Our research guide Raja Pokharapurkar is no more

Communication scholar and media professor Dr Dattatray Khanderao alias Raja Pokharapurkar passed away here on September 11, 2019, after a prolonged illness. He was 74 and is survived by wife, two married daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren.
He was among the few communication scholars who began their careers at the Indian Space Research Organization. in Ahmadabad. They included Binod Agrawal, Arvind Sinha, and Pramod Kale. 

Prof Dr Pokharapurkar was later associated with Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India, , Yeshwantrao Chavan Open University in Nashik and other academic institutes as teachers. He taught at the media schools and supervised doctoral research at the departments of Communication studies and Communication and Journalism in the University of Pune.
Over 40 scholars were benefitted by his guidance and by his willingness to learn new areas and techniques in communication research.

Dr Pokharapurkar was guide for my doctoral research at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Pune. He was only a year senior to me - he was 46 and I 45 when my study began. I had registered for PhD in 1995 when the internet had just arrived in India. He would often admit how awkward he felt because I was a senior newspaper journalist and a visiting professor at the University.Like most of our contemporaries in journalism and in academics, he did not know how to use a computer. He was new to online journalism and would admit his ignorance. In good humour, we used to reassure each other: I (Thakur) know nothing about communication research. You (Dr Pokharapurkar) know nothing about computer and internet.  Let us overcome each other’s deficiencies. Gradually, together we did that. 

That is the story behind India’s first doctoral study on online journalism!

Later, he mastered online communication research and lectured in almost every media departments in Maharashtra. He was unwell for the last four/five years of his life. Yet he travelled from Pune to so many departments in the state and won the hearts of his students and of his research scholars.
His family told me now how he wished to see the three remaining doctoral scholars getting their PhD degrees. His 40 scholars were already awarded their degrees when he breathed his last on September 11.