Obituary - Current Affairs for July, 2015

He died at the age of 84 and known as People's President, Dr Kalam breathed his last at a hospital in Meghalaya's capital at 7.45 PM. The former President was rushed to the Bethany hospital after he collapsed during a lecture in the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong. During his tenure as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister from July 1992 to December 1999, he led the weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests, which made India a nuclear weapon state. In 1997, Dr Kalam was conferred Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian awards.

Rameshwaram was the hometown of APJ Abdul Kalam.

Former all-rounder Clive Rice, the first post-apartheid captain of South Africa, died in Johannerburg. An official from national cricket association of South Africa said that Rice, who had been suffering from a brain tumour, played most of his cricket during South Africa's 20-year isolation from the international game. When South Africa returned to the international fold in November 1991, Rice was appointed captain of a team which played three one-day internationals (ODIs) in India.

He took his last breath at his native place Aurangabad (Maharashtra). His gazals are popular in India as well as Pakistan. His books ‘Rayagan’, ‘Ajanabee samandar’ was very appreciated by gazal lovers. As lyricist he wrote number of gazals for hindi movies like ‘Bazaar’, ‘Loree’, ‘Jaane vafaa’, ‘Tere Shahar me’, etc. The Gazal “Karoge yaad to har baat yaad aayegee” from film Bazaar is all time hit song. Bashar Navaaz was honored with ‘Galib award’ of Galib Academy New Delhi, Maharashtra State Urdu Academy award, Maharashtra State Iftekhaar E Adab award.

He was a prolific writer who penned more than a dozen fiction books in Urdu. Retired as director from state PWD of Uttar Pradesh, he was a native of a place near Pakistan's Faisalabad and migrated to India after partition. He was awarded with ' Urdu Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award' in 1996. He was best known for his 'Afsana Nigari', the fiction writing form in Urdu.

He was 87, and is survived by four sons and three daughters. The southern veteran musician has composed music for over a thousand films in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam and was fondly called as the “King of Light Music.” He has the distinction of having worked with four chief ministers in the film world, MG Ramachandran, NT Ramarao, M.Karunanidhi and J.Jayalalithaa. MS Viswanathan was born in a village in Palghat district of Kerala.

He made his literary reputation with "The Tin Drum," published in 1959. Three decades after its release, in 1999, the Swedish Academy honored Grass with the Nobel Prize for literature, praising him for setting out to revive German literature after the Nazi era.

He was a leg-spinning all-rounder and made his first-class debut for New South Wales at the age of 18 before making his national debut at 21.

Air Chief Marshal Hrushikesh Moolgavkar was commissioned in the Royal Indian Air Force on 30 Nov 1940. He served in the Indian Air Force for 38 Years during which he fought bravely against the Japanese Army in 1941. He also became the first Indian pilot among a group of three pilots to fly faster than sound or crossing the sound barrier.

Jayakanthan authored over 35 novels and novellas, innumerable short stories and two autobiographies besides writing articles and composing poems.

He went missing in the Andes Mountains on 24th March during a climbing mission and was found dead on 4th Apr’15.

He published 28 books, including 14 volumes of poetry. Some of his works includes Teesra Andhera, Prthvi ka krshnapaksha, Rajdhani and Bhavishya Ghat Raha Hai, Sufinama, Sankrant, Dehant se Hatkar.