Lost !!

Sharad Maloo

A flower plucked when it was about to blossom. Sharad left us. It was just yesterday when he was right here around us, the warmth of his presence still lingers, the pearls of laughter still echo in the silence of that corner of the room. He filled our life with joy, our hearts with happiness, and today here we are without him, lonely. Yet we feel him deep down, deep within ourselves. How can he die? He can never, for, he is a part of us. We only bereave the absence of his presence, the fact that he has lost his physical form, the fact that he went beyond the measure of our physical senses. But he has more than just physical sense. He is still alive, within each one of us who loved him, who cared for him, of whom he is a part.

"He always had a smile on his face. A very polite, charming, helping and an intelligent boy with the determination to conquer the whole world."

That’s how we all know Sharad.

A big time adventure freak, he wanted to try everything from bungee jumping to surfing, scuba diving, ice-skating, skiing, underwater swimming, trekking, he simply wanted it all. He enjoyed life, he lived every moment of his life, and he believed in living life king-size n lived it as if there was no tomorrow.

An exceptionally bright student, a topper right from the beginning, a very quick learner, and an all rounder who loved listening to music and was a great dancer. He was good at everything, excelled in every sphere of life. He was a state level Table Tennis player, a state level skater, an exceptionally good swimmer and extremely good at football, basket ball and cricket too. Be it GK quizzes or debates or essay writing competitions, he was the winner. He nurtured his creative side by pursuing photography, loved clicking pictures. An all time chocolate lover, Sharad was the apple of everybody’s eye.

A person full of zeal and enthusiasm, one who knew how to motivate everyone and the one who could bring smiles on all the faces, was Sharad. He knew how to make everyone comfortable. It was always easy to trust him with your secrets. He was everyone’s best friend – naïve and naughty with kids and matured and understanding with the older generation. He wanted everyone to smile genuinely and knew how to make everyone around him happy.

The boy who respected his parents the most; the boy who hero-worshipped his parents was Sharad. He wanted to be his father’s replica, hardworking, successful and a respectable personality of the society. His mother was his biggest emotional support. His pillar of strength, that’s how he used to describe his mother. Rishabh, his younger brother, his bundle of joy, was his life. Sharad, a God fearing and a religious boy had inherited faith in God from his grandfather. These people were his strength and he owed his success to his family.

Throughout his life, Sharad strengthened his family and friends with his childlike enthusiasm and infectious laughter, brightening their days. His loved ones will remember his kindness, his lifelong passion for adventure, his ability to focus on his goals and his ironclad determination to overcome all the challenges.



The life of this beautiful flower Sharad:


On the fateful day, 21st Oct 1983, an angel was born. The day being Sharad Poornima gave the angel his name, Sharad. Being a quick learner, Sharad had started walking by the time he was 10 months old. Growing up, he became the most naughty kid around. Possessing leadership qualities from early childhood, he was the gang leader of all the mischief.

Soon after he turned 3 years old, his parents left for Libya. There he studied in Benghazi’s Indian Community School for 3 years. Then his family returned to their hometown Jodhpur in India.

He joined St. Paul’s School in Jodhpur and studied there for 10 years from 1st to 10th standard. Teacher’s favourite from the very beginning, he was a winner at everything, be it academics or extra curricular activities.

From an early age he had mastered playing Table Tennis. By the time he had finished his 10th standard, he had played TT at state level, played football, basketball, indulged in skating at state levels, swam like a fish, won innumerable GK quizzes, essay writing competitions and debates.

He always knew what he wanted. Diligent and meticulous, he achieved success everywhere scoring 89% marks in 10th standard board examinations with a PCM aggregate of 96% in 1999. Thus he knew he wanted to be a part of IITs.

In order to make his dream come true, he joined Bansal Classes in Kota and became a Bansalite. As Bansal Sir said “IIT-JEE is an examination which reflects truly and mercilessly your real merit. Your success and rank in this exam depends wholly on your preparedness for it.”, he burnt midnight oil putting his best in preparing for the IIT JEE examination.

Once again he proved his mettle by securing 85% marks in 12th board examination with a PCM aggregate of 95% in 2001, making him a deserving candidate for IIT. Still he had a long way to go.

