Shri NJ Yasaswy

The Legendry Educationist

Shri NJ Yasaswy, who once said, “I will not sit in this chair even for a day more if I am not able to deliver the best”, for the first time ever, excused himself from a meeting that he chaired, at 12 noon on 12^th September and got himself admitted in a hospital, unfortunately, never to return again. 

He did not sit again in that chair from which he orchestrated the creation of ICFAI, an educational institution to be reckoned with in the realm of privately managed higher education in India. But when he was in that chair, what a tearing hurry he demonstrated to accomplish so many things, all at once! 

He had the knack of making everything look simple to accomplish even to an ordinary mortal —be it the launching of the Chartered Financial Analyst program to make  true financial management available to the Indian youth way back in 1985; re-jigging it constantly to suit the emerging requirements of the Indian financial market; starting new educational programs that can well cater to the changing needs of the reforming and liberalized Indian markets;  redrafting the curriculum for an existing program to contextualize it to the changing business environment; articulating the need for a new university with government authorities; establishing universities with competent faculty duly supported by requisite infrastructure; designing a campus for a newly approved university; fighting against the archaic regulations in his own inimitable style;  publishing books on current topics of management, all with the desire to bring the latest knowledge to the doorsteps of the Indian academic institutions; launching the bold initiative of publishing journals in management, arts and humanities, science and technology, and particularly, ensuring them to be in the hands of subscribers on the first of every quarter; launching free education in English medium for urban poor with an altogether new philosophy: “Why a driver’s son should again become a driver, why  not he become  a white-collared employee?”; or, for that matter, creating an academy—CP Brown Academy—for resurrecting interest in the Telugu language; and whatnot. Suffice it to say, he had created institutions that simply enabled ordinary people perform extraordinary deeds.   

Unlike many achievers, shunning all publicity, sitting behind, on that corner chair surrounded by books and the photos of his favorite personalities—Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, and Venkateswara Rao mastaru, his father – in plot No.19, Nagarjuna Hills, he used to send all his followers, transforming them into angels of the cause being articulated,  in different directions to pursue all that was dear to his heart. And they did succeed in making his dreams a reality.  Yes, it was a relentless struggle— no two opinions about it. But what an accomplishment! For a single soul! They stand as good testimony to his life’s mission.

Alas! All that has to come to an end… that too, so suddenly… True to his favorite poet’s musing— “Golden lads … all must, / …, come to dust”— Shri NJ Yasaswy, orphaning all of us —nay, more than the people, orphaning the cause that he had expounded all through his life —left this world for his heavenly abode on 8^th October.

Yasaswy garu! What would happen to all that you started! … you created! … Do we have the wherewithal to emulate you? … to carry forward your mission?

True, the causes that you expounded are so noble that they would, I am sure, themselves ennoble us, your followers, to carry them forward.   That is the greatest tribute we all can pay you and for all your struggle to create facilities to dispense quality knowledge to all those who needed it badly. 

For now, I say goodbye to you, Yasaswy garu, recalling what my statistics teacher said when I called on him before leaving the university: “…, world is too small … and it is round … we shall meet somewhere … sometime … again”.

“Adieu”, until then! 

               —     An admirer of Shri NJ Yasaswy’s work