The students, faculty and staff of the South Asian University express their heartfelt condolences on the untimely and sudden demise of our President, our leader, our friend, philosopher and guide in all situations, our own Professor G.K. Chadha. He was a person of high ethics, humility and charm. Everyone who came into his contact; whether a faculty, staff or a student felt his warmth and established a direct bond with him forever. His touch is visible everywhere in the University and above all is felt in our hearts.
Professor Chadha was one of the greatest advocates of cooperation and friendship in South Asian Region. He used to call himself a citizen of SAARC. In his sad demise, the people of South Asian region in general and South Asian University in particular have lost a great academician, a visionary, a humanist and a proponent of regional cooperation and development.
The entire SAU community conveys its deepest condolences to the bereaved family and pray for the eternal peace of the departed soul.
We will really miss you Sir…
May you soul remain in peace.
Abdul Matin
Centre for Political Studies
JNU, New Delhi
It is so sad to know about professor Chadda demise. I have had only a few opportunities to attend his keynote speak during MLTA 2013 workshop but i was impress with his simplicity , energatic apperance and openess towards life and society.
I will miss him.
Really, he was the very nice person.
I express my personal condolence to bereaved family members of Professor Chadha. South Asian University has lost founding father and a great academician. Please extend my condolence to family members of Professor Chadha.
With deep sorrow and grief I offer my condolence over the death of Professor Chadha sir. Right from SAU started, I heard about you but never get an opportunity to meet you. . I weep in agony of such a unbearable loss . you will always be remembered as you are carved in the deepest chambers of our hearts.
Sincerely
Kamlesh Kumar Pal
(MA-RDG)
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS),
Hyderabad
It is so sad to learn that professor Chadda is no more. I have had only a few opportunities to interact with him, but I am very much impressed by his intellectual thoughts and simplicity in behavior. I will never be able to forget him. He will remain with us, the South Asian academics, in the form of SAU. May his soul rest in peace and remain as a source of inspiration for SAU
Krishna Manandhar/PhD
Professor of Chemistry
Kathmandu, Nepal
Of all the institutions that I have attended in my academic life, I have never met someone so approachable. He was a students’ president. All the policies under his kind guidance were devised keeping the student community in view. He gave us the best conditions for our academic growth. I remember my first meeting with him when I did not know he himself was the president. I asked him for directions and ended up discovering that he was the person whose signature were required on my admission form. Sir, very kindly guided me and helped me choose one out of the three universities that I had secured admission in. He has left SAU with a legacy of tolerance, brotherhood, hard-work and belief in academic merit. We will miss him but try to live up to his dreams as well.
Prof. Chadha, I always remember two of your sentences to me in two different instances among others which connects at personal level. First, “tell me the meaning of your photo in one sentence”; and second, “you either come inside or not come but do not make the lift wait”. First was to abstract and the second to value the time. Thank you. May your soul rest in peace.
I am shocked and saddened beyond words.
We had corresponded via his assistant only last week and, as always, he had been so generous of heart and spirit. Prof. Chadha was a gracious friend, an innovative higher education leader, and a man with an amazing sense of purpose. He will be missed, not only at SAU and in India, but as a friend of South Asian Higher Education. He was, indeed, a South Asian. South Asia mourns his untimely demise.
Prof. Adil Najam
Former Vice Chancellor, Lahore Univeristy of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
It is with deep shock and sadness that I learnt of the sad demise of Professor Chadha. He was passionately dedicated to the cause of South Asian unity and building bridges through the dissemination of education and knowledge. He nurtured the South Asian University through its early years with great love and dedication . It was a privilege to have worked with him when I was Foreign Secretary to further the mandate and the goals of the SAU. May the Almighty bless his soul. My sincere condolences to his family.
The sudden and sad demise of our revered Professor G.K. Chadha (President, South Asian University) has left me anguished, speechless, stoic and thoroughly broken. I still remember the joyful day, way back in 2012 when I joined SAU and got the chance to be associated with him very closely. Needless to say that he was and he is an institution in the subject of Economics and a legend in his field. His demise is havoc for all budding economists of the world which would take years to reconcile. He had accomplished many coveted assignments during his career and added several feathers to his cap. What attracted me most was his humble personality, liveliness, cheerful approach to life and fatherly approach for all of us at SAU. He possessed an unique synchronization of academics, administrative acumen and humility which is the hallmark of a great human being.
The legacy on academics and administration he has left behind SAU would certainly be a treasure for all upcoming as well as accomplished academician/administraton. What is needed at the moment for all of us to join together and make his ambitions for SAU realized.
Now, I am in USA. It is hard to digest and believe that he is no more with us. It haunts me that I would not be able to ever meet him with his signature smile once I go back to SAU, India.
I deeply mourn his death, can feel the penury of the family on such a colossal loss. I pray the Almighty to rest his noble soul in peace in his heavenly abode and pray God to shower his family with enough strength to bear this unbearable loss.
