"God be with you friend, till we meet again"

A few of my MBA classmates were lounging under the shade of a tree in the hot Chennai sun earlier this week. I shot off my mouth yet again when I remarked, “If Jetti does not meet his target, he will ask Malai, DKR or Will Smith ….” I bit my tongue but it was too late as all my friends gave me funny glances. It is not too often that you see grown up men cry but on that day there was no shame in admitting we all cried for it was the day we were going to bid farewell to Will Smith forever.

What can you say about life when a dutiful son, a loving brother, a wonderful husband, a loyal friend and a caring father was relieved of all his duties forever in one cruel minute? He was attempting to board his car having answered the call of nature when God called him on non negotiable basis. Surely there must be a better exit from the stage of life; being smashed to death against your own car door by a truck driver who apparently had fallen asleep is something I would not even wish on my worst enemy.

In that one fatal moment big Willy was reduced to a mere statistic in the tally of the many hit and run accidents. I will never forget that day (June 2nd) for a long time; there were too many incidents that have scarred my memory. It was only a short time ago when all of us were so full of life and had a blast celebrating Mama’s last day of bachelorhood in Chennai, even on that day Willy rushed home at dawn to be with his family. I still remember the snaps I clicked on my W810i of our class and thought that we made a great team. It was the same W810i that I used to capture the disfigured and lifeless form of my friend in the mortuary to help the cops file the death report. I have never felt more pain than that brief moment when my eyes refused to see what was on the screen. This was not our Will, this was an imposter. Will’s mom made us cringe when she asked us why we had left her son alone on that fateful day when all along we used to be together. How do you answer this question? Even that paled to insignificance when Ice in all her innocence of two years asked us to go and see her father who was sleeping.

They say time is a healer and it took so long to come to terms with reality but will time ever reveal the answers to the questions Will left behind?

My gang – Willy, DKR, Malai, Jetti, Mams, VGS, Tojo, Saran, Pundit, Sasi, Nimmi, Bevuda, Rowdy, Rats, Joller, Max, Kalai, Saurab….., moi will never be the same.

You will be missed Willy.


“God be with you, my friend, till we meet again”