The Professor Named Randy

Some three years ago, dad showed me a video of this guy called Randy. Randy Pausch (it may ring a bell, but never mind). He looked young. Energetic. Handsome, a kind of adorable handsome. He was a professor at the Carnegie Melon University. He performed push-ups on stage. He spoke of childhood dreams. And he had cancer. Daddy was impressed, inspired, and did not stop speaking of it the whole fortnight. And I? I did not care.


Eight months later, he died. Till then, I had been fairly confident of dad's chances; he was responding well to chemotherapy, and was in excellent-ish health in general. That afternoon, when I found this small article in the newspaper saying "Randy Pausch dies" my first concern was how dad would take it. As I recorded it in my diary, it struck me that Pausch's health had been excellent too.

That night, the flickers of hope in my bosom quietly died.