Bangalore father blogs to keep a son alive

A father’s blog is piecing together a son’s extraordinary life. Uday Vijayan’s 23-year-old son Akhil was one of the five people who jumped to his death from Carlton Towers, on February 23.

“Akhil wanted me to improve my blog’s layout. In fact, on February 23, he had promised to help me with it after work,” says Vijayan. He never came back.

On February 25, Vijayan started posting the memories his boy, a financial analyst with a lasting smile and a huge sense of humour. ‘I remember’ is a father’s attempt to understand what his boy would have gone through, when he decided to go for that fatal jump.

“February 23 changed our world. It’s February 25, 4 am. I feel I should share what I remember of Akhil, a son who is no longer there for me and Nithya, but will not be erased from our lives and memory in our lifetime,” Vijayan wrote in his first post.

He was a smart kid, says Vijayan. “During his pre-university days in National Junior College, the principal of the school called me and said Akhil was tough to handle. When I asked him, Akhil merely said he knew more than his computer teacher.”

Vijayan remembers the day when he took Akhil to Frank Anthony School for the first time. The teacher asked Nithya, Akhil’s mother, whom she should console because both father and son were in tears and wouldn’t let go. Within four days of his first post, over 100 people joined his blog and grieved. “We always watch the news and read about things which happen around us, but it’s only when something touches us and affects us directly that we realise what is wrong,” wrote Saify, a schoolmate of Akhil.