Rajmohan Gandhi was quite literally the best of two worlds. His maternal grandfather was C. Rajagopalachari while his paternal grandfather was Mahatma Gandhi. The apple doesn't fall far away from the tree, neither did Rajmohan.

As someone who had lived through the bloody partition of India, the question of reconciliation between Indians and Pakistanis as well as between Hindus and Muslims constantly troubled him. To this end, he had worked closely with Initiatives of Change, a global organisation whose primary motive is to forge friendships over the wounds of the past.

When he saw the INC straying from its path, he launched scathing attacks on Indira Gandhi's authoritarian tendencies through his journal, Himmat. Throughout his life, he displayed exemplary courage (pun intended) in fighting for civil liberties.

Having seen both his grandfathers from close quarters, there were few better to pen down the intricate details of their lives than Rajmohan himself. Not only was he better positioned than everyone else but also he had developed a flair for writing after all this time.

Rajmohan also tried his hand at politics but here he was unable to replicate his success elsewhere. Even then, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from 1990-92 and also led the Indian Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1990.

His love for academia kept bringing him back to university spaces. He served at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies till 2012, after which he took upon the role of a Research Professor there. Ever since then Rajmohan has remained there and looks set for a long innings educating and enlightening some of the brightest minds.