Khagol-128-OCT-2021

| KHAG L | No. 128 - OCTOBER 2021 | 03 Ruchika was a very dear pal. She used to always be there for her friends or whoever needed her. I feel fortunate to have had her company for 6 years. It is a big loss that she has gone so soon. But, she will always be alive through the memories we weaved together. Be it our philosophical talks, science public outreach, our struggles to understand statistics, teaching kids, innumerable treks, talking at length about our families, or her endless travel plans around the world. I also remember vividly how enthusiastically she used to participate in workshops and conferences. I won't ever forget the encouragement and support she provided me when we were together at IUCAA. She was a brave scientist, always ready to explore. Pranoti Panchbhai I am blessed that Ruchika touched my life. I hope she gets the best in her afterwards journey (if there is). For me, I spent most of the time at IUCAA with her and shared lots of good memories, whether it was late-night coffees, morning walks after whole night work, after dinner walks, meeting each other's friends or exploring Pune including pandal hopping. In PhD life, you need some people as your mental strength, she was among them for me. We shared our personal and professional life problems. She inspiredme to dreambig. She was a good-hearted, fearless and welcoming person. To be honest, the absolute acceptance of her not being around is still missing. Somehow I feel she is continuing and achieving her dreams. I hope her close ones find strength and courage. Vidushi Sharma Since then in the journey together, along with looking at groups in the Coma Supercluster, AGN feedback in galaxy clusters and GMRT observations of galaxies, I mourned with her the untimely death of her father and her g r andpa r en t s , and s e e i ng he r aspirations for life take shape. She loved travelling. When she attended the TMT workshop in Pasadena, I made sure she gave talks in the area, and she made friends with seniors at the Lick Observatory.As she spent amonth at the CfAon the East Coast, even though I had asked her to spend as much time, working on the Chandra observations, as possible, she cheekily sent me pictures back fromtheNiagara Falls. Ruchika was full of positivity, which drove her to touch the lives of many people, and she made others happy. She enthusiastically took part in all initiatives- outreach. mentoring. research. teaching and adventure. Working on a PhD is harrowing business. There are lots of predicaments - crisis of self-confidence, crisis of vision, uncertainty of the future. Amid all the usual false starts and bumbling indirections, punctuated by Aha moments, Ruchika came up with her own ways of doing things, sometimes confirming my skepticism, but often her way was better than I had anticipated. Research is a process of mutual learning. I was happy to learn with her, and I am very proud of the work she produced. The last chapter of her thesis has now been submitted for publication as a tribute to her. Somak Raychaudhury Ruchika Seth passed away on a Wednesday afternoon in early August, doing what she enjoyed doing the most. She was trekking on the Western Ghats in the monsoon rain. She was with friends. This was something she did often. It made her feel alive- being in Nature, being with friends, doing something thrilling, bordering on precarious. Just the month before, she had taken her two-wheeler on a ride from Pune to Delhi, stopping over to see friends on the way, temporary farewells before her imminent trip to a postdoctoral fellowship in Estonia. She was looking forward very much to it, working with a good group on superclusters, together with travelling in Europe, going to see theAurora and theNorth Pole. One wrong step, and she was gone. Her departure from us was unforeseen, unanticipated, andunnecessary. I spent my first Diwali at IUCAA, at her house in Delhi, with Ruchika’s parents, brother, grandparents and cousins. Earlier that day she had taken me on a tour of JNUwhere, she had said, she had come of age, and had decided to take up Astrophysics. Amid the light, food and buzz of the evening, hermother had said that I was now part of the family, since I would be her “guide” for the next few years. Her father drove me to my hotel aroundmidnight after a lovely evening.