With all the tips you mutineers helpfully send in, plus the links you submit to our News tab, there’s no shortage of tragedies for us to read about, daily. Still, one recent story stands out to me as so heartbreaking, it’s apathy-shattering [via WaPo]:
With school out for the summer, Raju and Jayanthi Soundararajan took four of their children to India on a spiritual pilgrimage to visit Hindu temples, a guru, and friends and family left behind decades ago.
…while riding on a rural road in the southern part of the country, the Gaithersburg family’s rented sport-utility vehicle and a truck collided head-on, killing both parents and their two teenage daughters, 14-year-old Lakshmi and 16-year-old Priya. Only the hired driver and two of the Soundararajans’ sons survived, friends said.
Since then, the Washington area’s Indian community has come together to bolster an older daughter, who was not on the trip and has told friends that she wants to care for her brothers. Friends are raising money for Sairam, 11, and Pavan, 20, because both faced years of medical and education expenses even before they were seriously injured in the collision.
Imagine being in your 20s, working your day job and singing in a local band at night, doing whatever mundane things we all do…and then overnight, losing most of your immediate family— and realizing that you are the only person who two vulnerable boys have left, to advocate for and care for them. From akka to guardian, instantly…
Sairam is autistic, family friends say. Pavan, who is severely disabled with cerebral palsy, needs constant care. An Indian assistant helping the family with Pavan’s wheelchair also died in the crash.
“The crisis is not only the accident,” said Basil Rajakumaran, 76, a family friend in Gaithersburg whose cellphone rings every 10 minutes with people asking how they can help. “We have to take care of these children.”
The cause is capturing attention beyond Washington, friends say, because Raju, 64, was a well-known classical Indian singer and performed in Hindu temples across the United States. He and his wife, 43, had taken the family to India in June for what was expected to be a one-month trip.
A prayer service held in their memory last weekend at Sri Siva Vishnu, a Hindu temple in Lanham, drew more than 800 mourners… [WaPo]
What a beautiful family…
Friends attribute the outpouring to the fact that the Soundararajans reached beyond their own difficulties to help others. They remember how the family made sandwiches twice a month to hand out at a District homeless shelter. They recall how Raju, whose job entailed making sure Montgomery County’s school buses were properly fueled, organized a two-day music festival every January at their temple and cooked vegetarian food for it at his own expense.
“They had so much to give in spite of so many challenges,” said Daya Radhakrishnan, 40, a family friend in Boyds who taught classical Indian dance to Priya and Lakshmi. [WaPo]
When I’m reading (anything), it’s impossible to know what seemingly minor detail will sink a hook in my heart and just haunt me…
Priya, a rising senior, made honor roll despite a learning disability, Radhakrishnan said. She had already picked out a turquoise sari to wear to next year’s prom and hoped to study medicine.
It seems so insignificant, but this random fact gutted me. I can just picture her vetting this idea with her friends, considering makeup and accessories, debating heels or jeweled flip-flops and just generally marinating in that giddy excitement which envelopes you when it’s your final year of high school and events like prom loom large. That sari will never be worn to prom. Priya will never dance in it.
While Priya was shy, Radhakrishnan said, Lakshmi was bubbly and tomboyish.
“She had no inhibitions,” Radhakrishnan said.
Despite having three children with disabilities, friends said, Raju and Jayanthi never complained. Radhakrishnan recalled Jayanthi saying, “God gave me these kinds of kids because they are divine children, and I have the ability to take care of them.” [WaPo]
…and we have the ability to help. We need to help. Look:
There was also no will left behind, so it will be up to the State to divy up any funds possible (and we all know how long this may take). Also, it is unclear how much insurance money she will actually receive once the house/loans have been paid for. There is also the possibility that a lein has been taken on the house, as well as other financial burdens which may extremely diminish all available funds. In fact, there is a sizeable possibility that Padma will get nothing.
Basically the unthinkable has happened to the sweetest, most loving girl that I (or any of us) know in the entire world, and it is up to her friends to help her pick up the pieces. [link]
One way you can show support? Mutineer Sriram writes for DCist and he points us to a benefit concert, tonight. If you are in DC…
Drop Electric’s Benefit for Padma takes place on Saturday, Aug. 16 at the Rock and Roll Hotel with The.Blackout.District, Hello Tokyo, and Red Ink. 8:30 doors/9:30 show, $10 [DCist]
Can’t make it? Not in Chocolate City, but want to help? Go here.
