Prof jakkā nāgabhūśanam

On the tech front, as the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), he really helped our Aerospace Engineering Department stitch deeper bonds with the Rotary Wing Research & Development Center (RWR&DC), HAL. He was perhaps one of our earliest professors of practice, with his two decades of experience heading the helicopter dynamics group at HAL coming in handy teaching for the next two decades at IISc courses such as Introduction to Helicopters 🚁 & Flight Vehicle Design, both of which I had the opportunity to credit & ace. I owe him my minimal understanding of Floquet theory too as he made multiple page-long equations a breeze to comprehend.

Arising from a zillā pariśad high school background followed by an electrical engineering bachelors from āndhrā university, it was surprising that for the unassuming person that he was, he was pretty well known amongst the annual American Helicopter Society (AHS)/Vertical Flight Society (VFS) forum attendees as many of them have enquired about him from me. Apart from his substantial research efforts towards flap-lag damping & stability of helicopters, he was amongst the pioneers of the integrated force method in collaboration with Prof P. C. Pāndéy & symbolic processing techniques beyond the realm of rotorcraft. I had the privilege of tasting both worlds in my work with him & later the honour of presenting him with a lifetime achievement award as part of the 4th Asian-Australian Rotorcraft Forum hosted by my enterprising team of students such as Dr Rajnish Mallick, Dr Umesh Kizhakkinan & Dr Keshav Kumār Subhakar Rao.

An enigma with his jet black hair even close to retirement, Prof JN: “the thing is…”, as he was fondly referred to by his students for his oft-repeated phrase, was my Masters in Engineering (ME) dissertation project advisor. Once an advisor, always an advisor… as he continued to be a consultant on some of my international helicopters projects over the 29 years that I’ve known him. Personally, I shall miss this great friend & almost a father figure. In fact, he was a very unique individual… heart-warming… & at the same time, endowed with a capability of disseminating wisdom even in silence (which he practiced most of the time), almost like ādi guru dakśināmūrti.