 Yeah, literally, for me, because of his work with Strawberry Fields, which is the music festival of NLS. And Raul is the person, the singer-force behind the start of Strawberry Fields. And I'm just going to go do that. So, I would have loved to sing, but I thought it's gone. I'm just going to play an instrument piece that I've written for Raul. It's a jazz piece, it's a new video. This one's called For Raul. On behalf of the Center for Internet and Internet, I'd like to welcome all of you to this celebration of Raul's life. A special and warm welcome to Raul's family, his wife Antuna and his sister. People follow a very simple format. We have seven people who will pay tribute. Most of them count as colleagues and friends of Raul. Some of them are only friends. Privileged to be both his colleague and I've considered to be, over the last one year, Raul has been one of my closest friends. Among his various achievements, and I think they've been spoken about at length, but one of his rather unspoken achievements was that he managed to get me. I was at that time a very hardcore trial lawyer based in Bombay. And he kind of managed to convince me that, no, why don't you move to Chennai and let's work on disability law and policy. And I think that it's a tribute not just to, it was all about the passion that he had about his subject and about how he made things look so easy that it just seemed so easy and it was, it actually was. It was a great thing that at the end of sometimes working on issues we could sit and we could joke about it because it's hard working in policy is hard despite what everybody may think. And it's nice, it was really great to be able to work with somebody who could make everything look so easy. And one of the things that I was talking to some friends and they seem to say that look Raul is, everybody talks about Raul as this policy activist and disability rights activist but he's so much more than that. I mean he was such a fun guy and nobody talks about that and well, he was, I don't think I've worked really hard with Raul and I've really had some of the best times traveling to Bangalore, talking to people, just listening to him talk. I could probably listen to him for hours and hours about what we should be doing and what we shouldn't and if things got too serious he'd always have the perfect thing to say to sort of break the whole monotony of if that ever set in. I would sometimes sit and talk to Raul about great philosophical questions I had about my professional life, my personal life and he summed up in one sentence which is pretty much to the effect of stop complaining and just do what you want. There's not like a lot of time to sit and angst about things and sometimes I wonder if he had a premonition of sorts because that's kind of what his driving force was. He was always in a hurry. He was always, he'd always want me to, you know, sort of, there were a lot of things to do and there's still a lot of things to do and I'm very grateful that we have, you know, even though it was such a tragic event everyone managed to sort of get together and show their support and the need to take things forward. All the things that Raul and I were doing and it's amazing. I was in Delhi earlier this week for, you know, a workshop and conference and I met a lot of people from the disability sector and it's amazing the kind of outpourings that, you know, have come for at the conference and even in general we've put up a tumbler with some of just extracts of some of the emails that I've received from people far and wide and people who haven't met him, people who have just heard of him, people who just go to the website and say, we've been following stuff through Twitter or something and we're just so, we're just, we're just in some way everyone and I guess that's kind of why it's quite poetic that it's inclusive planet that even people who perhaps weren't directly concerned with the work that Raul was doing feel that loss. They feel that pain and it's amazing the kind of support that we've been getting. And personally we want to take all of the things that Raul was doing. We want to take it forward and it's wonderful that so many people are trying to help in any way they can, even kind words have been very, very important to us and, you know, I will, I guess it's hard. Sometimes we were talking about this that when this happened we would be sort of consumed with a lot of grief and we think about Raul and there was always something that would happen. Today when I was at the CIS office, Sunil opened this picture up and I saw it and first I was struck with, I had tears in my eyes and then I remembered we would have these arguments about how, you know, I would say that, you know, every time we'd write for a newspaper they'd ask for like a photograph and I would keep complaining about how it was really painful to find the right photograph and Raul was like, you know, I'm so photogenic and we should always give photographs every time. He said we should, even if they don't ask for it we should totally give photographs because I'm so photogenic. So, and I looked at this and I was like, yeah, you're right, oh god, you're so photogenic. And, you know, there are so many, so many stories to tell about what an amazing, amazing, amazing person he was and I feel bad that I actually only knew him for a year and at the same time I feel really privileged that I got, I got one year of Raul Cheryan, you know, to nag and to whine at and to ask for his advice and, you know, to joke with and whatever else and whenever I wanted to. And I am going to miss you and I just hope that we can keep him alive in some way and if nothing else that I know that I'll always have his teasing and his jokes, I know that I'll always have that with me. He'll always be an inspiration. He did different things differently and that's the best thing that we get from the life that he led. Thanks. Classmate in the law school for five years, I think a lot of you know that. And my memory of him in law school was as this really cheerful person who literally everybody loved. I don't think anybody had a negative word for him at any point or the other. I don't remember him saying anything negative or anybody either. And the memory I have of him is of him playing cricket with a lot of my classmates out there in the field. And in that context, I remember him as very closely and integrally being a part of the batch of 98. As Lawrence put it, the batch of 98 almost rightfully feels that Rahul belonged to us in an almost possessive way. And his infectious enthusiasm, but of course could not be tied to us alone. And I think there's so many memories of Rahul as part of the batch of 98. And I think every single one of my classmates will have one, if not more, multiple memories to really share over Rahul as really fun loving, life-affirming free spirit who were sure to raise your spirits even if you ever felt low. I think post that, post the law school, I lost touch with Rahul. Lawrence and me went on to become part of the Alternative Law Forum and Rahul pursued his work as an intellectual property rights lawyer. And almost four years ago, it was a pleasant and incredible surprise to see Rahul walk into our office one day. And he was a different Rahul in the sense that he spoke with a certain sense of a passion and insistence, which I felt was kind of new from the old Rahul I knew. And the passion and insistence was really for the freedom of disabled people. And I think he used the word