My deepest condolences on the passing away of Prof. G K Chadha, kind hearted scholar and administrator, institution builder and caring human being
A learning experience it was in human relations, that’s Prof.GK Chaddha for me and many others who came to SAU in the summer of 2012. Time since then was one long and interesting summer beyond the binaries of day and evening, as he filled every meeting at SAU with his trademark presence, a warmth unparalleled in the academics that I have seen till now. While I am unfortunately alien to his academic scholarship, except the numbers describing his exemplary work, I am more than compensated with knowledge from him about living to keep others happy.
Salute a life, well lived and moved on with a smile, and a chuckle too, am sure.
Prof.Chaddha, never born, never died. Visited this planet June 1940-March 2014.
While holding first entrance examination of SAU in 2011, I was fortunate enough to work under the guidance of Professor Chadha.
Needless to say he was an Economist of a repute, a distinguished administrator, an able teacher, a fine orator and above all a true Karmayogi. He touched hearts of many be it his colleagues or students, with his fine blend of personal touch and rare pragmatism.
Still it is difficult for me to accept the fact that we can not see him again.
Rest in Peace, Sir
Amit Rawat
South Asian University
We all have an end destiny i.e. death. The loss of Professor G.K. Chadha whom referred himself as both the father and mother of the South Asian University Scholars is indeed a profund sorrow to all those who have met him and found him a man full of confidence, supportive, and source of creative guidance and aplomb to all the SAU community. My heartfelt condolences to all his family members. May his soul rest in peace.
Dear hon’ble President,
I want to thank you for all the strength and support you’d given me, when I needed it the most. When I had a tough time during my first year in the University, you found out, and talked to me about it, as a friend would. When I was sick, you were there beside me in the hospital. You told me you have great expectations from me (and got me pushing harder to meet them). You told me I can do it, you instilled faith in me. Every once in a while you’d stop by and ask me how things were going. You cared, sir. You made me feel important. I want to thank you a ton for all of this, for lifting my spirit when I was down.
I really loved your charming, sweet and affable nature! You always cared to say a quick, “How’re you doing, Phub?” and greet me as you hurried by. I have never seen someone with so much patience, poise and politeness. Your simplicity and down to earth nature were your outstanding traits. You were a gentleman in every sense.
Sir, in past three years that I’ve known you, you’ve made a lasting impression on me and all the students of South Asian University. You were a President, a great friend, a great counselor. I guess the only time you made anyone sad is when you LEFT us. But I know; now you’re with us more than ever. You’re sitting up there in HEAVEN, and will always guide us as even now as you did before.
Dear hon’ble President, you’ll always be alive in my memories and heart. And Sir, it’s just a matter of time when I and my mates of the University go out in the field and make you proud. And then you can puff up and your chest and tell your fellow angels in heaven, “Hey, these are my student!”
With deep sense of love and gratitude,
Phub Namgay
Bhutan
A person that departs from this earth never truly leaves, for they are still alive in our hearts and minds, through us, they live on. Please accept my heartfelt condolences, Prof. G. K. Chadha will not be forgotten. I always remember and missing such a Young, enthusiastic and an ever-motivating personality of this University.
On Sunday morning, the 2nd of March, I read with shock and disbelief in the news paper, about the sad and untimely demise of Prof GK Chadha, the first President of the South Asian University. I called my wife who was at Hyderabad to grieve her mother’s demise on 14th February and who was to return to Delhi on Sunday, the 2nd of March. She was shocked. Both of us recalled the day when we met Chadha saheb in a reception held by Ananda Mustafiz in a restaurant in Green Park. he was so friendly, courteous and fatherly to both of us. he chatted so freely. He had no air put on that he is a second time Vice-Chancellor and an accomplished Economist of our country. I met him about four years back in the then JNU office of SAU. I was deeply impressed about his dreams about this SAU and his commitment to make it a success story. he was, I was told, a workoholic. Subsequently I met him several times through Prof Rajiv Saxena, the Vice- President and everytime my adoration of his personality only increased. His untimely demise is a big loss to SAU community in particular and all his friends and admirers in general. my deepest condolences to Mrs Chadha, a very graceful lady. We pray God sincerely that his soul should rest in peace! The SAU community should rededicate themselves to to make Dr Chadha’s dreams come true in letter and spirit. I was equally moved by the sentiments expressed by many speakers during the condolence meeting held in the entrance hall on the morning of 3rd March. A great man indeed t have commanded so much respect and love from his colleagues!
It is a great loss and of great disbelief that you are gone. You will be forever remembered as a great man who walked this land. I cannot imagine the level of commitment and hard work and student understanding that you had with the students. I hope you find great peace at rest. Rest in Peace.
I express my heartfelt condolence on the sudden and untimely demise of philanthropist, economist and the hero of South Asia.
Prof. G.K. Chadha (President- South Asian University).
He was very helpful and sociable person. I remember the first day, when I met him and he gave me lift to JNU and I had chat with him on 28th Feb. He asked me Beta are you feeling after finishing your class? , I-Yes sir and he told me that I used to be bored after finishing my class. His last word will always work as guiding element to me.
I am praying with god that his departed soul will rest in peace in heaven and to give strength to his family and South Asian University to bear this great loss.
Labh Kumar Yadav
Dept. of Int. Relations (SAU)