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Bhajans and Prayers

There will be Bhajans and Prayers for the departed soul on September 27th from 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm followed by dinner at the following address:

40 Eba Road
East Lake Elementary School
Parsipanny, NJ 07054

Accommodations are available nearby at:

Days Inn
3159 Route 46 East
Parsipanny, NJ 07054
973-335-0200

Keyur’s parents have returned to the US, and will be staying at his aunt Yamini (aka Daxa)’s place, and if any one would like further information, they can email friends@keyurp.com.

Also, a memorial was held for Keyur on the University of Texas campus on September 9th which several of his friends and coworkers attended. If there are any further updates they will be posted here.

Updates

Keyur’s father’s sister (Daksha foi) sent us an email correcting the info provided earlier. Keyur was taken to the hospital as soon as possible (maybe half an hour), not longer as was stated.

For those of you in Austin, Texas, there will be an informal memorial service for Keyur on Tuesday, September 9 from 3-5 p.m. at SSB G1.310 on the University of Texas campus. Garage parking is available nearby at SWG.

We haven’t been able to contact all of Keyur’s friends, as it’s difficult to get contact information. We specifically haven’t been able to contact any of his coworkers at Apple or Microsoft. Please inform any of his friends or coworkers that might not know of his passing.

If you have any comments, you can leave them with the comments others have left or email us at friends@keyurp.com. We will post more information as we have it.

Sad news...

We are a few of Keyur’s friends. Sadly we received the news earlier this morning that Keyur passed away yesterday. While on his trip to India, he slipped, fell, and hit his head. He passed away the next day in the hospital. His cousin passed on this information to us:

Some of you guys asked about what exactly happened. He, along with his aunt and other two cousins went for a movie. He then went into the bathroom to probably brush. He slipped in the hard bathroom floor on the head or some sharp edge hit his head and caused internal bleeding. As no one was awake by that time and it was only after about an hour or so that aunty saw her lying on the bathroom, it was probably too late by then and he struggled for some more hours in the hospital before…
May god rest his soul in peace.

If anyone has words they would like to leave for his family or any questions, please leave comments here or email us at friends@keyurp.com. If there is any further information, we will post it here.

- Ram, Gautam, Akash

on hold...

..sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve put the page on hold without really updating any of you. I’ve got some audience issues I need to resolve before the mass of content I’ve built up can be released once again.

Hopefully I’ll have everything taken care of soon and be back to publishing on a regular schedule by September.

Thank you. Come again!

triveni sangam

Here I am in a rather hot and extremely dirty Madurai. We (my cousin Gaurav and I) missed the Meenakshi temple this morning because we woke up too late so now we’re just killing some afternoon time in a town thats mostly closed because its Sunday afternoon.

So far we’ve breezed by Kovalam beach in Kerala and then Kanyakumari where you run out of India in 3 of the 4 cardinal direction and then Rameshwaram which is a city because of the temple and now here we are in Madurai which is a city by itself that just happens to have a huge temple.

Kovalam was magnificent with its black sand beaches and 30 feet tall waves spurred on by the monsoon. Just magnificent to watch walls of turquoise water crash not 100 feet from the bed in your hotel room. Other than that that town was not really alive since this is the off season. There was also a quaint lighthouse that we didn’t get a chance to visit.

From Kovalam we took a cab to Kanyakumari through what is unbearably beautiful countryside with rocky mountains and banana plantation as far as the eye can see all dotted generously with coconut palms all in a rich green monsoon hue. On the way to Kanyakumari we stopped by the Hanuman temple in Suchindrum where men have to enter shirtless. It was interesting and devotional all without wearing a shirt. Kanyakumari was in fact very peaceful but commercial in a very haphhazard sort of way. Visiting the Swami Vivekanand rock and the other Thirivalluapar(sp?) rock was stunning in that ‘no words’ sort of way.

