Passing away of Pallavi’s uncle:

Feb 15th 2008 - The reason I have this personal incident in the blog is because of some similarities that I see in the life in Hyderabad and in the US. Being in the US one thing that always gave us a lot of grief was not being able to share the happiness and the sorrows with the people who mattered the most. Especially when a near and dear person passed away in India one felt really helpless. Due to the distances you couldn’t reach in time for the last visit or atleast the rituals.
Pallavi’s uncle who suddenly fell sick got into critical condition very fast. Pallavi was asked to get to Pune ASAP. The fastest way was to get on a plane but Pune airport was closed due to renovation. Next fastest way was to fly to Bombay and go by road but the flights to Bombay are only in early morning or late evening. There are no buses in the middle of the day. So finally she had to end up taking the car on a painful 500KM journey. At the end of it she didn’t make it in time. Though she was there for the rituals being in India didn’t matter at the end of the day. Being there with the family did help her to get a closure but that guilt will always remain.