I first met Jay when I was working at US Steel at the Fairfield Works, where he was a highly respected engineer and manager. I still miss the pre-9/11, blue-collar Americana of those days -- a time when people working around 2,000-degree molten steel could still be warm, funny, and deeply connected. On the shop floor, he was affectionately known as "Jay Jayaraj," a man respected by the people who worked alongside him.

Over the years, I had the privilege of socializing with Jay and his wonderful wife, Pushpa. Jay had met my parents in India, and when my mother visited us from India, they naturally became friends. Those connections across countries and generations were something special.

Of course, every friendship has its stories. Once, I invited Jay over for dinner and cooked catfish. I am a fast cook -- perhaps sometimes too fast -- and apparently the catfish needed a little more time! Thankfully, I had prepared many other dishes, so most guests survived the evening without noticing. Jay, however, really liked catfish. My wife still reminds me about that dinner, and for many years afterward, I jokingly wondered if I had permanently lost a friend because of my cooking.

Life took us in different directions. We moved away from Birmingham to North Georgia, and somehow twenty years passed.

Then last fall, I received a call from Jay: "I heard y'all moved to Cumming. We did too!" As we caught up and exchanged stories, we realized something remarkable -- we had actually been passing each other for days on the same trails while walking, saying hello to another Indian family, never realizing that after two decades we had crossed paths again.

That unexpected reunion made the loss even harder to accept.

Jay passed away today after complications following a fall last September. He leaves behind his beloved wife, Pushpa. They did not have children, and Jay was the anchor and pillar of his extended family.

Jay was a wonderful friend -- kind, respected, funny, and dependable. I am grateful that after twenty years apart, life gave us one more chapter together.

Rest in peace, my friend. You will be missed.

She was deeply educated -- a scholar, intellectual, administrator, avid reader, and lifelong learner. She served in the Government of India with remarkable honesty, efficiency, and quiet strength. But what inspired me most was her resilience. She overcame so many hardships in life: losing her mother at the age of six, serious accidents, sciatica, leprosy, and later cancer -- yet she continued to live with dignity, courage, curiosity, and purpose.

© D.G. Mallikarjuna

Jyotsna Kamat (1934-2022)

Some years ago, I encouraged Amma to write biographies -- something she immediately embraced with passion. Over time, she went on to become perhaps one of India's most prominent biographers. It became her true calling.

So I was deeply moved and happy to learn that the Karnataka Literary Academy is bringing out a biography about her, written by B.K. Sumathi -- Amma's colleague, friend, and a diligent researcher whom I have long admired.

How fitting that it is, in many ways, "the biography of a biographer."

The book is titled "Jyotsna, a Ray of Light." (ಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸ್ನಾ.. ಬೆಳಕಿನ ಕಿರಣ)

The Academy has announced that it will be released during a function on June 6, 2026. I cannot wait to read it.

A heartfelt thank you to Sumathi and to the Karnataka Literary Academy for honoring Amma's life and legacy in this beautiful way.

See Also:
• Biography of Amma by Dr. Geeta Shenoy
• Documentary on Amma by Nemichandra

Please join me!

Suchitra Auditorium
36, 9th Main, BV Karanth Road
Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560070

Directions: via Google Maps

I have been going to India to visit my parents for 30 years and all the returning flights to USA start very late in the night and I always have to leave the last pair of underwear behind (long flight, no time to wash etc). It happens each time, so in my mom's house there is a closet drawer called "Vikas's Clothes' and they're full of long-lost memories.

Remember the year there was the tsunami and there was a tremendous shortage of underwear (because folks lost everything)?. That time I asked my mom before packing to India --"Mom, can you please tell me how many pairs of underwear do I have in your house?" She told me the count, and I didn't bring any. It was the biggest mistake. Because she had counted my underwear from when I was 15 years old. There were so many of them, but very few that fit.

Now for Underwear Tour: There's the "Let me get Hanes on you" from Michael Jordan years. I remember the period of switching to boxers for "freedom of movement". There's the tube underwear (tight and very long). The tennis years of Andy Roddick undies. There's the time when some guest in the house mistook my underwear for his -- and he had elephant thighs and ruined the shape simply by trying them on. There's the K-Mart (who remembers K-Mart) ones and there's the ones that made me look fat. There's the tagless one, the elastic-less one, with pouch, without pouch, with fly, without fly, the draw-string ones, there's one with a pocket. (There was a time to carry loads of money in underwear pockets.).

OMG I am an underwear connoisseur!

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance...

- Nehru 1947

(India's freedom movement went on for about 100 years. Fight for Rama temple has been going on for over 500 years.)

Vikas Kamat/Kamat.com

A Temple for Rama at Ayodhya

See Also: Babri Masjid, #Ramayana

I knew him over a 15 year period and I am deeply saddened by his death. Henry was the founder and President of Attorneys Insurance Mutual-- you know that company that insures attorneys against malpractice. He was very knowledgeable about the insurance, actuaries, risk retention models. He also knew a lot about the Constitution and history of the South. I learnt many things from him.

He knew about dogs! I think his Dutch Shepherd "Forest" was the longest living dog of the breed. Henry had taught Forest how to read (it is true, you can Google it. German and Dutch Shepherds can recognize patterns). I think he must have spent a fortune treating his dog's cancer. Even the obituary asks for donation to a dog rescue.

Henry was very eccentric man. He was very polite, very secretive, and very straight forward. He had this very old, very antique clock that no one could fix or make it work. He would not use Wi-fi. He didn't use computers that used CPUs made by Intel.

My friendship with Henry was professional. A lot of folks didn't understand Henry's respect/affection for me, and he was always very kind and very sweet to me. I was told that he was ousted at the same company that he founded.

I will miss Henry. I feel bad for his "Bonnie", his new dog he adopted after Forest died last year.

Memorial for Henry Henzel

See Also:
• Humane Society of Birmingham
• Smart Dogs that can read!
• Birmingham Lights

So, my mom is the boss of the state controlled radio station Akashavani, and there was a very popular radio anchor, Miss Yamuna Murthy.

One day my mother tells me -- "I am very angry at Yamunamurthy today. I tried to reach the office via telephone four times and each time Yamunamurthy is answering the phone and telling me that there is nobody to take my phone call. She is being so difficult today. I cannot wait to speak with her about her behavior!"

It turns out that the phone department --also state owned at that time -- had hired Ms. Yamnuamurthy to record all the phone error messages. So no matter who was calling whom, if there was a busy signal or a phone error (very common during those years in India), they were hearing Yamunamurthy's voice.

© K.L.Kamat

Jyotsna in her Office at All India Radio

Link to Yamuna Murthy's Video on YouTube.

See Also: My Days in All India Radio

The amazing quality of the flower is that the fragrance remains after the death of the flower --for years. I find it very apt that a tribute to my mother (to be streamed tomorrow is called Garland of Suragya Flowers". It is produced by Wold Konkani Heritage Center -- so friends who understand Konkani language, please tune in!

She was a great cook like her mother. She was 72 and was in good health, and died of a massive heart attack. I have so many stories of her "arranging marriages" -- they will make for a good reading.

Goodbye Pushpakka. I had not finished with you -- you left us unexpectedly!

© K.L.Kamat

Indian Woman with her Mangalasutra (the black sacred beads)
Picture of Pushpa Prabhu, Kumta

See Also:
• Arranged Marriages of India