When I met P T Thankappan Nair in 2004,  for the first time in Kolkata, he was planning to shift back to his native village in Central Kerala.

"I am pushing 71 and now want to live rest of my life in Kerala," he had told me. And he went on to spend next twenty years in Kerala where he breathed his last. 

For a reporter, this barefoot historian and meticulous researcher was both a delight and an eye opener.

Well, stories where clues came from him were truly amazing and evoked huge reader  interest.

How dilapidated have become the once homes of the mighty and the significant of the yester years.

And an odd house that was once so sought after for its occupant  turned into a brothel in the twisted turn of history.

Nair sir had stunning memory.

But reaching out to Nair sir or Nair da as a few of my Bengali friends called him in a tone that varied between appreciation and appropriation

was never easy. 

He stayed in one room in Kansaripara Lane, with no phone or mobile or email.

I used to take a mini bus to nearby Minto Park to meet him, and one could also spot  him at the iconic National Libray in Kolkata. His ability to sift through archives was precise.

Nair sir came to Kolkata  in 1955 looking for a typist's job. He had found one very easily. But he didn't last in the job for long as his love for the city made him wander around the its  lanes and bylanes, barefoot of course, and skim through the volumes in libraries and  wherever he found  archives strewn around.

He wrote some 60 books, mostly in English on the history of Kolkata, including  “A History of Calcutta's Streets,"  “The First Circulating and College Libraries of Calcutta”, “Calcutta Tercentenary Bibliography Volumes 1 & 2”.

So convincing was his authority on Kolkata's history that even courts relied upon his authentic work in settling some property disputes.

Though very unassuming, Nair sir was always in a hurry. Now at 91 he has decided to rest in peace. Rest in Peace, Nair sir.