Govind Purushottam Deshpande (1938-2013), more popularly known as GPD, feared nobody, certainly not sacred cows. He was a socialist, a scholar in China Studies, Sanskrit and Marathi, a poet and a playwright, and taught history, politics, and foreign policy. GoPu, as he was known in the Marathi world, also wrote on the contesting ideas that constitute the modern Marathi intellectual universe. Four of his contemporaries write about the EPW columnist, classical music lover and witty conversationalist.