of freedom, which is what I really, really liked. And I feel that in the course of the few years that he had and he worked in this area, he brought a new spirit of almost enthusiasm and life to his work in this entire area. And I think often within the field of activism, number is kind of pointed out too, sometimes a sense of burnout, people end up feeling tired with the continuing struggle and sometimes they feel very, very little results. At times like this, one feels you need an infusion of energy, you need fresh enthusiasm. And sometimes you need just a sheer will of optimism to overcome difficult circumstances. And times like this, that you think of Rahul's really undimmed enthusiasm, as well as never say desperate and just combined with, I think, a deep sense of solidarity and that was particularly invaluable. I think all of us insistently saw the videos of Rahul which is circulated on the web. All of us read that really, really moving tribute by Lawrence in the Hindu again and again. And I think when one of these videos is a really moving moment when Rahul hugs a metal in diamond with the national president of the plant during a difficult moment in the wipe on negotiations and the kind of hug kind of captures the spirit which just reached out and connected to people really. And I don't know, and watching these videos again and again which I'm sure all of you all did, the sense I had was that he just radiated optimism. When the situations were difficult and you felt that people would give up and the person was asking the question, asking how do you feel? Do you feel pessimistic or optimistic? Rahul's answer all the time was, I'm optimistic. How bad the situation was? His answer was, I'm optimistic. And somewhere, I think the sense it got with him is that after all tomorrow is another day and you can't really keep him down. And somehow you felt with him that he had to win in the end because something of that insistence saying that yes, we can make a difference was really there. And I think somewhere quite obviously and quite powerful and really, really strongly the loss of Rahul is felt most deeply in his intimate family circle. It's felt definitely in the class of 98. And it's also felt in the world of those who knew him as this really inspiring or inspired activist. But I also found totally, totally amazing was that there's an ability to inspire which he had which really transcended the world of those who knew him personally. Seasoned human rights activists who read the tribute in the Hindu by Lawrence called me up and asked me, who's Rahul Chettian? Who's that wonderful man? Why is it that we never met him in the auditorium? Professor Hassan Mansour was really this domain of the human rights movement in Bangalore. He called up one day after reading the Hindu tribute and his entire response was, I read that tribute and the question I want to ask you is, why is it that we never met that wonderful young man in your office at any point in time? And Professor Mansour went on to say that it's really removing. He said that I want to continue living so that I can continue to be inspired by people such as Rahul. So in a sense, I feel that what the tribute by Lawrence really did as far as I was concerned was that it captured perfectly only the spirit that is Rahul Chettian but also what his life in a sense meant to almost perfect strangers. And I think once again the tribute is something I think all of us read over and over again. I'll give you one paragraph from that. Rahul leaves behind an important legacy in terms of his work but a far more important one on how we understand the very idea of a free spirit. His singularity while irreplaceable provides us with a vocabulary of thinking of human rights struggles has really a right to the maximum enjoyment of life and doing it with a sense of likeness. Once again, going back to the videos, I saw Rahul eloquently describe himself saying that I call myself a freedom fighter, not just a disability activist coming as I do from the land of Mahatma Gandhi. I don't think I was the only one who felt that sense of absolute inspiration and just seeing that very, very powerful video moment. And what he seemed to do is make a powerful connection to the wider history of struggle in this country and the struggle for freedom in really its multifaceted dimensions. Just by invoking Gandhi, you begin to see his disability work really as direct continuation of a struggle for freedom and the idea of giving freedom a new vocabulary and a new content. This is very, very important because I was just thinking of it, is that the question of disability hasn't really become the issue of freedom which it should be. The fact that disabled people still today don't have access to roads, don't have access to public facilities, don't have access to banks is really something which tells you how important this entire issue is and how important it is that really take this issue forward. And in Rahul's terms, it's literally every disability disabled person is a disability rights activist. And I think once again, if you look at the videos, he very beautifully makes the point. I mean, once again, I was just saying that when he talks about his scooter and talks about the fact that he couldn't get a scooter onto the airplane. And the way he puts it is for the first time, he's talking about the staff, it's the first time that the airline staff are seeing this. It's only a matter of sensitizing them as time goes by and maybe next time, they'll allow me to ride it into the plane. So there once again, you have that sense of almost undimmed optimism saying that yes, we can make a change. Yes, we can ensure that disabled people have the right to access public spaces. And I think this is such an important issue also because what is Rahul talking about? He's talking about 12% of India's population. He's talking about 40% of the visually impaired population really is from this country. And I was trying to think once again, what is this freedom which Rahul articulates in the interview itself. If you look at this book by Mata Nazbom, she talks about the frontiers of freedom and how do we really reimagine what is this notion of freedom really about. And really, the notion of freedom is the fact that we need a society which is a more caring society. We need a society which is a far more inclusive society. We need a society which in some ways makes space for both disabled people and for caregivers of disabled people. As Mata Nazbom puts it, I'll just read this out to you. The lives of either people with disability or their caregivers need not contain the stigma and insult and inordinate burdens that they used to contain ubiquitously and are often still contained. A decent society will organize public space, public education and other relevant areas of public policy to support such lives and fully include them giving the caregivers all the capabilities on a list and the disabled as many of them and as fully as possible. So really what you're asking for is you need to rethink the role of the market, the role of the state and the role of society from the viewpoint of disability. And we're not just thinking, we're thinking of a different form of social contract where you're saying that disabled people have equal access really to the rights which everybody else is entitled to. So the other thing I think when Raul says when he calls himself a freedom fighter he's really going beyond thinking of disability as a sector and work there as