The last time I saw Kavi was in Chicago. He texted me, “I need a drink” with a baby bottle emoticon. We went out on a weeknight to the Gold Star and The Owl. He bought High Life and whiskey and we talked about work and love lives and making movies. We dreamed about working together on something and I pitched my documentary ideas to him, which I think he was tickled to hear about. Kavi was excited to talk about movies, but he was even more excited to tell me about his girlfriend and how they met. He talked hopefully about the future and about family. He even encouraged me to try harder at my own romantic life. Kavi and I have spent several late nights out drinking, but this was not one of them. He had to work early and I had school the next day, so we called it quits at about 10pm. The last text messages he sent me were hearts and XO’s. The conversation could be described as the following: Nostalgic, romantic, hopeful, profane, salacious, drunken and even gossipy. Seeing him one last time was a great gift, and I fill forever cherish the time we spent together.

By far one of my most favorite memories is from Hindi class. We would all go through the Hindi alphabet…A se Aam, etc and when we got to “Na” – we would say “Na se NUL” and then run to the nearest bathroom and turn on the faucet (NUL=faucet). We thought it was the coolest thing ever and we would giggle like two year olds – naturally Shekhar’s giggle was the loudest and most infectious. Then we would return to the dining table to continue the alphabet.