Loganathan’s mother Kannammal (right) at home in Erode on Tuesday. (PTI)

Lucknow, April 17: As images of the Virginia Tech massacre flashed on television screens, his batchmates kept dialling his mobile. But the number 5402316211 went on ringing.

Others, some of them now professors in IIT Kanpur, logged in to their computers. Frantic fingers typed out the letters gvlogan@vt.edu, as a flurry of messages followed. All had one question: where was he when the gunman went on the rampage.

Minutes passed, and then the hours, but the inbox showed no reply from G.V. Loganathan.

Late into the night, their fears were confirmed. The former student of IIT Kanpur and professor of civil and environmental engineering, the Virginia Tech university, was among the 32 victims in the US campus carnage.

Today, as news of Loganathan’s death spread across the IIT campus, his former batchmates remembered the 51-year-old as a brilliant student.

“Loganathan did his MTech from here in civil engineering. He was an outstanding student,” said Sanjay G. Dhande, the institute’s director. “I can’t reconcile myself to the tragedy. He was my friend. I don’t know what to say.”

The two had kept in touch since they passed out in 1978, though the director is from a different stream.

Of the 700-odd Indian students in Virginia Tech, 100 are from IIT Kanpur. Loganathan, who came from Tamil Nadu’s Erode district and did his BTech from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1982 after completing his PhD from Purdue University.

Last month, Loganathan had told another friend he would like to visit the IIT campus. But that was before the gunman’s bullets slammed into him as he left a classroom after a lecture.

“His death has left us in shock and agony,” said IIT Kanpur deputy director Kripa Shankar.

The institute’s alumni association held a condolence meeting this evening and observed two minutes’ silence to pay homage to the man who, professors in the civil engineering department said, had scored over 90 per cent 29 years ago.

C.B.R. Murthi, dean of the civil engineering department, said people have been calling up from different parts of the country.

IIT Kanpur spokesperson R. Shukla said Loganathan’s batchmates were calling up the institute and “recalling the simple manners of the professor”.

Dhande said he met Loganathan six years ago. “We talked about our IIT days. His words are still echoing in my mind. What used to strike me in Loganathan was his impressive simplicity. He was a brilliant teacher also as it was testified by lots of students in Virginia Tech.”