just policy work. He's connecting disability activism to really an older history of struggles against I think colonialism, racism, sexism and for the very right to be human. And it's a form of almost inspired communication which really puts the heart and spirit back into activism and communicates that really working on disability rights is not just a job but it's a passion. In a very concrete sense, once again I want to pay a particular tribute to both the work of Amba and Raul in terms of the entire Verma committee recommendations. I had a chance to be there in terms of the Verma committee to read through the various submissions by various groups to the Verma committee and the inclusive planet submissions were really incredibly good because what they did is they made the point that you need to look at the Indian Penal Code, the criminal procedure code and the Indian Evidence Act from the viewpoint of disability and you need to make changes in each of these areas. And if you look now at the ordinance a lot of the changes proposed even by the inclusive planet are really there in the ordinance itself. And a very special thing which inclusive planet really brought to bear to the entire question of disability is marrying a certain kind of legal intelligence with a certain kind of activist passion. And that's a very, very, very important valuation really and having been in many ways a part of this activist area you realize that often the gap is that legal understanding which can bridge an activist understanding and really take it to another level. So in a very, very important sense I think the work and Rahul did contributed enormously to the entire area and I think that's very, very important that we try and take this work forward. So in a very concrete sense once again what would you think of in terms of how we take this work forward? At one level I think the relevance of the work is clearly there in terms of the work and what it really achieved but really beyond that also I think in many ways that each life dedicated to a cause such as this really makes the world a better place not only through concrete changes but through the inspiration that such a life is to others as well. I think I just have to go back to the numerous people who wrote back and spoke to me about the inspiration that Rahul's life provided and really it's amazing and I was so amazed by the fact that these were people who did not know Rahul one to one individually but were really inspired by the life that was Rahul or by the spirit that was Rahul. I think for those few days also I think all of us know Rahul's friends, colleagues as well as perfect strangers really shared news about Rahul online and the Facebook feed in that sense showed numerous people sharing the Hindu tribute to Rahul on the world. So in a very concrete sense how do you take forward really Rahul's work and how do you take forward the inspiration that he really provided and we were just chatting and thinking what are the ideas one could come up with and made a couple of thoughts really. Firstly we were thinking in terms of how do you create once again these are questions which we are grappling with having been here for 10 years or whatever saying that yes how do you create a second line of people who are interested in this work how do you take forward this work Rahul unfortunately had very very little time so we were not really able to think of maybe a second generation of people a wider group of people who can take this work forward. So I was thinking that even if you think of maybe a course on disability rights and the law which you offer every year for people around the country dedicated or in the name of Rahul and try and get as many people to this course as possible and see out of this just spreading this knowledge and this information can you build a dedicated core of people to this area of work because then the key thing we need are people with passion to really work on this entire area. The second thing we're thinking is can you think of some kind of annual lecture in Rahul's name once again taking forward his spirit or the idea of the work that he was doing. These are some of the thoughts which I had in terms of what one can do as far as remembering or taking forward Rahul's memory is concerned. I just want to end in some ways with a poem and I can almost imagine Rahul laughing at me saying that you know he's quoting poetry but at the same time I also imagine Rahul appreciating the sentiment underlying it. The poem by Neruda says Absence is such a vast house that you will walk through its walls and hang paintings in the air. Absence is such a transparent house that without my own life I will watch you live and if I see you suffer my love I will die again. We are an organization called Enable India. We work for economic independence and dignity for persons with disability. We met I think Rahul and Ruben about many years ago and I think four or five years back. It was just like the day when we met forever and we just started discussing about issues, topics and how to go forward what to do and just kind of went on and it's like as if we knew each other for many, many years I think. It went on, I think a lot of discussion happened. I think in that journey I don't know when inclusive planet started how it kind of went on. It was like daily as if it's a part of our team as if we are discussing with somebody else in my team or anything like that. It's always kind of Rahul why. That's what I used to call him and he used to call me Dipesh why because I'm a Gujarati. So it was like I think that was one of the things he connected with everybody just like that. You didn't know so it was very, very cool. And from there I think it was one of the things basically we didn't know L of law so that was good saying that oh anytime just call Rahul why. And get things copyright. Rahul why what do I do about this copyright thing? What do I do about contract? Can you help me? I have no idea what to do. So it was like just a call away and get things going and all that. So it was I think and more and more I remember that him coming out of the car with a smile and I think I can see the smile that he was enjoying that car drive right coming from Chennai driving down meeting and I think and then showing off his new crutches and I think lately I saw the video on YouTube of his new showing off his scooter so that was I think that was him. But one thing I wanted to share here was very interestingly the name which came up right before Inclusive Planet came as a name the name was Enable Planet because Enable India and Inclusive Planet it was it should be Enable Planet Planet and all that and more and more basically today I was thinking about what does it mean? I'm like why Rahul was there I think he has worked on making the planet inclusive I think a lot of things about laws copyrights inclusion and all that and I think today it is Enable Planet right. So that was one thing I just think but I think we can keep thinking of a lot of things like that and I can keep having a lot of memories. The other thing basically come to my mind is I don't know from the time it has been coming and I've been thinking always comes I don't know how many of you have seen this movie of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan Anand right and I always just that voice keeps coming in my mind Babu Masai I hate tears right and it was like I always kind of Rahul Bai I hate tears I don't know what's happening it's been running in my