1st June 2001, the result was out and he had achieved one of the biggest goals of his life, ALL India Rank 124 for IIT JEE among 150,000 students. But this was just the beginning. The very same year he secured an All India Rank 8 in the entrance examination for Roorkee University (now the IIT Roorkee), was ranked among nation's top 0.1% in the National Physics Olympiad and was ranked second in All India Geographical Map & Cartography Contest.

Unfolding a new phase of his life, he went to IITB and took up the dual degree course for Computer Science and Engineering. There too he made his mark on everyone. He was a part of all the activities, was an initiator and organized a lot many events for the students.

Member of the organising committee of Tech-Fest 2002, IIT Bombay's Annual Technical Festival and Mood-Indigo (2001), IIT Bombay's Annual Cultural Festival, he instantly rose to fame and became everybody’s favourite. He organised football matches and quizzes, participated in dramatics, in dance competitions, skating competitions and at the same time worked as a TA with his professors.

He undertook many projects (other than academic projects) during his college years. Developed, managed and maintained websites for Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), Manidhari hospital, the Shalimar Group of Restaurants undertaking of Kohinoor Group of Hotels, IT companies like Prathmankan, Prontoinfotech etc. The “Lord Of The Code” programme is conducted jointly by the “eKLAVYA” open source initiative of IIT Bombay and Red Hat India. This programme involves live projects and mentoring of the students by IT industry professionals. Here also Sharad bagged the top laurels of the programme in form of 1st prize of Rs. 2 Lacs for his project on “P2P DHT for Large Scale Information Sharing”.

After 3rd year of his engineering at IITB, he went to Israel for his summer internship. There he worked on "Practical Locality-Awareness for Large Scale Information Sharing" for which a white paper was also published.

He was an active member of the placement cell of IITB during his final year.

These many achievements were not enough for his appetite, so he gave GMAT and CAT. By the end of final year at IITB, Sharad had a GMAT score of 720 and calls from IIM Bagalore, Kolkata, Kozikhode, Lucknow and Indore.

On 15th February 2006, he carved his name on the new frontiers of success. He was on all the news channels, in all the newspapers. He was placed in Lime Group. He was handed his offer letter on 15th Feb 2006 - a staggering US $80,000 per year, with a $10,000 signing bonus by New York-based software group, Lime Group. Placement officials said, the pay package, which was on par with that offered to many Indian Institute of Management graduates, was the highest the elite institute IITB had seen.

He graduated from IITB in 2006 and began working with Lime group in their India office at Gurgaon for 3 months. He left for US, on 24th Oct 2006, where he joined Lime group New York office. Very soon he became a cynosure there too, made friends everywhere he went. Being an excellent team player, his friends and colleagues looked up to him and always found him by their sides for support and help.

With his undying passion and hunger for adventure, he was enjoying his life to the fullest. There too he went for skiing, scuba diving, skydiving, and bungee jumping etc with his friends. He always had his next adventurous trip pre-planned in his genius mind.

It was March 19th, 2007 when he left for Peurto Rico, the world's best beach for water sports, with his colleagues for a 3 day long trip. He was extremely excited about the trip. On 21st March, while he was enjoying on the beach with his friends and colleagues, a riptide suddenly swept him away. A fighter he was, so he fought the waves, but this one time life failed him, and what came out with the waves was a lifeless Sharad.

He had left us forever, never to come back again; he had gone far far away.

In Sharad, we lost an extremely gifted, creative, warm and a sensitive person. A person who loved life and its varied gifts. He made everyone believe that we only need to believe in ourselves to fight the odds of life.

His loss has created a void in all the lives he touched. He will be missed forever, for he was the gift of God who came to our world for a short span of time, spread smiles, gave reasons to be happy to everyone and touched everyone’s life with his kind sweet gestures. He showered his love and care on everyone unconditionally. He was a winner and will be a winner forever, for he is not physically around, but is still ruling our hearts with his beautiful memories that will be cherished forever. He is a part of our lives who will always stay with us supporting us in all our ups and downs. He will still be the guiding star for us. He is gone and still he is there, deep inside every heart he touched.

We believe that others, inspired by his memory, will in someway imbibe his values and follow his footsteps to share joy, happiness and peace with others around us and try to fulfil the potential he offered.