Remembering Poorti Soni (July 1991-March 2021)
From Vatsala:
These past twelve months have been difficult for us all, and now it is with deep sorrow that I inform you all of the passing of our young former colleague, Poorti Soni.
Poorti first came to us as a bright, chirpy intern in early 2015, and after the internship was over I, always on the lookout for the young ones with a passion for children’s books and a love of the English language, took her on in the C&R division. Her CV said – ‘No prior work experience, but I am a hard-working person motivated to achieve my dream…’
Hard-working she was, and dreams she had, like anyone her age.
She worked with the division as editorial assistant from 2015 to 2016, on many titles such as Words to Live by, The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street, the two volumes by Dhan Gopal Mukerjee, the Hachette School Skills Handbook, Meri Bindi and Mahabharata for Young Readers, among others, and they were the better for her contribution.
Poorti, often teasingly called ‘Poori’ and ‘Paratha’, was a cheerful, smiling girl, bold and straight-talking, a little packet of vivacious energy – with LOTS to say. She liked to dress up and routinely bring copious amounts of lemon chicken for hungry Hachetteers from Baba Chicken on the way back from her hometown Ludhiana, where she often went on weekends. She often talked of her brother and bhabhi, her friends’ weddings, and much about her ‘driverji’, who provided quite a few moments of hilarity. She loved books, and buying and collecting them, making a beeline for the second-hand booksellers at the World Book Fair and returning with bags of vintage editions.
Then she probably got tired of my slave-driving, or (so I like to think) found marketing more exciting, and moved on to that department as assistant marketing executive.
Poorti had mentioned her ailment – a brain-related issue – to some of us, and it seemed to be a time-bomb ticking in her head, but we all thought, like one does, that it would get better. That The Someone Up There would protect her, and make The Thing vanish, like in a children’s story, and everything would be fine. That was not to be.
About a fortnight ago, she collapsed with a haemorrhage, fell into a coma – and didn’t return. We lost her last week.
Poorti often made fun of my age – laughingly calling me ‘old’. I’d tell her that one day she would be as old as me, and then I would laugh back at her. I wish I had the chance to do that.
I am certainly old enough to know well the cycle of life and death – but some losses happen too soon, too unfairly, too cruelly, and they are hard to accept, hard not to question – Why? Why her? Why so young?
Poulomi tells me that Poorti had recently completed a course in counselling recently and had many plans for the future. Dreams she had.
I’m told she had signed up to donate her organs should anything happen to her. Courage she had. Not only in the face of death, but also in the face of life.
In our busy schedules, moving to the turns and twists of the ever-winding keys of our daily lives, let us take a moment – to remember our young feisty colleague who gave us the opportunity to know her and work with her, to admire her generous heart and ways and friendship, and to share the grief of her tragically bereaved loved ones.
And me
Poorti’s was the most unusual interview I’d ever done. After her stint in editorial she wanted to move to marketing and had (in those days) to go through an interview with me. It was the shortest interview I’ve ever done. She burst in and said “ Look You know me. I don’t know any marketing but I’ve been watching it and I know seekh jaaoongi. I love this place …please, please don’t send me away.” And she did learn and excelled at it. Poorti was like that.. the colleague who had you at hello. It’s difficult to think of somebody so full of life not being there anymore. But we’ll remember her always, as will anybody who’s crossed her path—for her energy, her charm, her ever smiling, get-it-done nature; and just for being one of the nicest people you had the good fortune to meet.
Our thoughts are with her family and hundreds of friends who will miss her.
R.I.P. Poorti.
TA
