I first met Dr. Vernonica at DBS, Mumbai as a summer trainee. At first I was quite intimidated by her. Coming from a conservative south Indian family, I was shocked to see that she consumed liquor. There were also some rumors that she fired a student as he said ' good night ' to her. But my fear turned into respect for her given her immense knowledge in genetics. She truly got me interested in fly genetics and now Im a PhD student in a top lab in USA . Hope you rest in peace.