This cruel life :(

It happened.

Yet again.

It was a text message from my sister informing me about the sudden death of my father's very young cousin, who was only a few months older than me.

A family man, he leaves behind his wife and two daughters.  And a whole lot of people who will terribly miss him.

There are photographs of the two of us as kids hanging out at grandma's home.  Two nearly bald-headed infants, who could have easily been mistaken as twins.

As we got older, when we went to grandma's for the summer vacations, he was very much a part of the fun and games when India hadn't yet seen a television set. We have played hours and hours of cards at his place, which was one street over from grandma's.

I was about seven or eight years old when we went to grandma's place to attend the wedding of his eldest sibling.  He came down with a strange fever that quickly weakened his legs.  He couldn't walk.  For a couple of years after that, he wore braces on both legs and slowly dragged one foot after another.  I never heard him complain.  Never.

Of course, with weakened legs and braces, he couldn't climb the stairs that were everywhere.  His father or mother took turns carrying him up the steps, and he was never ever left out of any wedding celebration, or prayers at temples.

Slowly and steadily, his system regained the strength.  He could finally walk without braces.  Like how he used to, and how we do.

In the old country, in the old tradition, people didn't openly talk about anything unfortunate that happens in one's life, which is why I have no idea what the strange illness was that affected him for a couple of years.  I suppose all that mattered, and matters, is that he fought it off and his life became normal again.

Our paths did not intersect much after the teenage years.  We did our undergraduate studies in different cities, and met only at weddings.

Later, I moved to the US.  He left for the Middle East to work there.

When I met him many years later, his daughters were all grown up, and he was excited about the older one beginning her engineering studies.  

He looked muscular and stockier, and had a full head of hair.  I was well on my way to baldness.  We certainly didn't look like twins anymore.

He was only 57!

Life can be bitterly cruel and unfair.