By Shambhavi Desai, Bridgeville, PA
Vijay Kapoor of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a long-time resident in our area, well-known and well-liked by all who interacted with him, passed away in his sleep at St. Clair Hospital on August 21, 2021. He was 84.
He was born on April 28, 1937, in Hyderabad, India, to Shadi Ram and Krishen Kaur Kapur, as the youngest of nine siblings. He got his bachelor’s degree in arts. In 1975, Mr. Kapoor came to the U.S. with his two children and lived with his older sister, Shakuntala Prabhu, with whom he was very close. His wife, Sulochana, joined him later. Before coming to the United States, he was in the Indian military, lived in Zambia, and Ottawa where he worked for the Indian High Commission. He was with Allstate Insurance since 1977, till he retired in 2009.
Many in Pittsburgh knew Vijay Kapoor as a soft-spoken gentleman with a polite disposition. His passion was music, a trait he got from his mother and brother. He told me in an interview years back, “I listened to Bengali and Hindi songs on the radio growing up.†An ardent fan of legendary singers like Pankaj Mullick and Hemant Kumar, he sang Hindi and Bengali songs at community gatherings in his melodious voice. He was facile in Telugu and Urdu as well. Mr. Kapoor was with the Bengali Association of Pittsburgh. He chuckled and told me once, “I am a Bengali soul in a Punjabi body!â€
Kapoor had a large personal collection of Indian gramophone records from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, well-kept and cataloged in his basement where he spent his time in retirement, lost in his world of music. Some of his music collections are on this link: www.tinyurl.com/Kapoor-Music-Albums.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Sulochana; his children, two sons (Hemanth Kapoor and Vikram Kapoor; and daughter Krishna Kapoor Johnston) and their spouses; and his grandchildren.
Vijay Kapoor’s Hindu cremation was at the Beinhauer Funeral Home with Pandit Sureshchandra Joshi from the Hindu-Jain Temple helping the Kapoor family with the last rites.
A grateful note from the editor: Vijay Kapoor (and his son Hemanth) supported the magazine with ads in its early crucial days, the ads that they perhaps did not need for their business, just to help the magazine survive. — Kollengode S Venkataraman — END