Former HR Executive and Teacher Samantha Ashok Passes Away

New Delhi: Ms Samantha Ashok, 58, a former executive in the HR department of the French firm Suez-Degremont in New Delhi, sadly passed away on 14 January in Bengaluru after a protracted illness.

In addition to her corporate roles, she was a dedicated teacher of French and Business English at Modi Apollo University, which awards degrees in association with the University of Phoenix in Stratford, Arizona.

Ms Ashok is survived by her husband, TN Ashok, a prominent journalist and author, who formerly served as Editor of PTI wire services in New Delhi and as Executive Director of the Alstom Group of Companies in France and Belgium. He is an international blogger focused on US domestic and foreign policies, writing from New York under the title TNA-Talk, and has worked as an image management consultant for several multinational corporations in Delhi and Mumbai. TN Ashok is also the author of three books on Covid-19.

She leaves behind two sons, Aareet Krsna (35) and SriKrishna (35), who are settled in Vancouver, Canada, and New Jersey, USA, respectively. Aareet is employed at an AI company, while SriKrishna works for Tata Consultancy Services in New Jersey.

Also grieving her loss are her two younger sisters: Vinita Mahadevan, an IT manager based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Dr Anita Mahadevan, MD, a Neuro-pathologist who heads the Brain Bank and Neurosciences Department at NIMHANS in Bengaluru. Their aged and ailing mother, Shyamala Mahadevan, a respected teacher in Bengaluru, also survives her.

The cremation took place on 15 January, and her ashes were immersed in the Gomati River near Srirangapatna in Karnataka.