He would’ve sniggered at the sentimentality in my thought, in his last mail he called himself ‘the same cynical SOB he’s always been.’ But may I be excused this time, Naveen? For your memory, smiling, pure, incisively irreverent will remain with me - encouraging me (as in your May mail), despite the grimness around, to ‘party like its 1999’. Those words, frivolous seeming, are testimony to your immense strength of spirit. Just as much as they convey your soaring sense of humour, unbeaten by odds. And finally, as always in the past, your words make me smile, because when I read them I knew, as I know now, that you will never really be far from us all. Sent by Gauri Sinh, 24 October 2009