We just received the news that Dr. Obaid Siddiqi, our beloved Guruji has passed way. Both Usha and myself are deeply saddened by this news. Though the news was not totally unexpected, it still hurt when it came. It is our great fortune that we worked and studied in Obaid's lab. Forever since my early years in his TIFR lab, he has remained my Chief Guruji. His razor sharp intellect, his uncanny gift to separate the kernel from the chaff, his easy encouraging mentoring of a novice student who knew basically nothing about Molecular Biology to begin with, has for ever influenced me during all my working years. Apart from our discussions on Science which always showed his shining and penetrating intellect, I also vividly remember our conversations on poetry, Urdu poetry in particular. I always gained new insights from him in the new territories we conversed about. Though it has been more than four decades, I distinctly remember my exciting conversations with him during our occasional stroll in the TIFR garden after the afternoon tea in the west canteen. And my contemporaries can hardly forget the image of Guruji as the enthusiastic captain of the Mol Bio cricket team. Those splendid years of my life at TIFR / Mol Bio where largely possible due to this fascinating personality leading the group. Scientists in general are a group of good people. But my Chief Guruji is a giant amongst them. Great men are best known by not only what they did, but even more by the legacies they leave behind. Guruji's legacy is not only in the two distinguished institutions he created; but also in the army of young minds he groomed for science and who are now spread over all continents. I am sure many of his students will carry on the torch of science he lighted in their minds with the same vigor as Guruji did. That is our best tribute to our Guru-ji. We wish him peace, where ever he might be. Deeply saddened Sankar and Usha Chakrabarti