Growing up, even though I was “Meha’s friend,” I always seemed to have more similar tastes (in movies and such) to Kavi. Two things that stick out in my memory: 1) when we were all still in elementary school he tried to stump me on a BrainQuest or similar game with a question he was convinced I’d get wrong–I don’t remember the question but the answer was The Enterprise (from Star Trek) and he was baffled at my ability to get it right; 2) in middle school (we must have been in 8th grade and he in 6th), we were both really excited about the movie “Undercover Brother.” Our excitement became a sort of competition, and we ended up seeing the movie at the same time, me/Meha and our friends, and Kavi and his friends. We were the only people in the theater, and naturally pretty raucous…we almost got kicked out! (Who would kick out a bunch of sweet middle schoolers?!)

In our adult life, I had brunch with Kavi (and Jacki Anderson!) while visiting Ann Arbor. It was at this brunch that Kavi first realized how much we had in common. I ordered first, and he totally copied me, down to the chocolate milk! He almost chickened out of his order, because it was too weird…and apparently debated whether he could at least make the sacrifice and opt for regular milk, but who can do that?  ❤

When we first met in 2004, one of the first things he told me was that I liked really bad movies. While truthful, it was hard to hear, man, and I’ve been working on that ever since. But of all the movies we watched together, it’s a *really* bad movie that is one of my favorite memories. We were the only two people in the movie theater when we went to see The Spirit. Even the actors forgot to show up. And yet we had a marvelous time laughing, yelling, running up and down the aisle, and making the theater our own. We were freaking kings.

Although we ended up going to different schools, we grew closer in college. Freshman year, we started the blog Brown Paper, White Paper together, a reference to a song from one of our favorite TV shows, and, also, a reference to our skin colors. Guess which one was Kavi?

In his first post for BPWP, he stated that the best quote from any movie of 2008 was: “There’s nothing I like better than kicking your ass. Except maybe eggs.” The quote was by The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) in, you guessed it, The Spirit, arguably the worst film of 2008. But it was his favorite line because it made him giggle every damn time he said it. The man loved to giggle, and he loved to be entertained, and he loved to share that entertainment with others. It was an honor to start a mediocre blog with him because the fun we had writing it was anything but.

See you in another life, brotha.