Professor Randy Pausch

In Memoriam: Randy Pausch (1960-2008)Professor Randy Pausch, at the CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) passed away on 25th July 2008.

I am not an academic, and not related to the computing /VR (Virtual Reality) world (the sphere in which Prof Pausch worked), I got to know about him through a note on www.google.com
(not http://www.google.co.in/ which is default search page for most Indians, unless you change the settings).

But as I Googled and I read about him, and saw the video that the link above leads to, I was touched with his passion for the subject and what is best described as "जिजीविषा"। This is simply touching. I downloaded the video of his last lecture at CMU (it is ~ 177 MB and runs for ~ 1.17 hours) and it made my eyes well up. In the lecture, he tells how he went about achieving his childhood dreams and helping others achieve theirs.

And another thing that comes out is how few of our professors have such love and passion for the subject.

अदम्य साहस की प्रतिमूर्ति हैं प्रोफ़ेसर. मुझे सही शब्द नहीं सूझते। ऐसा लगता है जैसे शरीर एक चोगे की तरह उतार कर रख देंगे और एक अन्य यात्रा पर चल देंगे। ट्यूमर आखिरी चरण में है, पर वे शांत हैं।