Compiled by his cousin Asvini Kumar in 2016

 

It’s now 34 years since the tragic death of my cousin Asvalayan, (aka Asval to family) who was killed along with his beautiful African wife Helen Wangechi in a tragic road accident in Kenya, leaving orphaned their lovely sons - 2 yr. old Krishna and 1 yr. old Manu. 

 

Asval’s father Krishnamurthy, had retired from Indian Airlines had taken on an assignment with the Merchant Navy. In a state of total shock at the death of his favourite child, he somehow managed to go to Nairobi, Kenya and take custody of the kids and bring them back to Madras. In this effort he was greatly assisted by Asval’s friend Anil Vidyarthi. 

 

Anil, a keen photographer, was kind enough to ferret out some photos (black & white) of Asvalayan from his archives, which have been included here. 

 

He added in an FB post to Krishna, “I found these photos in my archives, I thought you will like them. I miss my friend Asvalayan. Good old days of over 40 years ago. Wise ones say ‘jo Uppar Wale ko manzur thaa.’ RIP my friend.” 

 

In Madras, Krishna and Manu became part of the Sai family (Asval’s sister, Indrani and her hubby Col. Sai and their two sons Atindra and Sashvat ) and grew up, along with their cousins, savouring life in many an Indian military cantonment. The Sai’s truly loved them as much as their own kids and gave them everything they needed to get a good start in life. ( A family photograph, thumbnail and contact details for Manu & Krishna are included in this write up).

 

Indrani (a specialist educator for people with learning challenges) and Col. Bhasker Sai ( retired, Indian Army) having since migrated to the US about a decade ago currently live in Jackson, Mississippi. Their sons Atindra and Sashvat are now married, working and settled in the US (Atlanta and Austin ). Asval’s elder brother Maithreyan, moved to the US immediately after graduating from IIT Madras and lives and works out of Alabama.

 

Some Personal Memories

Asval was one of the most jovial, entertaining guys one could think of. His antics, mimicry, witticisms, puns, limericks, double entendre’s, word-play and theatrical talents had us rolling on the ground, laughing for hours on end. Mimicking the spoken filmy Tamil dialect with its punch lines and dialogues was his class act. People would always seek him out for his sheer ability to infuse a jolly and buoyant atmosphere with his infectious laughter. Along with his school friend Jaggi and locality mate Premnath, he was behind many a “laugh riot”. But the breadth of his intellectual interests also attracted to him a set of “serious”, studious” friends too.

 

He was a voracious reader, devouring comics, MAD, fiction, popular science, literary mags, sci-fi, biography, ribald poetry, encyclopaedia’s and so on. He was a frequent visitor to the British and US libraries in Madras and also to the lending libraries, like Easwari’s. Though he fancied speaking in English, he had a knack of quickly learning to converse in multiple languages both Indian and foreign. He loved English and American pop music, especially the Beatles and their contemporaries.

 

Also, a ravenous eater with a perpetual appetite, his mom Padma, a go getting energetic homemaker, was always on her toes trying to rustle up tasty dishes for him. He loved to experiment with clothes and hair and food and shoes and aspired to the good life. He enjoyed car drives, travel and recreational activities. He went to school at Don Bosco and then went on to the Loyola College, both in Madras. His father would have very much liked him to pursue a career as a research scientist, but Asval had other plans.

 

I remember him telling me how he just managed to scrape into IIMA when someone ahead of him on the waitlist didn’t show up. Immediately after graduation, at the young age of 21 or 22 he joined up as Head of New Projects of an Indian (Nitin Madhwani) owned Kenyan firm in Nairobi. In Madras for one of his holidays, I remember him telling me about how he was thoroughly enjoying his assignment.

 

But, then, as he mentioned to me, he was aspiring, to move on to the US for an assignment with either one of the UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF or a top tier consulting firm. But alas, fate intervened tragically. Had he been alive today, I am sure he would have taken to the US media industry (like a fish to water) achieving celebrity status, entertaining millions with his mercurial personality, wit and humour.

 

In a recent letter to Krishna Asval’s colleague from his Kenya days Jitendra (Jitu) Trivedi wrote as follows :

 

“It was a great pleasure to speak to you. It reminded me of the very pleasant time I spent with your father. I spent 4 years as his colleague working with Nitin Madhvani’s firm where he was in charge of New Projects. The total evaluation of projects from conception to final projections and economics of the investment was his responsibility. I believe he was selected by Madhvani on the recommendation of Mallika Sarabhai who was his contemporary at IIMA.

 

He was fluent in Swahili which enabled him to deal with Kenya Govt officials and others from whom he required data and info for his work. Incidentally Raj Bhandari, his boss, and I used to often call him "GhodaSingh" (Ashva=horse and Lion=Singh)

 

After his 5 year stint with Madhvani he joined Dedhias, a typical Jain family business group, traders who wished to become Industrialists. But due to his sudden and tragic demise he was with them for a very short time.

 

As I told you he was an extremely cheerful person who could never say "no' to anybody for anything. Undoubtedly, many took advantage of this trait of his. Because of his desire to avoid all unpleasantness he allowed himself to be exploited by others. He was a rather gullible and not a good judge of people.

 

I admired Asvalayan for his frankness, generosity and above all being totally free from any feeling of superiority - racial or otherwise. The fact that he went ahead confidently to marry a local girl shows a largeness of heart and total absence of racial or any other type of prejudice. (unlike the Indian community in Kenya which was sickeningly prejudiced towards the locals. They were shocked by the fact that he was married to a local African girl and had children by her and to see him proudly moving around with you on his arm).

 

All I can say that he was the most likeable Indian I met in Kenya. From the few occasions we had to talk about his family I did gather that he greatly respected his father. Here I must pay profound respect to your grandfather for having accepted his children and ensured their well being without caring a fig for what our society may say.“

 

Manu Asvalayan (35) seen with wife Payal and daughter Kaya

Graduated from National Law school of India, Bangalore. Worked as an in-house counsel across various industry verticals, 

“I finally decided to start and run my own Jakarta based company called Gateway Global, Indonesia. We assist new businesses to enter Indonesia and also provide business support and legal services to both new and existing businesses in Indonesia.”

I'd be very happy to connect with my dad's friends to know more about him. My website is www.ggplsg.com

asvalm@gmail.com Mobile: +62 859-2985-2959, 

 

Dr. Krishna Asvalayan (37) seen with wife Shashi and daughter Krisha

Graduated from Grant Medical College, J.J Group of Hospitals, Mumbai.

“I am a Pharmaceutical Physician working for Pharma R&D. I call myself a Medical Data Enthusiast. After a stint with pharma major Novartis, I currently work for a Hyderabad based firm called Cytel Statistical Software and Services India Pvt Ltd.”

I can be reached at drkrishnaasvalayan@gmail.com.

Mobile : +91 97032 61648