Sowmya...

hey.. :)
as always a pleasant and sweet surprise to see your name highlighted in my inbox. i was not at work all of last week. hence the late reply. good to see you work hard and still manage some fun :)
hmn.. now to the issue why i wasn't at work last week.. i was in my native.. udipi. my dad passed away on the 30th of dec.. couldn't tell you when you called on the 1st jan. didn't want to spoil your new year. dad was actually recovering quite well after the operation. on the 30th morning at 2.00am he had cardiac arrest twice. didn't make it after that.. well.. nothing to be said or done now..
i am sure i have upset you now.. wanted to call and let you know.. but you are quite busy in the day and i am very sleepy after 9 in the night..
am doing fine for now.. busy with work and stuff. things are cool. going on..
do reply.

lotsa luv and hugs..
sowmya

This was the mail I received today from Sowmya ,a very good friend of mine. And try as much as I can I cannot help but think of the conversation I had with her on 1st Jan this year ,her 21st birthday. Over the years with effortless ease ( and with a natural flair to forget important dates) I have mastered the skill of forgetting the birthdays of all my friends.
And Sowmya's was no exception.
All my friends knowing this unenviable trait of mine send me a message at the fag end of their birthday asking me to call them.It is an arrangement I have with all my close friends and I believe the deal has lasted the test of time with each of my friends exercising that option unfailingly once every year
Sowmya was no exception.
I called her and we spoke like two friends seperated by time and distance.The conversation incidentally was no exception either.
As I look back now on the way you conducted yourself in those 15 mins I bow my head in respect and awe of your poise and the grace with which you have dealt with the vagaries of destiny.
All of us crib so incessantly about the some of the most important things in the life of a student here at a B-School that me knowing a person like you makes me feel a little better than the lot here who
a. clamour for grades and crib to death for revaluations
b. feel so uncomfortable in an auditorium when the AC is not on or not put off
c. fight tooth and nail for removing subjectivity from evaluations from a neatly designed programme cos they thought it did tremendous harm to our placement avenues .(And of course that could easily translate into you getting a 7.4 lacs p.a instead of 7.42 lac p.a. package!!!). So immersed and religious are we in the daily bickering on such issues of relevance that we do not bother pausing to look at what we are doing to ourselves.

I will someday want each of my batchmates to read this . Living in this marsh I have had the opportunity to realize and learn something through you that most of us choose to not.
Sowmya Shankar ,you are an exceptional lady and I know my God considers me very close to His heart to have brought you into my life.
This was not the first time you taught me something and I know this is the not the last.God will bless you in the days to come and I pray ,hope ,wish and believe that everything else in the coming days will lead you to take this setback in your stride and look forward to life with all earnestness .