mind and this is what I just wanted to share I am not a long talker but these are the two things I wanted to make sure just share with all of you about the Enable Planet and this thought which is coming to my mind. Classmate of Rahul now so known him for 20 years many of my batch mates are here it's also and I can say for most of them that the journey that Rahul travelled in the last five to seven years in Inclusive Planet and all of that you know we would sort of hear about it but never had had no knowledge of the impact and the sheer I think quality of work that he had done. So when I spoke to Lawrence you know this was at the time we went to Kottayam and came back. One thing that I think Rahul's death left us with was and as Lawrence so eloquently put it that you know Rahul must be sitting somewhere looking at all of us shedding so many tears and having a really good laugh right. So I mean and that really is what I think I wanted to sort of talk about is the fact that when you sort of press the rewind button on the tape and run now for 20 years the person that we knew him it's almost always with there is a very very light sort of touch to everything that he did. To me personally and I know this for a couple of classmates of mine if entering law school many many years ago was a culture shock meeting Rahul Charyan was putting your hand in the electricity grid or something right. So I mean Rahul had a way of you know sort of questioning without you know in that in that that's a perfect photograph actually if you looked at it in his own smiling way he would sort of get to the heart of everything you know and when I look back and have spent many many hours with him in the hostel you know chatting about about life and other things this was between 95 and 98 and yeah I mean the politest term I could use for Rahul at that time is unorthodox right and I think if I had called him the mischievous devil I think the devil would take it as a huge compliment. Rahul did so many things that were so unconventional and that sort of you know shattered so many of the of the deep beliefs that people like us held dear to while growing up you know and so many stories you know but and Rahul and me were complete polar opposites he always tried to get me to hear to the music of doors and Led Zeppelin and I would tell him what is all this I don't understand all this stuff but you know he was always somebody who sort of pushed you pushed you into areas that you know of course you know hindsight is a great teacher great sort of you know tool to have when you sort of rewind the tape and look back at all those events and memories and Rahul was just incredible when he was in college he just cut through so many of the things one of the thing was attending class and attending it on time Rahul had an unconventional notion of attending class which was attending class and going to sleep while the student took notes and I don't want to talk about where he went to sleep in the class so many so many of these of these things right again see some of these themes are just so universal that that he spoke about Rahul I think by instinct and by training was a trained bass guitar player sort of steeped in in in the knowledge of rock music and I still remember that you know for people on the eastern music side he would so seamlessly sort of transcend those barriers and do these fusion things which all of us knew that he was the one it was really his vision that sort of put it all together you know and again if you look back at all those years he did it with such a you know with such a lightness and incredible the other thing that I think stays back in my mind as as I rewind that tape is that I mean you know is that Rahul had no I don't know the correct word but I guess angst or I know some kind of a grudge for for where he came from and I'll tell you this in the context of you know sporting ability Sir Arvind spoke about him playing cricket if you ever played table tennis with Rahul or you played cricket in the in the corridors with him in in those small confined spaces and the way he would bat it was very obvious that he was a man blessed with exceptional sporting ability and every time that that we would speak privately you know we would say you know how does he react to sort of not having now have the tools to translate that onto the bigger screen but into the bigger stage but Rahul never had that I remember that all of us would go to play cricket and you know and some of us are here and Rahul would always come in his car to watch he would always be there to encourage and so you know so that was one Rahul that that I knew the Rahul that was playful the Rahul that sort of cut to the chase sort of you know told you to really enjoy the journey rather than sort of focusing on where you wanted to go as as as all of us were so focused when when we were studying in college and one thing that that I think as I graduated from college that left me was here was a guy that really approached to a different beat and the world unorthodox again comes back to mind the second phase when I got to know Rahul was after he after we all started work in Bombay with our careers and again all of us would you know sort of be so obsessed about this idea of building a mainstream career going it you know sort of going there and sort of saying you know we did this that and Rahul again was a man I did not share a room with but I spent many evenings at the YMCA in Mumbai sitting down and talking and chatting about life and often he was the one who where I saw that that change in the man from being this complete light you know sort of lightness of spirit this this you know this sort of devil may care kind of guy to a man who I found reflective a man whom I who I found sort of could see things sort of far farther than most of his peers could and and some of those chats have left have left a deep impression on my mind but I think his message really was that you know that that for all and we do a lot of things on on our daily life and his his main point I guess always was that you know learn to enjoy what you do and if you're not enjoying what you do on a daily basis really find something else that you really enjoy doing what you do but I often used to ask a question back in reverse to him which was you know Rahul what is it that you want to do what is the impact that you want to leave apart from being this absolutely great guy that all of us have known and as I always suspected I think Rahul answered that question spectacularly in the last five to seven years to changing himself to being this this very very respected disability rights lawyer and activist which I think for most of us classmates who were not that this comes as as I mean I wouldn't say the term surprise but you know so when we hear it we just nod our head in acknowledgement that yeah if Rahul put his mind to it he was always capable of leaving this deep impact the third thing that I think I really want to talk about is something more personal that I think in the last few years I was you know the recipient of what I believe was Rahul's affection I saw a third side to Rahul which again you know was came which again was was something that that left a very very deep impact on me again you know for a man who I think battled a couple of illnesses he was always ready to help and I recognize this because many years ago I happened to take my mother to a hospital in Chennai and and I didn't tell him about it but as soon as he got to know Rahul had