Gopal uncle

I met Gopal uncle for the first time either in the year 2000 or 2001, dont exactly remember. My mother had stayed with his wife's parents in Singapore during a holiday some 25 years ago. Whatever, he was a cardio thoracic surgeon, completing his FRCS.

For the last 1 and half years, he was the chief cardio thoracic surgeon, at the Vadamalayan Hospital in Madurai. He used to come down to Chennai about twice a month, to visit his family who continued to stay in chennai. On the 26th of Dec, he fell down from the third floor of his apartment complex, and suffered extensive brain damage. On the 31st morning, he was declared brain dead. His wife immediately arranged to get his important organs such as heart liver and kidney harvested for transplantation.

I cannot really remember the first that struck me about him. He had a smiling face and soft voice. He was very easy to talk to, he had plans of moving to the UK or Singapore to train further. They had decided to enroll their 5 year old son in Montfort boarding school. That time their daughter was hardly 2 or 3 years old. We met him and on and off a few times before they moved to Singapore. My parents always used to say, that if they ever get a boy like Gopal for me, they would give me away with closed eyes. He was known as such an intelligent person.

We met him again, on my trip to Singapore in dec 2004. He took us out for lunch one day to this amazing Indian restaurant. We met him more often, after they moved to Chennai. He used to love coming home, to have a drink with my father. It is at these times, that i got to spend more time with him. He had this lovely way of motivating people without sounding preachy or superior. He climbed his career ladder a lot faster than normal doctors.

The other thing that made me respect him more than anything else, was the relationship he shared with his wife and kids. The patience, his firmness on certain things, and the way he handled his kids. He would never raise his voice unless its completely necessary. His kids used to adore him , and he would always strive to give them the best he could afford, in terms of a lovely posh house in a nice area, education in exclusive schools and sending them for every class and lessons they have wanted to attend.

Anyways i still cant believe he is gone. he had come home last hardly a month ago. I hope his soul rests in peace. I worry more for his wife and kids who were so close to him. I hope they stay strong and turn out with flying colors to do their dad proud.

We will miss you uncle.

New Year 2010!

ok 31st afternoon was lovely... i met 4 of my sweetest classmates from school. Sadhana, Ravi and Manoj! what i thought would be a half n hour meeting went on for 3 whole hours.... and the nicest thing was we laughed all the 3 hours and caught up on soo many things, argued, gossiped and fought, and for those 3 amazing hours, i thought we were back in the last row of our 12 C classroom :). I thought it would be one of those formal get togethers with friends, where you run out of things to talk about after like half an hour, and dint expect it to be 1/10th of the fun it turned out to be.

Ironically, I was damn excited about new years eve, as i was supposed to attend a friends party with my best friend. We did some decent decoration, we were going to make our own cocktails and mocktails and everything. Finally our high funda decoration turned out to be a few scented candles and some frozen sculptures with plants in between. The party as such had about 8 of us permanent people, and about 20 people who were floating crowd. These parties are now beginning to wierd me out, what do people really do at them? Just get drunk? This party, people were just walking around, and umm talking to people, and sitting around. Which basically results in leg pain! No one danced for more than 20 min.... and i found it excruciatingly boring cos i hardly knew anyone around. I had a vodka cocktail and 2 jell-o shots, and all i felt was an urge to pee! A few crazy pictures were taken. Next year, without feeling kanjus, i should just go to a proper party, where people dance away and do slightly crazy things, and more importantly a party where i have more closer friends around me! but all in all a nice party, where i got to meet a few old school friends. oh and the first time a partied till 3 in the night :D!

The new year morning though, was lovely, my mom picked me up at 6 in the morning, i walked my dog, played with her for awhile. Slept till 12, wished people who called home. and then watched a lotta tv! and basically spent the whole day doing nothing! my idea of a perfect new yr morning..... and yaa i already broke my new year resolution of not using bad language, and eating a fruit a day. but hey i drank cranberry juice on new yrs eve! ooohh nd my mum said my dad has bought me super expensive straightener from Dubai! cant wait to see it, nw m just hoping i get my hard disk also! I Should talk to my mum about it. and yaa today being the 2nd of jan i should start my slum report.

Oh the sad part about my new year is, that my mom told me early in the morning, that a very close family friend of ours Gopal uncle passed away. :(