Shilpa Shree is a Mumbai-based writer. She has considerable experience writing for leading business dailies like the Financial Express, the Mint from Hindustan Times Media, the Financial Chronicle and the Economic Times, covering telecom, IT, real estate and infrastructure sectors. She has also provided writing services to educational firms, financial and infrastructure portals and a few leading magazines in India. She has experience of managing social media content and content for a few companies. She is enterprising and always looking for new adventures, the current one being to run a company while managing her two little imps. She would have been Aru’s sister in law.
***********
Aru – An inspiration for life
She had a small built, but had a large heart. We have all known her generosity. People who have known her told me about her poetic talents and her mom told me that she was an accomplished dancer. All this, she achieved while wanting to study medicine, a course that all of us shy away due to the struggle one has to go through while doing it. She not only gained an MBBS degree, but excelled in it.
That is Aru, a fiancé to my bro in law, a wonderful daughter to her parents and her would be in laws, a good friend to her sister in law and me and above all a wonderful human, someone who could be an inspiration and role model to many.
I remember every conversation with her. She wanted to know how my sons were doing, considering the fact that they fell ill frequently. She would get into the line of treatments my pediatrician had suggested and explained why it was being followed so. She loved them and made it a point to meet them and spend time with them at every available opportunity. I used to wonder, how someone with such a busy schedule could make time for an extended family member. I think she had the will and found the way.
A bad road killed her. But her parents keep her alive, in a way that they have turned to be an amazing inspiration to a lot of us. Despite the loss, they rose, gave away an award for Excellence in Pathology to Dr Eliza Koshy. Dr Eliza is a mother who studied and excelled in the postgraduate studies at CMC, Vellore. She went through the perils of this course during her second pregnancy and with young a son in hand. She deserves a standing ovation and it is admirable the Mr and Mrs Tambwekar (who have fondly become aaie and baba to me) could identify such a wonderful awardee despite being clouded in irreparable loss and grief.
My mother always tells me that someone who passes away do not really go away. They live in many ways. I am not sure if this is the way we come to terms with our loss. I loved my grandpa and I still pine for his loss. But many a times I feel his presence. I feel he is around me, watching me while I do mundane chores on a daily basis.
The last time I met Aru, she spent the entire day with my younger son. Oh, I could see her fondness for him. She did not let go of him. He enjoyed her company too. He sat with her throughout the day, despite him going through a phase of stranger anxiety. Sometimes I wonder if Aru is around him?
Are you watching Golu Aru? Be around him. Protect him, like my grandpa does to me. You will be missed dearly. Your death has created havoc in two families (only the degree varies). Be with them as they tread the path ahead.
