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father. The letter of condolence sent to Smt.Shantha,a retired
General Manager of State Bank of India goes as reproduced below.

“The message that your dear father is no more was as sudden as it was dreadful. My
wife Bhama, my mother in law Ambujam and myself have no words to truly reflect our
feelings of sorrow not merely at your loss and loss to your mother but at the passing

away from our midst of some one of the stature of Sri.Sarangapani.

He was one of those who with a larger than life presence would have admirably
adorned any position. Unlike a post or position adding to the stature of a person here
was a unique person who brought luster to the post he occupied.

The earliest recollection of my first PMG under whom I served for full five years in

Mysore was that of an austere looking aristocrat looking over an

equally special book of classical fiction authored by Bertrand Russell. That figure in the

first class compartment of Chamundi Express with “Chrome Yellow”(that was the book
in his hand), a few minutes before the departure of the train is still engraved in my mind
as fresh as it was when I set my eyes on him that evening.

Sri.Sarangapani was first a devoted administrator than anything else. He bent his
extraordinary genius and intellect to serve the cause of public service. Nothing was too
low or menial for him in the discharge of his duties. Many a times I had accompanied

him on line inspection which took him to sundry shops and stalls to enquire how the
communication lines worked. Needless to say he was my role model in the rest of my

career.

He savored the coffee which he himself would order at Mysore Dasprakash Hotel in
preference to thermos filled coffee brought to him by his subordinates. He carried the

etiquette of personal integrity to such an extreme which would render him liable to be
misunderstood in ordinary light of conventional hospitality. But he went about his task

unmindful of petty criticism. To say he strode like a colossus on the arena of the

Karnataka Circle is only to take shelter under a cliché for want of a better and original

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