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The Mush Register

LOVE LIVES ON Kalyan Subramanyam, regional sales manager, FedEx, with his fashion designer wife Anila PHOTO: R. SHIVAJI RAO

Kalyan

I came from Dubai, spent a day with my family and left for Chicago on a two-week business programme.

Our eldest son Vikram, who was suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, said, "Dad, I will miss you a lot." He plucked the flight tag from my bag and told me he would hold it tight whenever he thought of me.

A few days later, he had to be hospitalised because his lung collapsed. His condition had deteriorated when I called to say I was returning soon. I was told this news revived Vikram so much that he was discharged the same day. When I had called him on a Saturday and told him that the next day he would have all that he had put down on his must-buy list, he told his mother, "I am the luckiest child because my father buys me all I want."

Anila

The next morning, Vikram passed away before he could even check out his gifts. In the evening, I received Kalyan at the airport. From a distance, he gave a "thumbs up" sign, asking if Vikram was all right. I nodded. After a while, I broke the news. One day, a still, small voice seemed to tell us what Vikram wanted of us. He was a precocious six-year-old who often wondered why some people were without a home. He had once told me, "Amma, why don't you build houses for them?" I laughed it off saying I had to be very rich to do that. Now, that is exactly what we set out to do. We started the Vikram Memorial Fund to help Little Drops, which shelters the aged destitute. A passbook was opened by Little Drops in Vikram's name, but I did not like what was written on the cover — "Late Vikram" — and put it away.

When Kalyan returned from a trip to Brussels, we opened the passbook and could not believe our eyes. The account had been opened on Vikram's birthday. No one in Little Drops knew it was his birthday. The only explanation — Vikram willed it to happen.

(AS TOLD TO PRINCE FREDERICK)

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