Khagol-128-OCT-2021

| KHAG L | No. 128 - OCTOBER 2021 | 02 'Hatke' (Hindi word for someone who stood out) is how I will always remember Ruchika, who with her non- conventional style of doing things, often puzzled as well as amazed people at the same time. As many will attest, she loved doing things the way she wanted and did not care how long it would take or how difficult the task might be. Her uncommon style of working allowed her to be an outside the box thinker, and hence, her untimely demise is a loss for Pratik Dabhade I met Ruchika after I joined IUCAA as a PhD student in 2015. She was a year senior to me. We instantly bonded over treks and travel: two of the things closest to her soul. Since then, we have been partners in numerous trips and hikes. One special trip of ours was to Pasadena, California, USA, in December 2018 to attend the Thirty Meter Telescope Early Career Initiative Workshop, aiming to groom young graduate students and post-docs. She was very happy and excited about the trip as this was her first visit to the US. During the day, she enthusiastically took part in the workshop. Her team went on to win the award for the best instrument proposal at the workshop. As anyone who knew her would expect, during her spare time, she led our trips to nearby beaches and mountains. And like everywhere she went, she made a lot of new friends Siddharth Maharana many ways, organizing treks, functions, and teaching school students. In a way, we come to IUCAA to discover new stars, galaxies and their effects on the Universe. It is a great discovery to find that it can also be friends who leave an even deeper impression in our life. I really miss my best friend and cherish the deep level of friendship, support, and motivation, that she invested in me. I believe I speak for many others when I say that evening tea, walks, and late- night discussions with her were often the high point of our day, not to mention our treks, festivals, and celebrations. But the brightest and most energetic stars often remain the youngest. I miss her forever. It is poignant, that the best consolation I can think of, are her own words of cheerful optimism from the time past. She continues to inspire and liven us up in our memories. My thoughts go out to her brother, mother, and family. the astronomy community. In the past six years that I knew her as a friend, a fellow PhD Research Scholar and someone who shared a common passion for science outreach. Our overlapping research areas often brought us to the same schools/conferences at IUCAA, and in other parts of India, where we would often engage in long scientific discussions. Her enthusiastic nature and certain aspects of her viewpoint towards life were inspiring and will forever remain with me. My prayers to her family and friends. Swagat S. Mishra Sitting here in the University of Nottingham, UK, by the window, and in a different season of the year, it all seems rather ages ago. However, as it turns out, until only half a year back, Ruchika Seth was my neighbour in the Nalanda guest house complex at IUCAA for more than six years. She was a batchmate, a colleague, a close friend, and somewhat like a sister. More than that, she was a fellow traveller and explorer. Together we went on to complete more than 20 trips of varying nature: Mountain trekking, hiking, long distance cycling, walking, running, academic outing, and swimming, to quote a few. We argued on almost all topics that came into the sphere of our discussion, owing to the fact that more often than not, we had the exact opposite views on different subject matters, be it scientific, sociological or political. But we had two things in common: (i) A passion for science commun i ca t i on , and ( i i ) Deep vehemence for exploration. She was very brave, although, I must say, slightly careless at times! She had very many adventurous goals in her life, and she was excited about travelling to Europe for her post-doctoral research. It was very tragic and shocking the way her life got truncated with only a week to go before flying to Europe. Seeing her lifeless body slowly disintegrating into the air in front of the cremation fire on that dreadful early morning was an abominable sight. However, I will try to erase the grief from my memory and only remember her exuberant spirit and her abundant enthusiasm as dearly, fondly and positively as I can. Good bye Ruchika. during the trip. Almost all my memories of her are happy memories- that's the kind of person she was. While she left us abruptly and too soon, I take solace in the fact that she lived a life that she would have been proud to live- an adventurous one!