RIP Manju

Manju

Today we lost our beloved friend Manju(a.k.a Manja) , keeper of our flock, a binding force among us all and a close friend to everyone.There is no one in our group who was not touched by his friendship.

He lived his life fully as if it was his last. A child like enthusiasm in everything he does. Be it carefully accessorizing his bullet and showing off to all us friends with a child like glee to going all out to collect money for the school magazine.

He valued friendships like anything. He made it a point to be in touch with everyone of   us not only through social media, but also through in person meetings. He knew the current life situation of all of us and a simple 5 minute talk with him would update one of the happenings in every one of our lives. He made it a point to personally attend of of our friends weddings and other social occasions.

He was so close to everyone that anyone could say anything to him without bothering he would get hurt. Only when someone is close to your heart , that you take them for granted and say whatever you want. There is no end to the pranks he played and the endless messages he shared on our watsap group. Be it posting a photo of a baby and saying that he had adopted it to pulling everyone's leg. People had to say -" Manja please sleep. It's 12:30 in the night". He was the go to person in our gang for everything.

Behind all this child like innocence hid a mature person. He once said to me that he would not marry and would adopt a child and take care of it till the end. He said he has already convinced his mother for the same.On the same day he said, i might not have a family of my own, so friends are everything to me. That's when i realized why he was so in touch with everyone of us. I remember another instance i was talking to him on phone and sharing with him a felling of guilt of having let go of an important opportunity in life. He said a simple sentence - "You have seen the world enough. Let go. Its time to prioritize your family". That said a lot about the kind of person he was and it meant a lot to me at that point.

We will never get a friend like him. What breaks our heart is to know that God decided to take his life when he was distributing his own wedding card. It makes us realize impermanence of things in life and how cruel can God be sometimes.

"Manju . You were a free soul then and you are a free soul now" . May God give his family , especially his mother the strength to go through these difficult times. We will always miss you !!