Army.
We lost touch for a few years, after I took premature retirement to join my wife in the UK. The last time we met in India was in 1980, when he loaned me his car, while my wife and I were on a visit to New Delhi. He called on us on one occasion, in England, when he was enroute to India from the USA, during the early 1980s.
We remained in touch by post, telephone and e-mail but these contacts progressively decreased in frequency, as his varied illnesses overcame him. We then discovered that both of us suffered from the same underlying disease – Type II Diabetes. Sadly, this was to be his undoing – in his case the disease proved to be very much more difficult to control.
Tragic as his passing was, it has proved to be a blessing in disguise – ending the intolerable pain and undignified suffering he had to endure for so many years! It has also ended the massive burden his illness and incapacity had placed on his most devoted wife, Indira!
He was a good man – a warm and wonderful person really – and now he is no more! I feel I have lost my soul mate, my other self! He is, however seldom far from me in my thoughts! We remain kindred spirits forever!
Fortunately, however, I am still in touch with his daughter, Charu, his sister, Sumathi and her husband Dr Srinivasan and their daughter Dr Lata Srinivasan.
Sincerely yours,
Ossie Pereira
(Major O A Pereira Retired)