Brother -In memory of

Tribute to my eldest brother?

By Ramana Annamraju

Rao Annamraju passed away today! Death may be a tragedy, but life is not!

He was a gold medal winner in his academic life...He earned Bachelor's degree in Electrical engineering from Andhra University, Vizag, India, and? Masters from the University of Toronto, Canada.?

We are from a rural and remote village called Palakoderu in southern India; The village had no electricity, no running water, and non-existent healthcare. For us and for the village, my brother was the definition of education. My father was genuinely proud of his educational accomplishments.,?

I have fond memories of my brother's visits back home from his school. One summer, he brought a logarithmic engineering slide ruler. The Slide ruler is a primitive computational device if you even call it that. Still, I took immense pride in showing that to my friends.

Then one summer, he brought his own designed Radio to our village. Believe me or not, our entire village had one Radio. His Radio was the size of a shoe box. and not just the size, but it is literally inside the shoe box.?

When we heard first time a voice coming from this shoe box, it was nothing short of a celebration. My friends lined up to watch his designed? Radio.

In Canada, he was in the forefront of the energy sector; He was part of the design team for the CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) reactors which work on natural Uranium rather than enriched Uranium,? like most in the United States, . Natural Uranium based reactors? are? much cheaper and safer,?

Then he spent several years abroad in Romania and South Korea, setting up the Canadian Nuclear Reactors. I came across an article that the Canadian government is giving grants to Canadian companies to set up cogeneration power plants worldwide. Though he was reluctant to deal with the bureaucracy, he applied and received the grant with a bit of persuasion from his friends and me.

He was a world traveler, and he had several options to select locations anywhere in the world. But he chose to set up the mini power plant in the village we all grew up. He took a small team of engineers from Canada to my village. The Canadian government approved the feasibility study for my village. But he was adamant about bribing corrupt Indian politicians though the country desperately needed the energy. So the project did not get the necessary permissions from India. That was undoubtedly one of his regrets that he could not be able to help the people he grew up with.??

His final act was working on the most engineering challenging of all times, the Nuclear Fusion Reactor. Fusion energy is the cleanest energy source of all. He spent several years on the Tokamak reactor situated in the remote part of Quebec province in Canada. He spoke fluent French. I am sure the common ancestry between France and Quebec helped France become the leader in Nuclear Fusion. My brother's contributions can not go unnoticed.?

Most people don't know what engineers exactly do; they save lives too in their own fashion and passion.?

He was certainly one of them.'

He was a brilliant engineer, great father, loving husband, and brother!? Rest in Peace!