Suman's Dad

There are people you meet for an evening but carry their memories for a lifetime. Suman Lal's father is one of them. I met him in Boston, at a warm, fun-filled evening at Suman's residence, and within minutes I understood why everyone in that room lit up around him.

Here was a man who had spent his entire working life teaching Hindi to students in the Southern state of Kerala, building bridges between languages and people the way only a true teacher can. What stayed with me, ahead of his profession, was his unconditional smile, his genuine good wishes for one and all, his perfectly even temperament, and above all, his effortless, irrepressible sense of humour.

Look closely at the photograph and you'll spot him instantly, seated on the far left in the light polo. He's the eldest of the lot, yet he wears the most disarming smile of anyone in the frame, brimming with a child-like enthusiasm that people half his age would envy, and carrying a wit nothing short of 24-carat.

I remember the moment the conversation drifted, as it does with me, toward existential matters. We got talking about mortality, of all things, and he didn't flinch or grow solemn. Instead, with a perfectly straight face, he said,

"I worry about my demise for only one thing: I hope I'm not kept in the morgue while my folks travel back home from other continents, because I simply can't bear the extreme cold. I only drink warm water, my throat is far too sensitive for anything ice-cold."

Only a truly light soul can make peace with something as heavy as death, and leave the rest of us in splits while doing it.

Having said that, the most cherished moment came later that night. Suman dropped my family and me back to our Newton residence, and as we said our goodbyes, his father stepped out of the car.

He walked up to me and said, quite simply,

"I have met many of Suman's friends, but I felt the happiest meeting you."

Those words still ring in my ears. Men like Suman's father are rare. They carry something in them that no institution can teach, not MIT, not Harvard, not any of their coveted business schools.

May Suman's dad be blessed with a long, healthy, and deeply fulfilled life.