DAMMAM, 18 April -- M.K. Abdullappa, a well-known Indian social worker and educationist, died at the King Fahd University Hospital here yesterday morning after a brief illness. He was 58.
News of his death came as a rude shock to the entire Indian community in the Eastern Province. Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad sent an emissary to Dammam to offer his condolences to the bereaved family.
Family sources said funeral prayers will be held after Asr prayers today at the Thuqba Mosque. Condolences will be accepted at the hospital premises where his body will lie in state from 10.30 a.m.
The doyen of Indian educationists in the Eastern Province, Abdullappa arrived in the Kingdom in 1980 from Changanechery, a small town in Kerala. He took up a position as a senior research chemist at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran and worked there till he breathed his last.
Immediately after his arrival in the Kingdom, he found that the educational facilities for the Indian children here were very inadequate. He was among the group of people who met with India's then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and submitted a petition which eventually led to the opening of the Indian school in Dammam.
He joined the school committee in 1984 and continued as a managing committee member until 1994. He worked as acting president of the committee for one year. It was during his tenure that the tiny school flourished into one of the largest educational institutions in the world. Under the leadership of Dr. Rashiduzzafar, then managing committee president, and in the company of prominent Indians like Dr. S.K. Prasher, Abdullappa evolved an efficient management system for the school. He also prepared the statutes for the school at the behest of former Indian Ambassador Muhammad Hamidul Ansari.
In 1994, he resigned from the school committee. "I accomplished my mission in Dammam and now others should take charge. I will use my energy elsewhere," he told this reporter once, and that is exactly what he did. A few years later, an Indian school, another brainchild of Abdullappa, opened in Ahsa.
A man of multi-dimensional abilities and interest, Abdullappa founded the Professionals of India Saudi Arabia group and with this he brought many professionals working in important positions under one umbrella organization. He used to say: "This union will eventually help not only the Kingdom where we are earning our bread and butter but our motherland as well which needs us even when we are thousands of miles away."
Abdullappa always responded to individual and collective problems. Be it an individual in some tight corner or a national calamity, he was always there to help. He was among very few people who worked day and night after last year's Gujarat earthquake.
His death has created a vacuum which will not be easy to fill. Individuals, institutions, cultural groups and the Indian Embassy will always feel his absence.
