SUNIL UKE BAS NAAM HI KAFI!

Sunil Uke, bas naam hi kafi hai!

It is a fact that the name of my younger brother has been taken with a lot of pride by all his friends, relatives and all those whose lives he has touched.

As a child he loved the catapult and roamed around with a quiver full of arrows and a bow in his hands stretched out like a warrior. This picture of a three year old going about busily in our lawn at Nagarjuna sagar dam Project comes in front of my eyes, when I remember him as a young boy. His love for the game of “chor sipahi” continues to this day as throughout his career he has been catching evaders. 

As a school student he excelled in Sports. He is a black belt in Judo. Name the sport and Sunil has been in it.As a school boy or College student he was never vocal about any of his achievements.We would come to know about them from his friends. He loved dramatics and acted in plays. He was  very good at sketching and drew beautiful cartoons of animals. Sunil used to play the mouth organ beautifully. Old Hindi movie songs sounded great when he played them on his mouth organ.

One can think of a number of things that he did without advertising it. We never knew that he was a regular blood donor, until someone needed blood transfusion and we came to know that he had a donor's card and used to donate blood. 

His room was very nicely decorated with bits and pieces picked up from various places. A broken bicycle, a Lantern, a “Pull Chain to stop Train” sign were placed aesthetically in his room.

Another interesting thing about Sunil during College days was that he always wore black trousers and white shirts. That way he never had to think about what to wear, and no one knew how many clothes he had! He has been a person with minimum needs and almost no vanity.Only one thing which I found was different from most people was that he liked to wear stylish Long Boots with a zip on the side.

While our younger brother Ujjwal and I were book worms, Sunil never had the patience to read books. He always settled for comics.

AT MOUNT CARMEL REUNION 2013.

He did very well in his studies. Because of our dad's transferrable job, Sunil studied at Bishop Westcott Boy's School, Namkum,   Mount Carmel Hazaribagh for a couple of years, then St. Xavier's Hazaribagh, then Kendriya Vidyalaya, Faridabad, Andrew's Gunj and Delhi Cantt. College was St. Stephen's with English Hon's followed by JNU. As if that wasn't enough, while in service he did Law and MBA.

He has been an Outstanding Officer of the Customs and Central Excise, and  won the President's Gold Medal as soon as he became eligible for it. He has reached great heights in his career.

His latest love is Marathons. Every Sunday morning sees him at the India Gate. The cold winter mornings of Delhi with dense fog too does not deter Sunil from this programme. He has participated in Marathons in almost all the parts of India. 

The love of Mountains took him on a trip to the Base camp of Mount Everest a couple of years ago. The following year he led a team to Mansarovar.

Sunil loves to watch movies. I am quite sure he knows all the dialogues of Teesri Manzil by heart. He is a Dev Anand fan, and can watch his favorite movies over and over again.

He is quite a story teller. He used to keep both my children enthralled and awe struck by his adventures in the Burma War! Of course a war which he never went to.

Sunil is often misunderstood by a lot of people as he does not speak sweetly. He never shows his emotional side.

ALL OF US TOGETHER

My father always said that Sunil is very rough while talking, but he is a very kind, helpful and soft person inside. Perhaps it is the discerning eye of a father who understood the nature of his son. He is extremely helpful, people do not even have to ask, but if Sunil notices that someone is in need, his helping hand appears mysteriously.

Thank you Sunil for being what you are. I am extremely proud of my brother, and today on his birthday, I wish him every happiness in his life.

He deserves the BEST because he is the best.