Mysuru: Naren Kaushik, 44, an engineer, and son of Prof R N Padmanabha, retired Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Maharaja's College, Mysuru, died near Leh on September 7.
He was on a trek from Haryana to Leh.
He left Bengaluru on September 2 and started the trek with seven of his friends from north India, two doctors and two Sherpas on September 4. He passed away due to breathing issues at an altitude of 18,000 meters near Leh on September 7.
Efforts by doctors did not yield results and he breathed his last on the same day.
His family was informed on September 8 evening and his body was handed over to them the next evening. They performed his last rites at Leh on September 10 morning.
Mysuru district in-charge minister H C Mahadevappa, Chief Minister's media advisor K V Prabhakar, Mysuru DC G Lakshmikanth Reddy coordinated with DC of Leh Santosh Sukhadeve to conduct the formalities.
Leh DC and an official there named Stanzin, also extended all support to the family. They made arrangements to bring his body to Mysuru but his family decided to perform his last rites there itself as 72 hours had passed when the body was brought from the spot and handed over to the family after autopsy.
IGP CRPF Vipul Kumar, Mysuru City Police Commissioner Seema Latkar coordinated with SP Shruti Arora and officials at Leh. Brigadier Seetharam also made all the arrangements for the last rites.
Naren's ashes were immersed at the sangam of river Sindhu at Leh. His 12th and 13th day rituals will be conducted at Vyshnava Sabha in Saraswathipuram in Mysuru on September 18 and 19, according to Prof R N Padmanabha.
Naren was working as a Deputy Manager of GE Electricals-Medical Equipment wing in Bengaluru. He was a third rank holder in BE, Polymer Science and Technology at SJCE Mysuru. He had earlier worked at Toyota and Philips companies.
He had also worked in the US, Middle East, the UK and Germany.
Naren was an avid nature lover and had undertaken several trekking expeditions across the State and even in the Himalayas. He was part of JCE cricket and shuttle badminton teams. He was also a flutist and the disciple of noted flutist Nithyananda Haldipur of Mumbai. He had presented several concerts at Bhopal and Bengaluru.
Naren is survived by his wife Radhika, a software engineer in a private company, daughter Varuni studying in class eight, father Prof R N Padmanabha, mother Nagarathna Padmanabha, brother Pavan Kaushik, who is an engineer in Brisbane, Australia.