To MK!!

This is my first public blog!!

Disclaimer: I am an eccentric person who suffers from foot and Mouth disease. Yes, I do talk a lot. Since now there is no one to talk to, I am writing!! You may disagree with me on certain posts, but remember this is MY BLOG. You are more than welcome to write your opinions and criticize. I believe in positive criticism.


When I first started writing for the blog, I could not choose to write about anything else but Mumbai. However, things changed the next day.....

Death of an individual always puts you off guard. It seldom matters that the person who is dead is a friend or foe. If it is someone dear, it becomes all the more difficult. Wednesday August 12, 2009, 17:16 PDT was the exact date and time I first heard about MK’s demise.

It took a day to realize what exactly occurred and the news to sink in. Thursday was one of the most painful days of my time in the US. MK was not exactly a friend. He was a fellow Indian and a classmate. But his death was a shock to me. I knew him for a year. Amongst other things he helped me during school, he taught me a very valuable lesson before leaving- never to assume, always have a definitive proof behind what you speak!!

When the news struck us, almost all of my fellow Indian classmates and acquaintances believed that it was a suicide attempt. After what he had suffered through at school and beyond, alongside with the fact that there was fire two days before the actual incident, it was the first line of thought. I too am guilty of being one of the people who thought he committed suicide out of what had happened to him in the past. For five complete days I was under this ASSUMPTION.

Ronnie, my roommate finally managed to get information regarding the cause of death two days ago. The fire caused in his room was due to a fluorescent light bulb on the ceiling. He died due to inhalation of poisonous gases from the bulb/lamp. Further assumption that his body was not identifiable due to severe burns was put to rest by his mother. Muthu’s mom had called Vikashni (her undergraduate friend and our classmate) to inform that the body had arrived and did not have any burn marks on it.

Pondering over how quickly I jumped to conclusions, I realized that I was wrong. I should have taken time to think and waited till the official reports were out. This incident will be a lesson for me..... the adage “Think before you speak” will henceforth be tweaked to “Have definitive proof of substance before you speak” for me!!!

-Kankshit Bheda