My friend Dr Prakash Bhave wrote a piece in Daily Sakal, which got published today. That's how I came to know about the demise of my long time friend, Dileep Sadashiv Kulkarni. I had been enquiring with another friend of mine, CA Mukund Bhagwat about Dileep. He had no information about Dileep for over a year. Three of us used to meet up once in six months for an evening of drinks and dinner. But Dileep had turned a recluse since the last couple of years and so hadn't been attending. The photo here was taken by me some years back at a restaurant.
Dileep was a couple of years senior to me in BMCC and Bhagwat , was a couple of years junior to me. But we bonded much later in life, when I shifted back to Pune in 1978. I used to work with Dr MD Apte, who was a Consultant first and later became an entrepreneur. Dr Apte was also connected to the Pune Chapter of Cost Accountants. That's how Dileep, also a cost accountant, came in contact with Dr Apte. I had joined Dr Apte's consultancy in Pune. By 1981, I moved to Prav Electrospark (Now Electronica Machine Tools) to handle their project of setting up a new plant near Pune. The baton of the consultancy wing of Dr Apte was handed over to Dileep.
I noticed in Dileep a great desire to understand peculiar facets of people whom he admired for one reason or the other. He was a film buff and a hardcore fan of Hindi film music. Like a film director, he would choose carefully the angles from which he would study personalities. Just as he would remember his school teacher, who always wore white clothes, he would also focus on the 'all-white' dealings of V Shantaram. He was in awe of Shantaram for two other reasons: all his films that became hit were produced without a single star in them. Secondly, he did not make losses on any of his films. Dileep would reel off several anecdotes from Shantaram's life and hold his circle of friends spellbound.
In later years, he devoted a large part of his time writing about Satyajit Ray and his films. With his characteristic style of focusing on the man and his profession, he unraveled many facets of Ray's personality. He wrote with great feeling for the person behind the role. I used to be in Delhi in those days. We would meet whenever I visited Pune, talk about the new chapters he had written on Ray and then I would carry the manuscript with me back to Delhi. The next time I would hand over what I had read and continue with the same routine. The idea obviously was that he would publish it someday. That day did not and has not come, as far as I know. But I remember telling him that having read his writing on Ray, I felt sad that I had not met such a personality.
Dileep also wrote about Charkha and computer from his unique perspective. He visualised the computer becoming as simple and accessible as the Charkha was during the heyday of the freedom struggle. That did happen in his life time, though the smartphone is still not affordable to the masses.
Dileep had a child-like way of laughing in a happily amused manner. The world was full of wonders and the more wonderful part for him was the way people led their lives. Being true to oneself was what attracted him most. He led his life the same way, picking up jobs, throwing them away, tasting all kind of liquor and then casually turning a teetotaler. I am sure he must be chuckling to himself as he watches the goings on in the wide blue yonder.
You will be missed Dileep!
