Forever the king who never did rule. A political career that kicked off in 1971 in the Jan Sangh crashed abruptly just before a Congress rally. Scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior and for years a potential prime minister, Scindia cut his teeth as railway minister under Rajiv Gandhi. He was in P.V. Narasimha Rao's ministry too, before the hawala intrigue. His last post of deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha saw him guide a tentative Sonia Gandhi and the party through a patchy phase. Adieu.

Iron Maiden

It was a pact with violence that Phoolan Devi never could breach: from a victim of casteist excesses to the rampaging bandit immortalised in books and movies to the politician-reviled and revered-to finally a brutal killing outside her Delhi residence. With her death ended the jolting journey that truly began after her retributive massacre of Thakurs in Behmai, western Uttar Pradesh, two decades ago. Controversy clung to her even in death with debate over the motive of killing and a vicious property battle between her husband and parental family.

Statesman Star

Dadamoni, they called him. Suggestive though the term was of his personal attributes, Ashok Kumar was ultimately the man who radiated calibre through a career spanning 60 years in Bollywood. From the hamming hero of the pre-dubbing talkies to an innumerable array of character roles, he kept pace with an evolving cinema with seamless ease. From his debut Jeevan Naiya (1936) he moved on to hits like Kismet, Mahal, Bandini, the smooth rogue in Jewel Thief and the cameo performer in Shakti and Khubsoorat.

Aristocrat among Marxists

Indrajit Gupta 81, Died February 20

Born into a Bengali family of privilege and learning on March 18, 1919, Indrajit "Sonny" Gupta was the rare politician who thrived on principles. Like so many others, he became a communist at Cambridge, came home to become a working class hero. After his election to the Lok Sabha from West Bengal in 1960, he continued to be a member for decades, missing only in the 1977-1980 period. He was the first communist to occupy the post of Union home minister-as part of the United Front cabinet-in 1996. He died of cancer in Kolkata. The Lok Sabha lost its last statesman.

R.K. Narayan 95, Died May 13

TRIBUTE

It never occurred to Narayan that the way he used English to describe provincial Indian life was magical. V.S. Naipaul, Nobel laureate

Malgudi Man

Malgudi was the mythical fiefdom from where R.K. Narayan ruled the Indo-Anglian literary scape. The town that figured in his writings and featured a simple, provincial life summed up his work-simple and traditional much like the man himself. Recipient of the Padma Bhushan and a Rajya Sabha member, he has 14 novels, novellas and short stories to his credit, with much of his work translated into several languages. After initial literary rejections, he was mentored by Graham Greene and rose to fame despite his ironical disdain for academics.

Devi Lal 87, Died April 5

Deputy prime minister was the plummest post that Haryana's Tau could wrangle in a lifetime of politics though he helped cement two coalitions at the Centre-in 1977 during the Janata Party rule and in 1989 with the National Front. A wily farmer-politician, Devi Lal was also the state chief minister twice from 1977-1979 and again from 1987-1989.

Vijayaraje Scindia 82, Died January 25

Royal Twist

From the rarefied confines of Gwalior royalty Vijayaraje Scindia plunged into the grime of politics in 1962, entering the Lok Sabha on a Congress ticket. Five years on she switched over to the Jan Sangh and eventually became the leading espouser of the BJP causes. Party vice-president from 1980-1998, she never once lost elections from Madhya Pradesh. Ideological differences caused an irreconcilable rift with son Madhavrao Scindia. Died after a prolonged illness.