Atul Chitnis's death moves people

Some called him visionary others, opinionated. He chose to call himself an "irrationally committed product guy"

Atul Chitnis passed away on June 3, at the age of 51, after losing a 10-month-long battle with advanced intestinal cancer. A passionate technologist and amateur cook, the lively Chitnis spent much of his life in making open source software accessible to everyone. He was diagnosed with the disease in August 2012 and was under chemotherapy.

He was also a columnist and consulting editor for PCQuest magazine, Co-Founder of RadioVeRVe and Founder at FOSS.IN

Remembered him his insightful writings and blog posts, it is difficult to single out a specific achievement from the prolific man. He touched the lives of people whom he met, whom he was yet to meet and  whom he will now never meet.

Here are some tweets expressing grief of his death and biding him final goodbye.







 

 

My friend @atulchitnis passed away this morning after a brave fight with cancer. My condolences to his family.

— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) June 3, 2013

 

Shocked to hear about @atulchitnis one of the guys who I know only through online media. His profile still says "beating stage 4 cancer" RIP

— nutanc (@nutanc) June 3, 2013

 

Spoke to @atulchitnis on Friday and we planned to meet up sometime this week . It wasn't meant to be . My condolences to his lovely family.

— Harsha PJ (@HarshaPJ) June 3, 2013

The world is a poorer place without you, @atulchitnis sir. Rest in peace. Sincere condolences to the family of one of my tech heroes.

— Nimish Dubey (@nimishdubey) June 3, 2013

 

RIP @atulchitnis You were one of the most liveliest person. Now is turn of God to feel what we felt through you here

— Ajit Parameswaran (@ajitwrites) June 3, 2013

 

R.I.P. Atul Chitnis(@atulchitnis). You were a dear friend, and an exceptional mentor. Thanks for all the wise words over the years.

— Kaustubh Srikanth (@houndbee) June 3, 2013

 

Interacted once with Atul Chitnis at SIMC. Really loved gadgets. Remembering him pulling them out of his bag, one after the other, on stage.

— Sahil Khan (@sahilk) June 3, 2013

 

Didn't agree much with his opinionated views but hoped he would rather lose to Android than to cancer. RIP @atulchitnis

— Nikhil Pai (@nikhilpai) June 3, 2013

 

A giant amongst men - Atul Chitnis is no longer with us. May his soul rest in peace.

— Sunil Abraham (@sunil_abraham) June 3, 2013

 

Honestly, @atulchitnis is as close as we've gotten to a Steve Jobs in India. His detailing on products will drive you crazy. :(

— Vijay Anand (@vijayanands) June 3, 2013

 

An unfathomable loss for the Indian tech product community. RIP @atulchitnis.

— Varun Khona (@varunkhona) June 3, 2013

 

Can't believe Atul chitnis is no more! Just yesterday he was tweeting. :-(

— Shashank Kumar (@shank7485) June 3, 2013

 

Real Shocking news today that @atulchitnis is no more. Major loss for Indian Open Source community. #RIP

— Vik-karni (@vikramuk) June 3, 2013

As a sign off, Atul describes himself on his blogpost as:

But if you really dig, you’ll find that this line describes me best:

“You aren’t remembered for doing what is expected of you”