this way of doing a ref check on the doctor figuring out what the disease was figuring out what's the best diagnostic center in the world calling you and all this without me ever asking him to sort of do anything or or sort of reaching out and Rahul for me personally was a man who always picked up the phone and called me once in three months I would always get that call asking me how am I doing what's happening where's it headed I've actually in the last few years also driven down and sort of spent a couple of days with the family in Chennai and and really I think for all of you that's the other thing that I that I wanted to speak about which no one does I think Rahul was very lucky to have the kind of family that he did of course you know Rahul's sister Rupa married one of our own Robby Isaac from the batch of 98 and of course Rahul done to marry Anjana a senior senior of ours from and and why I am mentioning that today is I know I say so if you sort of look at Rahul's life and I think the last few years that that Rahul spent as a family man surrounded as he was by Robby and Rupa's kids I think I think he cherished that a lot the fact that he had this sort of large family around him that that grounded him and and you know and sort of you know gave him that that sense of belonging and I think somewhere that I think had a huge impact in sort of him sort of very naturally becoming you know this this this third avatar that I spoke about you know sort of the caring almost elder brotherly kind of and and that's the beauty about Rahul you see I was in touch with him he was in touch with me but there were a couple of one of my other classmates who also went through a fairly tough time medically and I discovered that now that Rahul got to know of that he reached out again did this whole thing of you know sort of calling him figuring out what it was so I mean at the reason I'm saying all these personal things is you know that that I want all of you to think that that you know that Rahul was so much more I mean you know he was like and again as I said I speak without any knowledge of the deep impact he's had on the disability a lost side and all of that so and again and and when you think back upon it I think you know these are all memories that sometimes form a lump in your throat but those lumps tend to go away very quickly as soon as you picture that you're it's Rahul you're talking about you you had to smile when you had to talk about Rahul and and really you know and and whenever I go through situations where you know you tend to take yourself very seriously the situations around you very seriously I think really you have to look back at Rahul and where he started 20 years ago and how he went through life and I think that holds a great message I mean you can you can sort of choose to imbibe and leave that message or you can choose not to but you cannot ignore that there is a message there that is so strong and so alive you know they they often say that when a man is not there how do you what do you judge him by and they say that it's not the value of the wealth he left behind but really the amount of genuine tears that were shed for him and I think having gone to Kota I'm having come here and all of that I can safely say that I think Rahul died a very very rich man and really I think when I look back when man when I look back upon upon him not being there I think that he didn't have to go but if he if he actually had to I think I think this is about as good as it gets I think I think he would have been very happy and as as I told Lawrence that you know he would be sitting around somewhere saying I mean I can't imagine Gautam and Lawrence and everyone else speaking so seriously about him yeah and I guess you know when at least for I'll speak for a lot of us and say that you know to us Rahul will always be very sort of a living and breathing memory so it's it's it's never a goodbye because often you look back upon what you shared with him and either just the emotional resonance of those of those moments shared or just the sheer playfulness of the memories that he left you with I think are a are a deep pressure that all of us will carry. I'm Jaina actually got to know Rahul initially during college through Sudhir but that was just during the initial phases where you know we were hanging out with all their college friends and but really I got to know Rahul at a much closer level during the last two three years maybe three or four years when I started myself getting very involved in disability law work and initially you know Rahul had his I mean he I think he still continued to have quite a vibrant IP practice and you know we would be on and off in touch but as he got totally involved into doing a lot of disability law work and so did I it was you know it was he who reached out and kind of started getting in touch with me and said that you know why don't we look at why don't we work together and initially you know for me that was really quite a surprise because you don't often you know you don't often see people who reach out to other people who are working on the same field and say that okay let's you know you're working on this I'm working on this let's work on it together can we can we share ideas can we collaborate and I mean there are very very few people who do that and Rahul really reached out and as we you know we did a lot of work together you know review I mean this is really to people who knew what he was really involved in you know looking at the new disability draft that was being discussed looking at new decisions looking at some of the other initiatives he was working on you know he was always there there would suddenly be a call saying that hey this has happened why don't we write a paper in response to that and you know it was always so you know so forthright and so casual that there was no formality to it that you know you needed to think about it because it was just so spontaneous and forthright and what what was really different and unique is that you know like working in if you're working in any rights-based work you know for example disability rights work that that we were all working in you could you could see that there were very few there were very few lawyers who were really thinking analyzing what was happening what were the new laws suggested what were the drafts and Rahul was really really doing that painstakingly you know and that was just such a refreshing breath you know like a breath of fresh air to see in the moment because while I mean as a lawyer for myself you know when I would be in discussion groups and gatherings you know there would be really passionate kind of exchanges with all the disability rights activists and very rightly so but you know at some point as a lawyer would sit back and think you know everyone's like so passionate but we're not really discussing what we're not really analyzing the real nitty gritties and you know I could really discuss that with Rahul and Rahul would see that and so you know it was we did a lot of work together and a lot of initiatives came from him and I think some of the work that he did you know with Inclusive Planet with CIS some of the work you know that we all did collaboratively together was really you know stuff that a lot of people in the disability rights movement had not done and so in that sense I think you know it is really you know the kind of analytical work that he was putting on the draft bill I mean just for some of you who knows work that he