Remembering my colleague Santhiran
KUALA LUMPUR: When I initially heard the news that Bernama’s correspondent in New Delhi, M. Santhiran, was warded for food poisoning, the first thing that I thought was that he would get better.
What more, Santhiran had survived a deadly viral fever and bacterial infection in September last year, while his driver succumbed to the same infection a week later.
However, fate has its ways. Santhiran breathed his last around 11.30pm (local time) on March 13 at the Primus Chanakyapuri Hospital in New Delhi due to multiple complications.
I was sad to hear of his passing. Though we worked in the same building, I did not know much of Santhiran until he started penning his Delhi Diary piece in early 2015.
Though he rarely wrote feature articles prior to his posting abroad, he completed one article for the Delhi Diary each week, in addition to news articles.
Every Monday I will translate his Delhi Diary pieces into Malay and this is where I learned a lot about Santhiran.
Santhiran provided interesting insights not only on life in New Delhi but also his life as a foreign correspondent.
In the earlier editions of his column, Delhi Diary, Santhiran shared how he survived with only a smattering of Hindi language which he learned from watching his favourite Hindustani films when he first got there.
His grasp of the language slowly improved, his late driver Sunil Saxena was ever ready to assist with his learning as most of the people on Delhi streets spoke Hindi only, including shopkeepers.
The city’s extreme weather also required some getting used to. Summer temperatures there could soar up to 45 degrees Celsius.
It was winter when Santhiran first set foot in the Indira Ghandi International Airport at 10.00pm on Jan 30, 2015. That night the temperature was at 10 degrees Celsius.
Recalling some of Santhiran’s writings through the Delhi Diary that was first published on Feb 6, 2015, he shared many events and views from India with his Malaysian readers.
The food culture, Holi and Diwali celebrations, historical places, political and economic issues as well as the earthquake that hit Nepal on April 25, 2015 were delved into by Santhiran.
As he immersed himself in India’s food culture, Santhiran highlighted the good eating habits of Delhiittes compared with Malaysians. There they ate only three times a day while most Malaysians ate six times a day.
The big number of sweet shops selling treats in Delhi, known as the sweet city, excited him.
He found it difficult to resist the mouthwatering array of barfi, ladoo, halwa, rasagulla, gulab jamun, kheer and other sweet delicacies on the glass display shelves. However, he was careful and kept to the doctor’s advice to monitor his sugar level.
Santhiran distributed the sweets to the Malaysian embassy staff to share his joy after his son Ruthran scored 10As in his SPM examinations. He also got to experience Holi celebrations for the first time in March 2015.
Holi celebrations was among his fondest memories as a journalist in Delhi apart from the visit to the Taj Mahal with his wife in March 2015. His wife had come for the school holidays when they visited one of the seven wonders of the world.
Santhiran wrote about how he and his wife were mesmerised by the beauty of the monument right before them.