Remember you as a time of the day, as a way of life.

Tall is the perhaps the first word that comes to mind when I think of Nikhil. He was was so tall, scored such high marks, had such lofty ambitions and every time we were being petty teenagers(like telling a certain absent-minded teacher "Ma'am totalling error!" and getting some extra marks from her was like taking candy from a child!) I remember Nikhil would take the high road and sit it out. Not that he was Mr.Goody two shoes, he had a fantastic sense of humour. I remember him calling me aside sometimes to tell me a joke or some ridiculous piece of nonsense.

We'd often get piled into the same group and I'd secretly be relieved because I knew the work would be done with Nikhil at the helm, I suspect his feelings were quite the contrary! On one such assignment I recall Nikhil suggested we make a particular team member wear a transparent shirt ala SRK in K3G and do the soppy Suraj Hua Madham or a Hawaiian shirt and do a tropical number. I can't remember which assignment this was for the life of me but I remember discussing this after assembly so vividly!

There was this competition we were packed off to Rosary Matric where we had to sell seasons(yes sell summer and winter etc!) and Nikhil rescued me when I forgot my lines, and then the western music competition in the fifth when he had to sing "Brown Girl in the ring" and his ears got red and he had a bout of stage fright. I met him after school at a lot of Scrabble tourneys. At one such tourney in Bangalore that I was so close to winning, the last of the round robins was with Nikhil who stumped me with a bingo on one of the penultimate moves. He placed the tiles on the board with both his hands gingerly and I noticed there weren't any tiles left on his rack. That one game pushed me to the fourth position overall and I think it speaks volumes about him when I say I couldn't hold it against him! That's a big deal if you consider I was strangely quite angry with a girl 5 yrs younger than me who I'd beat by a small margin...

I don't know what these memories are supposed to signify, I don't know if I'm supposed to showcase his virtues by means of these incidents...I guess I'm grasping at the tail ends of memories before they're lost forever. But you know what? I don't need to recall a single incident to remember, to know what a great guy Nikhil was.

Nikhil is perhaps the one person who could have put me down anytime he wanted, he was so much better than me, us, in every possible way but not once did he do that. Not once did he utter a mean word or was he hurtfully sarcastic or crack a crass joke about anyone. He was the smartest person on the planet no doubt but I will always remember him for being someone much more than that.

I don't believe that you could have changed the world Nikhil, I KNOW that in your own strong silent way you did. I'm so proud to have known you, it's been an honour.
- Shilpa