was working on the draft bill it was just really important work and those notes and the papers that he worked on that all of us worked on together with his initiative I mean we have to see where it goes but I do think you know it is making a serious you know contribution to the debate that is going on and you know while he was interested to do this work and he was doing all his kind of writing and campaigning for the new law it was also quite interesting to see his his kind of reaction and responses in these gatherings I remember when we had both gone to Delhi for the final consultation on the draft disability bill which was like the final consultation with lawyers before the bill was going to be kind of presented to the committee this is the proposed law on disability rights and you know we were sitting there with about 20 30 lawyers and from all kinds of disability communities and everyone was really almost at blows because you know there were so many conflicting opinions and they were heated kind of arguments and accusation all over the room and this was supposed to be like a formal consultation and Rahul was sitting next to me and chuckling away and you know totally kind of you know of course he was he was seriously involved he was kind of totally sitting back and laughing at the you know the way people were losing their cool and so he had this kind of ability to kind of actually you know he could sit there and laugh at you could laugh at himself and laugh at you know I don't think a lot of us have the ability to laugh at ourselves to see you know sometimes you know how things play out and he could kind of sit back and do that and I remember him telling me you know I was getting really agitated about some of the suggestions being made and I was telling him that you know we can't let these suggestions go into the draft and he would be like relax you don't say these suggestions tell me I will make the suggestions because the movement won't take you seriously because you're not disabled but I will make them and if I make them it will be taken seriously so I mean you know so he was just really you know it was it was just wonderful to see someone who's so passionately involved but at the same time can sit back and and you know see things you know without getting so serious and you know about it and I think I think you know the I mean over and above all that he did I think even in his the fact that he reached out to so many people in his work I mean I'm only talking because about his work because that's my most intense interaction with him and I think the ability that he had to reach out to people who are working in the field you know and to include them and I think that's a great ability because you know for example the disability rights movement is you know it talks about inclusiveness but it is quite exclusive in the sense you have to be someone disabled you have to be have a family member who's disabled only then you claim to know what disability rights are and I don't think he had any of those values Asi was a friend of mine from school I'm going to read out a prepared speech because I still am kind of scatterbrained when talking about Arsi impromptu so yeah all of us have seen things in Arsi that we love he was a charmer when he wanted to be an altruist in the true sense of the word a sharp mind though prone to spewing spectacular bullshit you know sometimes but I could go on and on about you know his positive traits which would be to the tune of this gathering but rather not because for one thing Asi would smirk if he heard it for sure although I'm secretly probably enjoying the attention that he gets Arsi and I go back a long way with friends in school he was the best man at my wedding and I guess the best man at my divorce the worst man at my divorce innumerable episodes of inebriation on various intoxicants juvenile pranks and a lot of comic performances that continued into midlife in fact Arsi used to say probably in jest that because when I got my piercings late into my 30s he would say that I have a midlife crisis and what he said he had a midlife crisis when he was 20 he was impressioned you know to some extent but that's what he used to say in school you know chess games and a lot of things you know Shakespeare and Golding and a 20 kilometer trek to Silent Valley where Arsi was carried on his classmate's back including Ravi Asuli many business ventures of which only some lost money and life lessons, late night singing sessions, cakes and cookies with interesting herbs hooliganism and heroism and activism now trying to change the world all the while secretly polishing up the Nobel prize speech which was a whole plan I don't know if you guys knew this but that was a plan anyway so but for the most part it was great fun being with Arsi and it's been tough you know kind of coping with his loss and but looking back you know Arsi was quite fortunate again as Gautam said to come from a pretty privileged background very effective support system in terms of his parents as he grew up with his cancer and it's then you know dealing with his after effects and then you know after college he got luckier he fell in love and got married to a most remarkable woman and you know we used to talk about our cancer things and so my relationship advice to Gautam, I stopped giving relationship advice after the divorce but before that we would say that I don't know how you managed to talk her into doing especially after knowing you for this long for her to agree it's like amazing say something about your sales skills but you know but then again you know she's now she's smarter, stronger, way better looking and way more successful than you are so you better like work hard at you know kind of keeping together and so and he would say dude I know I mean I'm the one who basically pitched this I know I know and he was you know I think it was a key turning point in his life in Gautam noted there was a point at which you know he was going at a pretty breakneck speed in terms of I mean not exactly sure where he was going but then things kind of stabilized and might have been you know aged might have been his family he got serious and then and you know after the after these guys got together he got together I mean he was he was driving I mean he could really see the see the difference you know postings you know once he and I would see him coming from Chennai to Bangalore in his car which probably was cleaned up when it was in Chennai and then it would have this picnic basket full of food and then kind of logically organized for the three days that he would be traveling in different kind of wraps and so and then he started wearing you know laundered shirts and all of that so and started wearing underclothes anyway so the so the I think you know all the I mean apart from bringing home the bacon when he was trying to change the world I mean at least for his home so all the schemes also possible you know because of also because of you know I just want to salute her on that and after he passed away we've heard a lot of things about you know how RC was good at a lot of things and you know there he was and to me the ability was actually to bring people together attracting different kinds of people you know very young kids who would hold different audiences for a night in his flat you know wherever he lived to very established business folks to you know his colleagues from school and college bring them together and then you know being the the catalyst in