From Kanyakumari we took a 10.5 hour ride on a Tamil Nadu state bus to Rameshwaram. That bus ride was by far the most uncomfortable yet interesting bus experience I’ve ever had. I got to fight with the guy behind me for open window rights, Gaurav stopped a crazy woman from jumping off the bus as it was going full speed, and someone pooped on the stairs closest to us. Other than that it was all good. Oh yea my white t-shirt was a diry grey when we got to Rameshwaram. As soon as we got there and checked into a hotel we rushed out to take a dip in the Bay of Bengal which is considered to be the Ganga since thats the body of water the Ganga empties into. Then we went into the Ram temple for the worship which was cool since the temple is so old that I count that high. I’ll have to write about money and faith in India some other time but yea it really got to me that you have to pop Rs. 10 every 4th step in the temple.

From Rameshwaram we took a 3.5 hour train ride to Madurai where we crashed into a decent hotel at around 1:30p and slept like logs till 11:30a today. SInce then we’ve only had lunch and had some film developed. We leave to go see the temple in half an hour and then leave for Koddiakannal at 6p.

Hopefully another update during the trip otherwise from Bombay.

cloudy outlook

Its half past midnight here in Daman, the whole house is sleeping, including the dog and here I am posting to the page. Its really been a fun past few days. My cousin Kartik (dad’s eldest sister’s son) has a very decent computer here with a very reasonable internet connection so before I start ranting go check out all the new pictures, 101 to be exact, at photos.keyurp.com. Its been super painful uploading them, but at the same time its been worth it. Also its given me the opportunity to empty my camera. I’ve got all the photos till now burned onto a CD.

So yea Daman has been a great joy. This is where I took the very first vacation of my life as a wee child of maybe 3-4 months. Ever since then I have been coming here to my foi’s place during summer vacations. To come back here completes the picture of coming home. All the food and conversations and memories and now my cousin Kartik has his own kid, so I’ve got my very own nephew to play with, not to mention the adorable british cocker spaniel. Also while here I took a trip to our family temple of Ram bhagvan in a little village north of here called Kharwasa, its close to Surat. Here as part of a ritual I am to pay homage to the the maharaja of the temple who then gives me a beaded necklace called a ‘kanthi’ and my own mantra which cannot be written down and cannot be told to anyone. Its all part of growing up and accepting my place as the eldest heir to my grandfather’s family. Hopefully my kaka’s (dad’s youngest brother) son will come and go through this same ritual when hes older and understands whats going on. My family has apparently been worshipping at the Ram temple in Kharwasa since it was founded.

I also visited Valsad which is where my father’s family is from and thus where I am from for all intents and purposes. Everything is so much more industrialized and obviously there are just a ton more people, the place has almost entirely lost its village like feel. None the less its very soothing to return to one’s place of origin. I spent one of the most memorable summer’s of my life with my Bha and Didi in Valsad. Coming back just refreshed all those memories.

The day I came to Daman was the same day I returned in the very early morning hours from Mahabaleshwar. The trip to Mahabaleshwar was to say the least amazingly memorable. Since its the monsoon season and Mahabaleshwar is 4500 feet up we were literally walking in clouds the entire time, of course because of who I am and who I was with the skies did clear up to afford us some excellent views. When Nirav and I went radio antennae tower climbing I had the water in the air forming drops directally on my hair and glasses it was just an amazing experience. This is all going on as I am rebonding with friends from a time long gone. Maulik is my older brother by a month and we grew up together until I left India. Kalpesh and Jagesh are both my school friends. Nirav is Pramod uncle’s son, thus damn near a brother and Gaurav is my masi’s (mom’s sister) son thus also a brother. So with company like this in a location like Mahabaleshwar you can’t really go wrong. I doubt I will forget the political discussion we had the one night we did sleep there. Also the motion sickness inducing ride down the hills the night we left is also not going to be forgotten easily. I didn’t throw up but I’m quite sure Maulik threw up for both of us.

Tomorrow morning I’ll head back to Bombay via some fast train or the other, which by the way is a really fun way to travel. Then tomorrow night will be spent in Bombay and by Thursday afternoon Gaurav and I will be on Kovalam beach drinking coconut milk from coconuts and counting the clouds go by.

So until next time…enjoy the photos!