Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Remembering

My friend Sujal was in a serious car accident a few days ago in Uganda. He was on a motorcycle taxi struck by another vehicle and sustained severe injuries. As it turns out, he was never stable enough to transfer out of the country. He passed away last night in Uganda, and a large community of friends is mourning his loss today.

I would like to tell you a little bit about Sujal and my memories of him. I first encountered Sujal in early 2005, when he applied for a position on one of the UVP summer teams. After acceptance, I noticed that he was always the first to respond when I sent e-mails to the team members, and that he asked many insightful questions about the trip. Although he was only 18 years old, the minimum age for participants in our program, I knew that he had the potential to be a great team leader, and I asked him if he would be willing to lead a team. Sujal was not one to take commitments lightly, and he asked if we could have a phone conversation so he could learn more about what was involved. I clearly remember calling Sujal while I was on a ski vacation, describing Uganda and our teams to him, impressed by his maturity which was beyond many other participants despite being much younger. He agreed to become a team leader, and went on to lead a successful team effort working in the village of Ibulanku with our partners at People and Development Initiatives clinic. He turned in an excellent report of the summer's work, and I ended up entreating him to join our executive board. I wanted to harness his energy, intelligence, and care for those living in poverty. Again, he carefully considered the decision, asking me for copies of many pages worth of documents he wanted to read about the organization before deciding. He read them all, and UVP was in luck - he decided to join the board as treasurer.

He attended our annual board meeting and consistently arose as a voice of reason and insight into what would be most helpful for our communities. Although he was new to the experience of working in a developing country, he had an innate sense of what was right. After an excellent performance as treasurer, he continued to be one of our most involved alumni, year after year requesting to remain on our board of trustees. He attended in person meetings, online meetings, and he responded to innumerable e-mails. I have worked with many people interested in global health, but Sujal was one of the rare people who put his convictions, truly, into practice. (how difficult it is to write that he "was"! Instead I would like to change that to 'will always be'...)

Just in the past few months, Sujal had become involved in a number of initiatives with Uganda Village Project - pushing us to become more involved with researching our programs and presenting that research to others. He practically single-handedly spearheaded an effort that resulted in our presenting of 4 different research abstracts at a national conference in Kampala last month. Not only that, he was the sort of person who joined in on conversations about how to improve our organizational technological capacity, and other such details that others might consider minutiae. He would become really involved in the conversation, giving real consideration to the options and weighing them. Those who work with organizations that function online know what a rarity this is, and how hard it is to find the people who always respond to questions and concerns immediately. The people like Sujal, who really care about what they do, even though it is not for school, not for credit, not for work - just for making the world a better place, in their spare time.

That is what I loved about Sujal, and why I knew that he was going to have a huge impact on global health and human rights. He wasn't in it for prestige or for power, he was becoming a leader so that he could create positive change in the lives of others.

The strange thing about the way our lives intersect in the age of the internet is that I am able to have very close relationships with people whose faces I hardly ever see, whose voices I hardly ever hear, but yet I feel that we are good friends. There are a number of people, through the nature of how Uganda Village Project works, who I correspond with on a near-daily basis, sharing ideas, thoughts, jokes, and conversations with, and yet- we are many miles apart. My friendship with Sujal was like that. I had a very small wedding, and I invited him, even though we hadn't seen one another in person more than a handful of times. And now, I feel like there is an empty hole in my life, even though it's hard to explain how a person who you had a relationship with over the internet can leave a hole like that.

Here is how I heard the news about Sujal. He had given me a great deal of advice, because I was nervous about traveling to India for the first time. He had also given me the contact information for his aunt and uncle and urged me to meet them and have dinner with them. I could tell they were as kind as Sujal, because sight unseen, they offered me a place to stay while I was in Baroda. The day before I was scheduled for dinner with them, he called to ensure everything was all set. I showed up at their house and they were incredibly welcoming, and set out a veritable feast of delicious Gujarati food for me. I was afraid I might not like it, being a picky eater, but it was all so good that I had seconds and thirds. And even after I ate the seconds and thirds, his auntie and uncle kept giving me more, until I had eaten fifths and sixths. I ate until I thought that I might actually explode, and I had to stop because I couldn't swallow another bite.

At that point, we moved back to the living room, and his auntie showed me a magazine featuring Sujal's cousin, a vascular interventionalist, on the cover. After I read the article and commented on how proud they must be, they said how they loved to hear about the successes of their nephews. And then his auntie said to me "We were going to take you to the Navratri festival tonight, but we cannot go now. We have had some very bad news." "What's wrong?" I asked. "We have had some very bad news." She repeated, as if she couldn't bring herself to get to the news, pausing a moment. "Sujal has been in a terrible car accident. He is in a coma in the hospital." I just looked at them, and my mouth was opening and closing, and nothing was really coming out. They had known since before I arrived, but didn't tell me so that it would not ruin the dinner. Even though a terrible tragedy had befallen someone who was like a son to them, they were thinking of my wellbeing, and cooking food for me to enjoy. I felt like an intruder into their grief. And I had to steel myself so that they would not see me falling apart - I did not want them to think that I suspected the worst, even though I did, because a coma plus an accident equals a traumatic brain injury. The rickshaw man looked at me strangely as I cried in his backseat, all the way to our destination, watching the motorcycle taxis dodge in and out of the chaotic nighttime traffic.

missing you, Sujal.

5 comments:

  1. a moving tribute to a very special person. I wish I could have known him.

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  2. Alison, he sounded like a very accomplished and special person, at such a young age too. I'm so sorry for your loss.

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  3. Alison, I'm so sorry for your loss! But thank you for writing this piece in his memory. It sounds like Sujal was an amazing person, and despite his short life, he has led an example we can all learn from and strive to live up to.

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  4. Thank you for your kind words about Sujal. It was nice for me to read about many of his accomplishments. While Sujal provided humble overviews about his projects and interests, it is always pleasant to hear another perspective significantly more detailed, which allows us to see the true impact that he actually had.

    Sujal is an incredible person who accomplished so much in such little time...he has affected so many lives and he will continue to do so for years to come.

    Thanks again,
    Dipen (Sujal's cousin, the vascular interventionalist)

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  5. (from Porsche)

    Wow. Just read the newsletter and saw this news. Never knew him because he volunteered the year after me, but always saw his e-mails and recognized how committed he was.

    Although he has left a hole in the hearts of many, he has also left a legacy for many to remember.

    May Sujal rest in peace.

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