Tribute – Late Prof. Prabhakar B Bhagwat
Prof. Bhagwat was a great teacher and I consider myself to be blessed more as his disciple than a colleague. I had a long and strong association with him for almost 22 years. He was a father figure, my mentor and guide. He was an encyclopedia in himself with great charm, learnings, humour, ideologies and philosophies. It is really difficult to put down this great visionary in form of words, which may never justify his persona.
My first meeting with Sir goes back to 1990 when I met him at SPA Delhi, as a student. Later in 1991 after I settled in Ahmedabad, the first person whom I approached for professional support was Prof. Bhagwat, when he told me about initiating the Landscape Program at CEPT. In 1993, when it was finally happening, he did not forget this neophyte and called me on board. And thus commenced my long and fruitful association with him. I have been really fortunate to have him as my Guru.
He was the founder of ISOLA and the main force behind bringing all the Landscape Architects in India together. He was a hardcore professional, the first Qualified Landscape Architect of India and a great academician who had through his vast knowledge taught at various institutes of repute like SPA Delhi, NID Ahmedabad, IIT Kharagpur, and JJ School of Architecture Mumbai, to name a few
I came to meet and know late Mr. Prabhakar Bhagwat in 1982 (seems long ago) when I had an opportunity to work on the Gujarat state cricket association's cricket stadium design in Motera, Ahmedabad. He was the project landscape architect and I was a newly minted landscape architect working with the architects of the stadium based in Vadodara.
Since then till we last met at a meeting organized by Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation in Gandhinagar a few years ago, I remember him as a person with unique charm and intense involvement in all aspects of landscape architecture. His expansive experiences in both academia and professional practice, spanning our vast country and across continents, will perhaps remain unmatched. Whenever I used to visit from the USA, I made time to visit his office in Ahmedabad. Though I never had a chance to work with/under him, occasionally I had some good, direct and indirect, opportunities to interact and talk with him. I am grateful for those moments.
