When he said Goodbye..

Today, I thought I would blog about a friend who left my company a few months ago. Ours was a comparatively small organization with, say, just above 90 odd employees. So we were like a close family- everyone knows everyone. And I have been working here since I was a fresher (that is more than 5 years now), I know most of the people here by name. Chandru was a smart young fellow who came in 3 years ago. He was intelligent, smart and handsome. He was a junior test engineer then. Worked with my team quite a few times - and on many occasions I have noted his sharp ability to find unique and interesting issues in the product we developed.

So one day when he came up to me and said he is leaving the company for better career opportunities, I was happy for him and at the same time disappointed, because of losing such a talented employee. We had a chat, and I came to know many of his personal things. He father died a long time ago, and he was the sole bread winner in the family, which otherwise consisted of a younger brother and his mother. He was doing his higher studies as part-time and building up his family at the same time. I felt happy for him, as this young man showed some good intention to fight againts all odds of life and live. His move from my company to greener pastures just justified his eagerness to succeed in life sooner than ever. I was happy for him after we had that chat...

That happened a few months ago, and everything was going normal when one day we came to know the horrid news. It was a story of a young man whose dreams came crashing down one fine morning. A story that shook me up from my day dreams - a young man who dreamed of making it big into the world of Software, a man who dreamt of resurrecting a family whose father was lost - everything came down crushed into a million pieces and no super glue could fix that - It was diagnosed that Chandru got B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia - in simple words, Blood Cancer. I still cannot fathom the range of emotions he must had gone through when he came to know about it - to stand in the long end of the road, broken, and knowing that you have a long way to go. I dont know how his mother could go through this second wave of shock in her life - it is tough to imagine..

Apart from being emotionally challenging, this is also now financially challenging for Chandrashekar and his family. Cancer, as we all know is expensive to treat. As he is no longer an employee of this company, the company cannot do much. And he is new to his new company, and even they can do only to a limit - the timing couldnt get worse! But as friends of Chandru, we recognized there is no limit in what we could do to help Chandru in attempting to get him out of the jaws of this terrible disease - before it is too late. We are still doing our bit as we could.

I am just trying to use this forum to request my friends and fellow-bloggers to do their bit to help this young man, whose family is now forced to move to a smaller house as they could not afford the rent. Any amount which you feel comfortable will do a world of good to the amount we are trying to aggregate - an estimate of 15 lakhs for treatment. It might be equal to a movie ticket you spent for, a T-shirt or maybe even a drink you have with your friends on a weekend.. If you can sacrifice a moment's or a day's comfort for this young man, he might be able to live for an extra day to thank you!

Call me @ 9880084994 or email me @ abeytr@gmail.com if you feel to do your bit. Alternatively you can visit the site 'Cancer Patients Aid Association' for making a contribution.

If you feel like helping Chandru financially, please do visit http://www.helpchandru.com/ for details on donating. Also, please do share this message about Chandru to your friends personally so that somebody might be kind enough to help out.

Thanks again.

A farewell to a friend..

Yesterday, when my friend Ajith called me up in the evening, I was in office - shutting down the applications opened, closing down my computer system to leave. I was expecting his call. He had come from Kerala the previous day - to make a final visit to all friends here in Bangalore. We always had a plan of getting together on a weekend and celebrate his farewell - but that was not going to happen. Everyone including myself were selfishly too busy with personal errands. And to make things worse he came on a weekday. Anyways, he told me that he is coming down to my home and he was taking a bus. I told him to get down at Bommanahalli as I will be waiting for him there.

My wait was long in the bus-stand as the evening traffic of Bangalore was mounting up every minute - so were my thoughts of saying bye to Ajith. Ajith had been my friend for over 9 years now. I know 9 years is comparatively a short time - but our friendship is something which has went through rough and smooth times. He knows me and I know him.. I can promise you that the word 'knows' I used here is deep. It started from college days - I remember he used to have a to-do list of each and every single subject he is going to study over the night. We all thought that this is guy is someone out of the world, very meticulous, hard-working dude - unfortunately a very rare breed found in our college. Let me let out a sigh - he was none of that. He was just a normal person with a special kind of tongue :) We have been normal friends, we have been roommates, we have been enemies in the short span of 4 years in college. Fortunately when I was leaving college we were really good friends..

Our friendship took another level of intimacy after college, during the Bangalore-bachelor days. We were roommates again - we saw each others' ups and downs. We precisely knew when the other person's mood swings and the triggers. And now days passed, he is leaving Bangalore to Canada for higher studies and a possible settlement there.

He came home, and had a good time - we talked old things for a while..we regretted that we couldnt hang out over-night. Yes, that's the farewell I could give him. When he was leaving, we looked into each others eyes and we hugged..there were no words exchanged. I didnt know what to say as usual, and he too this time.

I know we will be in touch for sometime.. maybe an year or two, and then it is going to fade.. as with many intimate friendships of mine..