Vinay Kumar Srivastav Bhai (VKS) as I knew him.

 There are always some people in our lives who deeply impact us. Academically, I consider three Indian Anthropologists whom I really admire (other than my own teachers), namely Prof. D. N. Majumdar, Prof. L. P. Vidyarthi and Prof. VKS. At personal level it was just one, Vinay Bhai.

On Dec. 23, 2020 when I was thinking about Raymond Dart, who on this day in 1924, had discovered Taung Baby, that changed our Knowledge about human evolution forever, I received a phone call from Prof. Ashok Pradhan of Raipur who, in a chocking voice, informed me about Vinay Bhai leaving for his heavenly abode.

There are many things about Vinay Bhai I may not be knowing (as our physical interaction had plenty of pauses in-between due to our different professional trajectories) but there are some I am probably the only witness.

I rarely remember days, months and years of events, but a day I profoundly remember, I.e. Dec. 18, 1976, the day I joined Prof. Tiwari in Department of Anthropology at DU for my research.

It was a warm sunny winter day when, at about 11.30am, I entered the Department holding a briefcase in my left hand. After formal interaction with Prof. Tiwari, I left the Department when at the main gate I met Anil Mahajan. After formal introduction, he invited me to the lawn facing the main gate to have a chat. There VKS was sitting talking to some students. Anil introduced me to him. We talked for almost three hours as if we had known each other for decades. Such was his persona that he never ignored anyone or let anyone down.

Though we had known each other for more than 35 years, but I came to realise only in 2013 (when I requested him to write Foreword of my book "Social Cultural Anthropology") how much he knew me, more than I knew myself. He had written the four-page long Forward in early morning for two hours non-stop. It was full of praise which I never deserved but he refused to delete a single word of it.

Memories flout as if with wings. The year before last, he was asked to submit a report on Chou case. Chou, the American-Chinese had intruded into the area of Sentences who killed him. When he told me about his visit to A&N Islands and asked him if I knew anyone there, by chance, Dipendra Pathak, the Commissioner, happened to be a student of mine. The duo became good friends thereafter.

Vinay Bhai had a deep interest in Astronomy too. He and Prof. Mehra used to discuss it even visiting each other's home to discuss issues. Once he narrated an incident how Prof. Mehra escaped a certain death as a ceiling-fan fell on him and the prediction of his bad time he had revealed to Vinay Bhai a few days earlier.

Here, I must mention another quality he possessed, that too plenty. He was a very fast and accurate Editor. I was a professional journalist but he had passion for editing, writing, reviewing, observing with all his senses. We, together, pointed out more than a hundred mistakes in the key-note address at a session of Indian Science Congress held in N. Delhi.

I can write and write about him. A gem of a person with command on several languages, he never criticised anybody, nor used any foul words. I have learnt a lot from him. I wish, he were with us for many more years as I has asked him many years ago to write my obituary. But that was not to be.

Acknowledgement: I am thankful to Prof. Shalina Mehta ma'am for asking me to write about Vinay Bhai.