Dearest Appa, 14th Apr'1984

Met Dr.Sakthivel after 19 years… He had come to New

York for business purposes and paid me a visit. Visu and the kids welcomed

him home with great pleasure. And they liked him too. In fact, they did

most of the talking initially. And of course, he got me a whole load of

books, cassettes, Mysore Paak and lots more.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa, 20th Jan' 1990

I just went through all these letters lying in my closet draw for years

together. These are letters I started writing to you and then decided not

to post. For obvious reasons. I could not mention Sakthi to you even though

I was itching to. Not because I was afraid to invite your wrath. I just did

not have the heart to hurt you, I know these letters would have hurt you.

Because deep inside, I know you were disturbed- you knew Sakthi was a good

man, you knew he was a man of substance, yet you didn't want to go further.

Society, I know. Family… I know… And all these letters would have only

wounded you more. Today, 2 years after your death, and 6 months after Dr.

Sakthivel's untimely death in a road accident, I somehow felt like

re-reading all these letters. To me, all these unstamped, unposted letters

mean a life that could have been.