We have lost Lakshmi, and the fact that she’s no more has yet to sink in.
When my grown-up son received the news, he was taken aback. As we talked about Lakshmi, he remembered that she had always brought a slab of chocolate for him whenever she visited us when he was a child. He also recollected that she used to make fragrant soaps and coloured candles.
She was forever like a gentle breeze, never making herself noticeable. Yet, one couldn’t miss her in a group at all. She always walked straight and sat straight. She used to practice yoga and meditation regularly. Lakshmi loved nature and she used to share her trekking experiences with me. Looking back, I think her affinity was with nature rather than crowded, noisy, and competitive urban spaces.
She couldn’t, however, get away from the city for too long. Despite her strong independence, she had her parents among her foremost concerns. She lost her two younger brothers at an early age. Lakshmi tried her best to support them.
Her early interest and expertise in information technology saw her working for Cividep for a year. She initiated our first-ever website. She worked for an international certification agency for organic products when the field was emerging in India. That was very natural for Lakshmi. She always chose cotton clothing and carried embroidered hand-made shoulder bags.
I remember the days when I sat on the pillion seat of her scooter (not without some trepidation) on those rides to lawyers’ offices and the courts. She was fighting a workplace harassment case. Not combative at all, she was determined to secure justice for herself against this influential and well-resourced global company. Lakshmi won.
Lakshmi was among a group of friends who gathered in the living room of my house on 42nd Cross, 8th Block, Jayanagar, back on a winter afternoon of the year 2000 when we decided to form Cividep. She has been a member of the Governing Board ever since, and its treasurer when she passed away last week. All the ups and downs that Cividep witnessed in its career did not deter her from the continuous support she gave me and the organisation – quietly but unflinchingly.
That gentle breeze has ceased. But whatever that quiet humaneness had once touched, will remain fresh for her friends.
(Lakshmi Murthy, Cividep India’s Governing Board member and treasurer, was 52 at the time of passing. She was ailing for some time. Lakshmi was born and brought up in Bengaluru, and was Cividep’s Board member since the organisation’s inception in 2000. She was a communication professional, and a committed social activist. Lakshmi was associated with various organisations, including Samraksha Foundation, Samuha Foundation and Lawyers Collective. She is survived by her parents Keshava Murthy and Lalitha S, and husband Deepak Samaga.)