Shirish Patel: The man and the public good
With practical utility and elegance, the talented civil engineer and urban planner executed an array of people-centric projects.
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One recent evening, I drove under a pedestrian bridge that arcs over the highway in Juinagar, New Bombay. That word “arc” is deliberate. Because this bridge, it really is one, as if sliced from a circle. And as I drove under it, I had a sudden lump in my throat.
For that Juinagar bridge was designed and built by a man I knew was then in the ICU, close to death. As I said to his son when I got home, “I both felt incredibly proud that I know him, and had inadvertent tears in my eyes as the bridge passed overhead.”
That man was Shirish Patel, who died on December 20.
Shirish’s accomplishments would fill books. The Juinagar bridge. The Kemp’s Corner flyover. A hangar at Bombay’s airport. A software package to calculate airline fares. A thoughtfully and rigorously designed solar cooking pot. An alternate plan for the proposed redevelopment of Worli’s BDD Chawl, that allowed for more light and play areas. He would already, I know well, be mildly annoyed by a list this long, and likely even more annoyed if I listed even more. But for me, two of those six epitomised the man. Bear with me, Shirish, as I explain.
The Juinagar bridge, again....
