This is a sad news.
I remember Atul's articles in PC Quest since 1993. He wrote eloquently and passionately.
His most admirable trait was, fighting for what is right. Like, once he wrote a good article about why the value of a BBS is amplified by the discussions that occur over there, and not as a means for file sharing. To quote him from memory, "Imagine that you wrote a great book and made it available for free so that people can make good use of it. Now, if people took your book and used it to wrap _chanas_."
In 1995, PC Quest bundled Slackware Linux with a CD-ROM, a first for any Indian magazine. This heralded a beginning of a generation of Linux enthusiasts in India. During those years, we used to look forward to a copy of PC Quest, in part because of his articles. Otherwise, how would we have known about CompuServe, pobox.com and many other things? He was absolutely right during 90s, about the Internet services being toys.
I could perhaps go on writing an essay, but will wrap with just two examples about his writing style.
On visiting various CompuServe forums, he would say, "...and when I log in to various forums greeted with '11 messages for you', I feel like my daughter yelling at me, 'Papa!'"
On the extremely funny and weird userid scheme for dial up Internet accounts by the only ISP (Govt. owned) in India, "...and when I got an e-mail address, Gautam sent a mail to me 'Welcome _Qaidi_ no. AAQ392021!" (User names used to be like AAQ392021 in 1995.). Sidenote: we have come a very long way since then and things are much better now.
I might as well say that the only other technology writer who impressed me more than Atul during 90s, was Brian Kernighan.
Although Atul has passed away, he will surely remain alive in the hearts of a generation of technologists in India.
Goodbye great columnist, and may your soul rest in piece.
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय् ।