Prof Prathap Oburai

There is still no trace of Prathap Oburai, professor of marketing, at the Indian Institute Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), who went missing from Uttarakhand two days ago. According to Tehri Superintendent of Police, Rajeev Swaroop, the professor, who is also an IIMA alumnus, was mentally stressed and had attempted ending his life earlier, on same day he went missing.

“His nephews who were with him have disclosed that the professor was very tensed about something and had spoken to them about giving up on life. He was mentally disturbed about some problems, which seemed connected to his family,” Swaroop told PaGalGuY.com. When asked whether the Prof had spoken about any issues at his workplace, the SP replied in the negative.

The IIMA is yet to contact Tehri police about the missing professor, said Swaroop, though according to sources at IIMA, hectic discussions are on at top level between the police of the two states.

While a 40-man police team is currently on a hunt for Prof Oburai, the incessant rain in the state, is said to be hampering search operations. “There is heavy rainfall for the last two days and that is making the search very difficult. Our teams have gone deep into the forest area and searching close to the rivers too but there are just no clues yet,” the SP added.

Prof Oburai (42) was on a chaardham yatra at Tehri with his nephews, when the incident ocured. He had apparently take a few days leave from IIMA to attend the pilgrimage in Tehri (Uttarakhand) and was in the process of visiting Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

Swaroop added that the last that Oburai was seen was in his hotel room in Devprayag area on the night of June 30. “In the morning, when his nephew went to look him up in the room, he was not there. The previous evening, the professor had attempted to end his life by jumping in the Ganga but was stopped by his nephews. Both his nephews had consoled him and brought him back to the hotel room and waited with him till he slept.” The police are still toying with the idea that Prof Oburai might have left his hotel room on his own accord on the night of June 30.

Prof Oburai was staying on the IIMA campus with his wife and two daughters. He was on a sabbatical from IIMA between second half of 2009 and March 2011, when he worked at National Insurance Academy, Pune as director. He had resumed work at IIMA only this academic year. However, within a few weeks of resuming, he proceeded on leave for the pilgrimage.

The IIMA has not released any official statement about Prof Oburai as yet. When contacted, a spokesperson from IIMA said that the institute has nothing to say at this point since the police are still looking out for Prof Oburai. “Whatever development in the case is happening at Uttarakhand where the search is on.”

Prof Oburai, considered one of the best marketing research professors in the country is known to be a friendly professor, famous for adopting unusual teaching methods. One of the finest examples was when students were invited to a juice party thrown by the professor. According to a blog on the IIMa website, the party was called to discuss “Business Research Methods and in a way to extend classroom teaching to informal surroundings. Among other things, at the party, the class discussed ‘how a juice bar should design its concept in order to develop a loyal customer base.’

Friends of Prof Oburai who spoke to PaGalGuY on the condition of anonymity said that since his return from Pune, a marked change was noticed in Prof Oburai. “He had started bringing up spiritual subjects with us out of the blue in conversations. There was a big change in his beliefs over a very short period of time,” one friend remarked. Prof Oburai was all geared to teach Marketing 01 from the next term at IIMA.