one sense I would always think of him as more of a thinker than a doer at the same time you know bringing people together is no mean task I mean he would go on a trip you know and then come back with practically you know a Rolodex of contacts that it was pretty unusual so I think that was a key skill that we had and then of course that was why we again made this amazing plan to have the ultimate political party with RC as the candidate and the spokesperson and the poster child and again so I just want to kind of I could go on and on because of this long association in terms of work as well as from when we were you know growing up but I just want to kind of wrap this up on the work aspect of RC is pretty well known and you know but the sense of loss that you know I'm sure the family feels and some of his close friends feel is it's going to take a while for it to go and to a large extent I think it's also kind of decoupled from his achievements at work it was also you know a lot of it is just about him as a person and you know somebody that you kind of root like and so RC and I would talk privately you know pretty much every day you know he would call me or I'd call him and plotting and poking fun of each other and everybody else under the sun and then there were plans and promises of retiring of course after fixing up the world you know retiring in a ripe old age to adjacent homes on the banks of the Greenwich River in good old Kautim and of road trips and off road trips and racing on the Autobahn and plans to become ridiculously rich and then you know starting the political party that we were talking about but I guess these things won't happen anymore in the way we thought it would. Yes I mean the best lead plans of mice and men and all that so still it's quite tough it's heartening to hear that you know the plans being made to carries work forward and you know out of that but for me personally I'm still you know finding very difficult to just cope with the fact that he's not round and so never thought I'd say this but damn he's just gone and you know I already miss him so that's it. Good evening everybody I'm Shanti Raghun along with Deepesh both of us run Enable India an organization for people for the economic independence and dignity of persons with disability. Before I talk about Rahul I'd like to read something that Dr. Sam who worked very closely with him had to say about Rahul because what here Dr. Sam is in Bombay and I just wrote to him and told him do you want to share something. It is with a very heavy heart that I'm sharing these thoughts Rahul's passing is moaned by so many persons he came in touch with it's just been four years that I came to know Rahul on the copyright issue and over time came to love and respect his vibrancy, commitment, sense of direction and never say die attitude. The last few months saw him expand his work and it was with immense satisfaction that one could see new alliances, networks and a sense of purpose developing within dozens of hitherto often times unconnected persons and organizations working to build inclusion in the disability space I spoke to him just a few days prior to his passing and in spite of his high fever his crystal clear vision and thought was ready to be seen in the conversation. Yes, physically he is no more with us and we will be denied his physical presence the impact he brought however will live on and although we may not be able to finish the agenda we will work towards completing it. My prayers are with his family in these extremely trying hours. I pray for Rahul's soul that it receives the piece it deserves. Sam Tarapurawala, director of the Xavier's Resource Center for the Visually Challenge So let me now talk about Rahul I don't know, some 5-6 years back maybe because of Nirmita, I can't remember, I think it was because of Nirmita that she called me and told me that there's a gentleman Rahul who wants to kind of talk about some idea, blah blah blah, and very difficult for us to ever find time, you know, you're working in non-stop for 12 hours and then okay, somehow you fit it in and here comes this gentleman and I think the connect was immediate he was talking about this thing, you know, this which was inclusive planet basically, you know, he was developing the idea and the thing is I think the connect was immediate because I'm kind of a child-like person and here's Rahul and for everybody knows, you know, he's bubbling, he's got this idea and he's, so we started connecting at that level, I'm like yeah, you know, this sounds awesome, wow! I think this has gone back to Chennai and you know, so it was an instant connect because he was developing the idea and I don't think he knew it was a vision, you know, entrepreneurs come to know later that it's a vision, somebody tells him, you know, you had a vision, you know, I think you're just developing the idea and it's new to you, you're trying to understand it and he was telling me that a lot of people were telling him that what kind of idea are you having? It's really crazy, it doesn't make sense. The connect was because what he was talking about is really at a very personal level, dignity for people with disability because that's what inclusive planet is all about. At various levels there are a lot of things that have not yet happened in inclusive planet but it was all about dignity for persons with disability, you know, so the connect was immediate obviously and I think, I don't know, I feel that it definitely gave him the sense of purpose that, yes, I should continue with that because I think sometimes you need somebody to tell you that. Now, I don't know whether it was us or not, whether it was me and Deepesh or I don't know whether it was whether we contributed to that but all I know is that he went back definitely charged, which anyway he would have been one way or the other and I think inclusive planet then grew from strength to strength and I'm not one for memories, I don't actually I never remember things in chronological order but all I know is that inclusive planet started growing and after some time, you know, we would meet again, brainstorm, I remember it was on readable doting, that was also awesome, you know, so every time we were connecting on the awesome idea of inclusive planet and I don't know, I don't think even though we were thinking it's going to be awesome that the social networking would take off the way it would because the way persons with vision impairment could actually have social networking of their own and then the best part was I think Rahul was like a child who suddenly realized he has a toy, you know, he'll come and say, you know what, there are people in Turkey they are also loving it, you know, and then he'll talk about another country that got on to include, I think Turkey was there, Saudi Arabia, whatever so every time there was a sense of joy, a quizzicalness, like how did this happen, you know, and so we'd all get excited oh wow, Turkey's on, wow, you know, and it just went on that way I don't know when that change happened but I think he then realized also that the contribution he can do via law I don't remember that happening when inclusive planet started and I think suddenly he looked at his crutches and realized, oh my god there's power in this as in, as a person with physical disability, I will be an and as a lawyer I can contribute that much more, you know, so I think the sense of purpose became stronger and stronger regarding, you know, moving more into disability law