Regarding the Meera Memorial Medal

Part of a letter I wrote to a student who was awarded the Kum. L. A. Meera Medal awarded to the best I. Ph. D. student at IISc, based on the grades in their first few semesters. It was instituted in IISc, where Meera had attended a summer school or two, by the Kum. L. A. Meera Meera Memorial Trust in Palghat, founded by late Shri L. K. Ananthakrishnan, the father of Meera.

``Meera was my friend. Couple of years senior to me. She did a Masters in Computer Science in IITM when I was in B. Tech. After my B. Tech I joined IMSc in Jan. or Feb. 1985 for Ph. D. programme. She also was selected. By June I had decided my background was not good enough to go straight for a Ph. D. and so I accepted the offer from U. Delaware. In the meantime, Meera had an offer from U. Pennsylvania. It turned out that Newark, DE was only about 50 or 60 miles away and I met her in Philadelphia once or twice. She even made a meal for me in her Graduate Towers. After the Thanksgiving break in November I got a call from the police saying that there had been a break-in and that she had been killed in a random crime. They called me because my number was in the telephone bill, and wanted to know who the nearest of kin were. A couple of years later I was called to testify in a lawyer's chamber about the events. Her father had an out of court settlement with U Penn and then with the funds set up a Memorial Trust. Much later I was inducted to the Board of Trustees. I worked for the trust for many years, organizing lectures, schools, etc. But after I became Chair, I could not do it any longer. I imagine their charitable work continues.''