The man who followed in Ram's footsteps is dead

pune: noted city surgeon and amateur pilot suresh v. bhave, who undertook an amazing air trip along lord ram's mythological journey from ayodhya to sri lanka, died here on wednesday, following a massive heart attack. he was 70. exactly two months ago, on october 26, he published his book ramachhya padachinhavar pushpak vimanane pankha pasarale (flying the pushpak along the footsteps of ram), which was based on that journey.bhave first traced the journey of a cloud across the subcontinent as described by kalidasa in his ancient sanskrit classic meghdoot in 1991. he took captivating aerial pictures of several places on ram's route as described in kalidasa's raghuvansham, in order to prove that the story of ram's life was fact not mythology. some of his arguments were corroborated by late indologist s.n. dandekar and v.l. manjul of the bhandarkar oriental research institute. besides his other books, bhave was also known for his newspaper articles on aviation and a book on health-consciousness.