I got to know Balachandran Bhaskar (November 3, 1951 – March 3, 2014) as my wing mate in our freshman year. We were in an all-fresher wing, and all of us got to know him as a playful, even zany individual, but one always ready to help his friends out, whatever the occasion. He was also known on the IITB campus as a very good tabla player and performed frequently as an accompanist.
Bhaskar grew up in Kolkata and studied at Birla High School. Immediately after completing his B.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from IITB, Bhaskar married his childhood sweetheart Chitra.
Subsequently, he completed his MS at UT Arlington and returned to India to set up a small machine shop business in Chennai. He later moved back to Kolkata and worked for various companies, such as Titagarh Wagons, Ltd., BESCO, and Hindustan Engineering & Industries Ltd., where he was able to put his expertise in Metallurgical Engineering to good use.
Bhaskar served as the president of The Indian Institute of Foundrymen for many years. He was very well known nationwide in this field and organized many events and conferences for professionals in the field of metallurgy.
Bhaskar’s vision was significantly ahead of his times. He started an E-Commerce company called “kolkatavision.com” back in 1999, around the same time that Amazon started. The company sold a wide range of products from flowers to books, and even had a collaborative engineering drawing application. Despite being such an interesting concept and project, and despite the interest many companies had shown, it did not ultimately achieve the level of success it deserved.
Bhaskar passed away unexpectedly in Kolkata on March 3, 2014 from a heart attack. He is remembered fondly by his many friends for his friendship, his many artistic and technical talents, and his cheerful and ever-helpful personality.
Written by CV Ravishankar
Bhaskar was the life of the hostel, always full of humor and energy. We often walked to classes or labs together, and during these walks, he would regale us with tales about the plight of engineers-turned-supervisors in Bengal’s foundries.
This was during the rise of the Naxalbari movement, with Marxist worker unions employing aggressive tactics against management. Bhaskar had a knack for storytelling, and one of his more dramatic accounts involved workers throwing an arrogant engineer into a cupola furnace to “teach the upper management a lesson.”
The story sent chills down our spines, so much so that some of us seriously considered changing our branches. However, during a visit to the Bhadravati steel plant, we saw an actual cupola furnace—and realized it wasn’t big enough to fit a person. Bhaskar had been spinning a tall tale all along! We burst out laughing at how seriously we had taken his story.
In another memorable instance, a blood donation camp was set up in Hostel 6 (H6). After breakfast, we wandered over to check it out. Bhaskar noticed the young, delicate-looking lady doctor at the camp and quipped, “She looks like she could use some blood herself!” His wit had us all laughing yet again. Bhaskar’s humor and stories made even mundane moments unforgettable.
Written by Ajay Tankhiwale
IIT Bombay 1974 Reunion 