[NPV]

Shocking and sad news. May their souls rest in peace and condolences to their families.

2021 has been a bad year for many of us with the pandemic taking away lives of people in our families/friend circles and this now seems to be continuing with other causes as well and that too people in their 40s and 50s. Just hoping this year ends quickly and look forward to a much better 2022.

[Ankur@VNS]

Sad and untimely demise of learned member. May his soul rest in peace.

[cormodore]

Shocked to hear the news of Hillram's demise. Om Shanti!

The knowledge he had with respect to Fiat cars and Vespa two wheels is immense.

We have lost a true Italian auto enthusiast.

I had interacted with him couple of times over email and he offered immediate help.

[emmenhr]

Rest In Peace ,Manish Merchant & Ram Kiran.
The forum has lost two of its reputed members.

[ranjith_cbz]

Rest In Peace Ram Kiran & Manish Merchant. 2021 is the year of great losses across many online and offline communities. I pray that 2022 will be a lot easier on us and we gain more than we loose.

Hill Ram's scooter collection and his ownership stories are cherished in the past and in future too. Glad that Team-BHP is platform which made such experiences eternal even after one is gone..

[dhanushs]

It is a big loss to the auto enthusiasts community. My condolences to the family of both members.

[deepakhon]

Sad news. My condolences to the families of both members.

[dailydriver]

Heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the departed souls. Hurts to see thriving lives being lost untimely.

Hillram had often been on my reading radar because of his unending enthusiasm for two wheelers. Everytime he wrote, I would expect that he would have acquired a fresh example.

An anecdotal account posted here a very long time back by a friend of his perhaps best sums up his personality.

Originally Posted by Roameo

He seemed to go for multiples of everything, or almost. A Hundred ties, a dozen watches, eight sunglasses, a fleet of scale model cars, an array of replicas of guns and pistols of every make and size and a range of girlfriends. He even ended dinner with three desserts!

No distributor in Bangalore dare release a Bond movie without first sending him tickets for the premier show. He always maintained that Daemon Hill to be a notch above Schumacher and nobody in the world could convince him otherwise.

He went about on a Vespa which he believed to be no less than a Williams-Renault F17W and which he rode and groomed like one. I am refering to Ramki, my good friend of several years, better known to BHPians as Hillram

In 1997, it was still a different Bangalore, quieter and laid back.They were days when the agile Hero Puch ruled the roads of the city and I could zoom on mine from Jayanagar to Vasanthangar to my place of work in 20 minutes flat.

The BPO culture was yet to swarm the city and turn everything topsy turvy. The pay packets of young professional were not as heavy and the car was a distant dream for those who dreamt of one. Ramki certainly did, and publicised it widely. He dreamt that the day he owned one, he would make sure the whole new city knew. His grand inaugural plan involved installing the most powerful car stereo available in the market and drive ceremoneously through every colony, block, road, street and bylane featured on the city's road map.

Unfortunately, he couldn't realise this dream in Bangalore, but probably did so when he moved to Hyderabad at the turn of the century. I recommend that readers take a peek into his Garage. You will see I wasn't lying when I said he likes multiples of everything including dreams. A meeting with his hero Damon Hill a few years ago was a great moment in his life which he proudly cherishes and is another dream come true

It is my premise that it is he who initiated Sonny's obsession with cars. He talked cars with Sonny whenever he visited us. Ramki's present to him, a Jaguar F1 racing car model as recalled by my friend in the previous post), seems to have somehow kick-started the irreversible process. His dreams only grow more elaborate and bigger with every inch of height he gains.

PS: Some formatting mine