Asit Chandmal

Asit Chandmal (15th June 1939 – 19th April 2019).

At the age of nine, Asit, his grandmother, his aunt and Krishnamurti spent several weeks together in Poona. That was the beginning of an extraordinary relationship between Asit and Krishnamurti. They met every year – in India, England, Switzerland or the USA - and Krishnamurti stayed at Asit’s apartment when visiting Mumbai. Asit was with Krishnamurti in Ojai when Krishnamurti passed away, and along with his aunt Pupul Jayakar, brought Krishnamurti’s ashes back to India.

Asit grew up in Mumbai, India. He went to Elphinstone College and the Royal Institute of Science in Mumbai. He met his wife, Minakshi, at the age of sixteen, at Elphinstone. He then went on to study engineering at Imperial College, London, where he was also President of the Students’ Union. Asit then studied Operations Research at London School of Economics, and thereafter taught Mathematical Economics at LSE. In 1966, Asit returned to India and consulted on computerization, before joining Telco (renamed Tata Motors). From 1973 to 1981, Asit was Finance Director of Tata Motors. He was also on the Management Board of Tata Consulting Services during its early pioneering years in the 1970s. He moved to Singapore in 1981 as Managing Director of Tata Elxsi – a joint venture between Tata and Elxsi, a Silicon Valley start-up computer company. He was later involved in technology start-ups in Silicon Valley and India. Asit held many Directorships (Krishnamurti Foundation India, Hindustan Aeronautics, JM Financial, Elxsi, Sona Steering Systems), but always found time for his passions – Krishnamurti, photography, writing articles on food and wine, and reading. Asit’s artist wife, Minakshi, was instrumental in the design of One Thousand Suns. He also has two daughters, Clea and Sonali, to whom he was a devoted father.