Today morning, after a month long sickness, Professor Ajit Singh Paintal, passed away – he was 76.

His contribution to the field of gurbani kirtan is yet to be fully explored. He was the first person to do a Phd on the subject in 1971, (unpublished).

On December 24, 2011, I called him for I had to get his permission to quote excerpts from one of my meetings with him in 1997. He had visited my residence in Nizamuddin East along with his wife, Dr. Geeta Kaur Paintal Phd., former Vice-Chancellor of Khairagarh University and we had ended up having one of our many no-holds-barred debates. He hand wrote his permissions after I read the exact excerpts where I was quoting him for my paper, ‘What is Kirtan’, published in Sikh Formations by Routledge this month. I am glad that this time Parminder Bhamra was tagging along and recorded the meeting using a Sony Z7 HDR and pocket point & shoot (see photos attached). He was hospitalized on December 27, his medic son had returned to Delhi and helped him recover but then things turned for the worse – first with the kidneys, then a severe lung infection and finally, the heart.
His passing is a huge loss. I offer my heartfelt condolences to his wonderful family and students…

(more to follow)…

Photos by Parminder Singh Bhamra