They say the most prominent shades of one's personality shine out especially during the most challenging times and are the true reflection of a man. As a humble tribute to his life and personality, I want to share some of my experiences during his last few days with the several people that knew him and the some that didn't.

A great optimist, intellectually active, a cheerful personality, he was smiling until his last hours. He was diagnosed with "high grade undifferentiated carcinoma", in plain language, a very aggressive form of cancer.

The cancer was detected in an advanced stage in December 2010 during a routine health check and life was never the same since. It's still livid in the memory. The doctors bluntly told me he had just a few days or weeks to live with the main vein being considerably blocked by the cancerous growth in the lung area. Even as he battled the dreaded disease, we faked it with him. "It's just an infection which is being treated and will take a few days", I told him. He was happy and seemed relieved, though sometimes I don't know if he had figured it out but by looking at the "Oncologist" sign on the door of the doctor I took him to for radiation therapy and he didn't want to let us know that "he knew what was happening" but didn't want us to know.

His postive personality even during this time was amazing and evident. When I took him for radiation therapy, even as father lay on the stretcher, the doctor reached for the CT Scan and was for a second horrified by what he saw - a large mass nearly choking the windpipe and the main vein(vena cava). He expected to see someone really sad, depleted, frustrated and down. He askd father - "What problem are you experiencing?". Pat came the reply - "No problem. I'm perfectly allright. Just some congestion. That's all." It was unbelievable!

Two days before he breathed his last, on Dec 25, while in the hospital ICU, when the doctors during their morning rounds enquired from him about his health, with a mischievous twinkle in the eye he said, "Today is Christmas. Where's my Christmas cake?" He was an unbelievable sight - A advanced cancer patient in the ICU, with monitors all over him and he himself engrossed, flipping the pages of the morning newspaper! He carefully marked an article in the newspaper and handed this to my brother - "Read this article...Very interesting!" When I enquired from the doctor he said, "Look at him. We don't know how, but he's doing great. We're moving him out of the ICU to the normal ward!"

During the night, things got serious and he had to be put on life support systems. I went to his bedside where he seemed to be asleep but breathing, supported by a ventilator tube. Everytime I spoke to him he tried to open his eyes as if he was hearing me. I held his hand and prayed...He breathed his last in the morning.

We stayed together for so many years that sometimes I feel I'll hear him again - his views on what's happening in the world, his carefree nature, his powerful optimism...

I'm comforted by the fact that father lived a full life, professionally and personally active, smiling and hoping until the last....

I'm comforted by the fact that his family was at his side during his last hours...

I'm comforted by the fact that I was there for him when he most needed me...

I'm comforted by the fact that his soul lives on...

As they say in the Gita -

Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

Respectfully,