It came as a shock, when I heard the demise of Rudi Ahlswede, first from here. He passed away in December 2009, just two months after the ITW in Dublin where he looked jovial as ever. Interestingly, I had lunch with him, in one of those ITW days and it was fun conversing him. A great loss to Applied math and Information theory in particular. With his demise a massive figure has been lost. Very sad indeed. Besides the large contribution to the field, the special thing which standout is his humility and the sense of respect to fellow researchers, and the occasional humour in light conversations. His lectures were very jovial and filled with the innocence of an enthused child.