For Tejaswee Rao, on her birthday

I did not know Tejaswee Rao at all during her life.  I was not even a reader of her blog. But I certainly was a long-time reader and infrequent commentor at her mother, IHM's blog. A wonderful woman, who wrote fearlessly about the things that are close to and matter to every woman's heart. She is very vocal in her support of the underdog, and her many posts have silently made a lot of sense to me.

So we were all there when she posted about her daughter's illness, praying with her for Tejaswee's recovery, and devastated by her death. I visited Tejaswee's blog for the first time then, and was dazzled by the scintillating star that had flashed so brightly, so briefly, and then gone. With her, was gone the promise of another blazing beacon of light like her mother.

This is a musical tribute to that brief promise of the future that has been lost for us. I am sure Tejaswee Rao, even with her life cut off mid-path, will be a ray of hope for all of us and our daughters.

Thank you for everything, IHM. And may your little one find her peace.

'Fly' by Celine Dion. This song was written by her for her niece who suffered from Cystic Fibrosis and died young.

'Gone too soon' by Michael Jackson. A song which expresses best what I, and I'm sure many others, feel on Tejaswee's untimely Death. A tribute by Michael Jackson on the death of a teenager, Ryan White, a victim of AIDS, a highly preventable disease.

'Somewhere over the rainbow' by Judy Garland, from The Wizard of Oz.  There's hope, too. Difficult to visualise, IHM, I know. But somewhere there, just beyond mortal reach, is the promise of life. Tejaswee will live in all our hearts, and bring inspiration to us by her words, so full of life, and immortal. A song that Tejaswee might well be singing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TEJASWEE

MAY YOU FIND PEACE