and then I saw the three triumvirates of inclusive planet, you know, Ruben handling the software part and Rahul doing his merry work in law and Sachin doing all the other development work, etc and I just want to tell you one thing, I feel that at a professional level, Jaina mentioned it very correctly, you know, that in the disability world we have a lot of passionate people but the reason we connected also is actually for us at Enable India we feel that every day is a celebration of the human spirit, you know, because every day when a person with disability uses some solution overcomes his challenges and is able to do something, yeah, you know, go for it and feel really awesome about it, you know, that this person could actually do it so Rahul feels the same way, I feel, you know, and so in one sense there was this he has a lightness about it and that lightness is very important because you should take your work seriously but not yourself too seriously also, you know and so when he would go to perhaps because I've not been where he did the work in law, right, we've not been there but I think in the disability sector we need that lightness so that we do the work seriously but not take ourselves seriously so that we can take the discussion forward and when we keep reminding ourselves that, you know, when we can actually have dialogue and also when you can be a little bit of this irrepressible spirit that what's going on here, you know, when you can have that also the work will keep continuing so I think that is the biggest issue I feel that him not being there and somebody else, because you were talking about you all want to continue the work I think we need that lightness which is about you're extremely focused on what you're going to do and you're not going to budge from it but you kind of need that lightness of spirit which he had so I want to tell you one thing, I'm very irritated, he started in the middle of, I don't know, after 2-3 years he started calling me Shanti Ma'am, why? I ask you, why, you know, so I got damn irritated I started calling him Rahul sir, you know but with a lot of venom, okay, because why did I become Shanti Ma'am suddenly, so in any case, so that will go unanswered so I think, you know, for me actually for the last 2-3 years because of a couple of deaths in the family and the close person, close what do I say, Guruji heard passed away and now it's Rahul but for the last 2-3 years itself I've been looking at death and trying to understand what it means and I see that there are changing seasons, I'm kind of philosophical, so I see that in life everything is a renewal, you know, there's nothing which is constant, you know, you have summer, you have winter, things are always changing there's a renewal continuously and somewhere I started feeling that death is actually a renewal and in many ways it reinforces some of the things to me and I'd like to share that with you that what really Rahul brought was living life to the fullest every day and I think we need to remind ourselves of that we need to live life every day to the fullest and I think you had an association with Rahul, if you can take that back I think he's done his work, not that he thought he was doing his work but I think that's the first thing, that you live life to the fullest every day and perhaps that childlike spirit which is like, you know, oh my god I actually did this, you know this happened, you're just having a sense of joy in everything you do because you didn't expect the result you're just enjoying doing the work and then you're like, oh my god, it looks like Turkey is on and that happened and this happened and you're just having a sense of joy and a feeling of awe or a feeling of surprise that it actually happened so I think that the second thing we need to take, you know, if you've been associated with Rahul, I think you better do it and I think that's all we need to do if we can just live life to the fullest every day, be childlike I think that's the message we need to take from Rahul and I don't think I'm not a person for memories, I'm only going to if I think Rahul, I just see the smile, I start smiling, that's the only thing that happens to me, you know, and that's all for me Rahul is that smile, that irrepressible spirit and I'm extremely, I don't want to get emotional but I'm really happy that I met Rahul, thank you Thanks for that, if there's anybody else who'd like to say something I wish I hadn't because nobody around me, new Rahul had ever seen him, you have to have seen him, you have to have known him you have to have, you know, felt his sense of humor, you have to have drunk with him, you have to have smoked with him, you have to have done lots of other things with him to actually have felt I think how all of us feel today and I wish I could have been back and I think Susanna would have been absolutely fine with having me in that house until I could talk about it and finish it off but then there were so many other people who were worse off than I so I just want to say that he had this really terrible sense of humor once in a way, he would actually, he had a car KCF 1842, I still remember the number and there were so many things that car a lot of us grew up in that sense of what we do in 18 and 19 in that car, thanks to that car, the other thing was this apartment of his aunts in 3B, I mean had she known what happened there, I think he would have been ostracized from the whole family but you know, those are the things that have made us, I mean I was 80 kilos in law school and it didn't matter because of guys like him and I keep telling my children I keep telling young girls who are starving and all that, I said it's who you are, it's who you're with, that's what matters Anjana is the other person, we live next to each other in the hostel and she's really one of the most amazing people I've seen, we've had a great time together as much as I've had with Rahul and the only error in judgment which she quickly reactified was, I mean with marrying Rahul because, you know, law school I used to really worry about that but she did well and I think, you know, that was a real happily ever after story. Unfortunately my trips to Chennai were very few and when they came here also I never met them but I thought they were very, very sweet together and I really wish I had been part of it so like I was saying about this sense of humour Rahul had he used to make people pay for his petrol he's even taken 2 rupees 50 paise from to take her to town so that's the kind of stuff he did but nobody had a grudge against him because I think that's that's how he was and I don't know, I'm so glad to be amongst people who've known him in the way I have and you know in many other ways, I was in part of his work but I did read everything he wrote he and Lawrence, you know, whatever they have written I always make it a point to read and you know I was just telling auntie, I spoke to him after the Guns N' Roses concert and he has this very typical way of how he addressed me it's a very, you know, colloquial way of saying and that never changed about him, he was always the same guy and you know, I don't know, I could go on but if anyone else wants to add something I guess we end here and just perhaps repeat what Arvind said Rahul was an inspiration to all of us at the Centre for Internet and Society and also to his colleagues at Inclusive Planet and he will always be that inspiration I hope all of you will stay and join us for dinner Thank you so much