I remember going over to his house as a kid after school and the first thing we would do is go into his pantry. It was a WALK-IN pantry that had all the snacks and goodies you could imagine. Our usual snacks of choice? Some days it was Oreos and milk. Other days, it was Fruit by the Foot and Doritos. Once we felt re-energized by our snacks, we would go have fun. Some days, it was the Super Nintendo and Donkey Kong. As we got older we would go down the hall to the computer room and play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego or Jump Start 4th grade.

As we got older we made new friends and our friend group increased in size and everything we did, we did as a group. Sleepovers, game nights, and movie nights were common within our group of friends. Once I moved into my new house behind Shopko in middle school, I remember inviting Kavi and all my friends over for sleepovers and game nights all the time.

But, despite all the great memories, my fondest memories of Kavi will always be when we were young kids; when we were in kindergarten and elementary school, playing Donkey Kong, wrestling in the living room, and eating Oreos with milk. Because those are the memories of Kavi that I share with no one else and those experiences are unique to only him and I.

Kavi and I grew up eventually, as we all do. We went to high school, graduated college, and met countless of friends and peers along the way.

But there was once a time, in the very beginning, when it was just him and I. And it is that time that I will always cherish the most.

This man. This man, when I was starving actor status and was a lead in a Sundance Film Festival movie, but couldn’t afford to fly from London where I was studying to attend the festival. This man paid for a hotel for the two of us, and even helped with other expenses, and we had the grandest most amazing time together. But I still took it for granted. Only in retrospect do I realize how unique he was, that I had a BROTHER who was more excited than ME about something I had done. More excited about my accomplishments than myself. And he enabled me to go, and we partied and watched films and got into mischief, and he was by my side through all the firsts for a young actor. My biggest fan, a partner in crime.

Don’t get me wrong though. He had ulterior motives. A huge Indiana Jones and Star Wars fan, he was obsessed with Harrison Ford. Well, Harrison Ford’s daughter Georgia was in my film. And he was dying to meet her. And she did not disappoint! After an amazing, weekend, on our last night, we all partied together and took an Uber back to the hotel. And I’ve never seen someone so happy, because lovely Georgia gave Shekhar a kiss on the cheek goodnight, and the man was on Cloud 9.

He was a budding writer and we hoped his films would take us back to Sundance someday. Hopefully this scholarship will pass that, and other dreams, down to someone else.