Obituary - Current Affairs for October, 2015

Lord Gulam Noon, one of UK’s most well known Indian origin peers and curry king of the UK has died at the age of 79 on 27th October 2015. Mumbai-origin Lord Noon founded the 200-million pound Noon Products business which is credited with Britain developing a taste for curry and chicken tikka masala. He succumbed to liver cancer and was known as the first Curry King in the UK. Lord Noon was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by the Opposition in February this year.

Veteran Bengali actor Pijush Ganguly succumbed to multiple organ failure after an accident where he was critically injured on 25th October 2015. He was 50 years of age at the time of his death. Known for films such as ‘Gaynar Baksho,’ (Aparna Sen), ‘Byomkesh Bakshi,’ (Anjan Dutta) ‘Autograph,’ (Srijit Mukherjee) and ‘Anshumaner Chhabi,’ (Atanu Ghosh), the actor was famous in the industry. CM Mamata Banerjee condoled his demise.

Acclaimed marine biologist Syed Zahoor Qasim passed away on October 20, 2015 in New Delhi at the age of 88. He was the father of Polar Biology in India. He also participated in the first Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1981-1982. Following the first expedition, he organised and guided the remaining 7 expeditions till 1988 and contributed in areas such as environmental pollution, estuarine ecology and marine culture. He has close to 200 original research papers in national and international journals to his credit. He has been awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Union Government. An erstwhile Planning Commission member and served as VC of Jamia Millia Islamia University.

Senior filmmaker Kikkeri Shamanna Lakshminarasimha Swamy, also known as KSL Swamy, died on 20 October 2015 at 77. He was also a playback singer, actor and producer. He started his career by helping G. V. Iyer and M. R. Vittal and debuted as an independent film director with the 1966 film, Thoogudeepa. His 1989 film Jamboo Savari won a National Award. He had directed over 37 films. He is also a Padma Bhutan awardee.

Senior Congress leader and former MPCC Chief P. Bharadwaj passed away in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district. He passed away from a cardiac arrest and was a LS representative for 6 times in a row from 1980 in undivided MP.

President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee condoled the demise of former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral R. H. Tahiliani, who led the Indian Navy for 3 decades and was also the first to land on deck of INS Vikrant paving the way for carrier based aviation in Indian Navy. He is also a winner of the AVSM and PVSM medals and served as Governor of the State of Sikkim from 1990 to 1994.

Ex Maharashtra minister and veteran Congress leader M. V. Patil passed away in Mumbai on 16th October 2015 following an illness at 55 years of age. He was an MP twice from Sangli LS constituency and also had been an MLA from here and served as a minister in the Congress led state government. He was the grandson of late ex Maharashtra CM Vasantdada Patil.

K. Velayudam, trade unionist and political as well as former State Minister for Plantation industries passed away at the age of 85 on 14th October 2015. Velayudam started his career in the 1970s as a member of trade union LJEWU. In the years between 2001 and 2004, he was MP and in August, in the year 2014, he re-entered the House.

Geoffrey Howe, Britain’s ex treasury chief, died on 9 October 2015 Idlicote, England. He was 88. He oversaw Britain’s recovery from recession in the 1980s and was a champion of European unity. He was also the longest serving cabinet minister of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1979-1983, Foreign Secretary from 1983-1989, Leader of House of Commons from 1989-1990 and Deputy PM from 1989-1990.

Well known South Indian Tamil actress Gopishantha better known by stage name Manorama died of a heart attack at the age of 78 on October 10, 2015. She was a comedian, singer and stage performer who appeared in Tamil, other South Indian and Hindi films as well. She appeared in more than 1000 films in a career spanning 60 years. Her first movie was Maalaiyitta Mangai and she has won several awards such as National Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1989. The iconic actress was widely popular.

Well known music director Ravindra Jain who overcame blindness to create soulful music for the Indian film industry including movies like Chitchor and Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se, died on Friday of multiple organ failure at the age of 71. Jain was known for his collaboration with singer K. J. Yesudas for melodies such as Oo goriya re, Beeti hui raat ki, Gori tera gaon and Jab deep jale aana. The music director began his career with a Mohammad Rafi song which was not released. He composed music for several hit films like Geeta Gata Chal and Vivah. He also composed music for TV serials.

Famous flautist N. Ramani succumbed to cancer on 9th October 2015 at the age of 82 and is survived by son R. Thiyagaran who is also a flautist as is grandson Atul Kumar. Ramani was born in Tiruvarur, the birthplace of Carnatic Trinity in the 1930s and learned the art from Azhiyur Narayanasami Iyer, his maternal grandfather. Ramani won the the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy. An experimenter, Ramani combined the Venu, Veena and Violin. Ramani also performed jugalbandhis with Hariprasad Chaurasia, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, N. Rajam, Pandit Viswamohan Bhat and U. Srinivas.

Well known best seller Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell has passed away due to lung cancer at the age of 67 in Gothenburg, Sweden on account of lung cancer. He created the famous character Kurt Wallander in 1997 and a series of mystery novels till 2009 revolving around this protagonist. He is also known as a dramatist and children’s author. He was born on 3rd February 1948 in Sweden, Stockholm and won many awards including that of Swedish Crime Writers Academy. Corine Literature Prize for German audiobook and more.

Edida Nageswara Rao, a well known Telugu film producer has died of age related illness on October 4th 2015 at Hyderabad at the age of 81. He produced 10 top films and is known for hits such as Shankarabharanam (1979), Sagarasangamam (1983) and Swatimutyam (1986). He is a 4 time national award winner and Nandi awards winner. Siri Siri Muvva and Swatimutyam also had the distinction of being screened at Moscow Film Festival and Shankarabharanam brought him critical acclaim at the global level, while Rao’s movie Swatimutyam was chosen as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1986.

Veteran former West Indies Cricket Board CEO Steve Camacho has passed away at the age of 69. He was also a selector for the West Indies apart from being test batsman and team manager. He was the first full time employee of the WICB. Born in British Guiana, he was a right handed opener and played 11 tests for West Indies.

Former Australian Test player Lindsay Kline has passed away at the age of 81. He is best remembered for tackling the last ball of the first tied Test match. He was a slow, left arm spinner. He took part in 13 tests during the 1950s and 1960s. He also played 88 first class matches where he claimed 276 wickets at 27.39.

British film-maker John Guillermin known for his 1976 hit movies like “King Kong” and filming of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” has passed away of a heart attack at the age of 89. He was also known for his action and adventure films such as “Shaft in Africa”, “Skyjacked” and “El Condor”. The London born director completed his education from University of Cambridge.