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Playfully holding his grandfather’s lathi during the Dandi March in 1930, Kanu Ramdas Gandhi quietly became a part of iconic history. On Monday, he passed away at the age of 87 in Surat in Gujarat.
He was a former NASA scientist and is survived by his 90-year old wife Shivalaxmi. On October 22, he suffered a heart attack and brain haemorrhage which left half his body paralysed and he lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered, said his close friend of decades, Dhimant Badhia.
Based in Ahmedabad, Badhia, an old friend and grandson of a close associate of Gandhi, arranged for some monetary help for the ailing Kanu, and had recently given Rs 21,000 from personal resources.
The Radhakrishna Temple got Gandhi admitted to the Shiv Jyoti Hospital and also took care of his 90-year-old wife who is practically deaf and suffers from other old-age related ailments
The going was not particularly good for the elderly childless Gandhi couple since their return after a four-decade long stay in the US in 2014, including Kanu's career of over 25 years with NASA.
Soon after reaching Surat, he suffered the heart attack on October 22 accompanied by a severe stroke which left half his body paralysed; he lapsed into a coma and remained on life-support systems.
Kanu's sisters, Usha Gokani from Mumbai and Bengaluru-based sister Sumitra Kulkarni, a former Rajya Sabha member, regularly enquire after his health and another and are said to have visisted him recently.
As soon as news broke that Gandhi had passed away, Twitter was flooded with condolences for his death.
(With IANS inputs)
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