‘‘When I first heard of Manju’s death I used to wonder if it was worth it. If Manju lived, he could have served his parents in their old age, gotten his sister married and so on—all the things every well-bred Indian takes pride in doing. So I wondered, couldn’t Manju have done the slight paap of going a bit easy on his values—with the long-term punya in view? Was this death worth it really?’’

In response, a reader had written something that made me hang my head in shame.

‘‘I don’t understand why for everything in life we ask ourselves— was it worth it? There are some beliefs, actions and motions that are above this ‘‘deal evaluation’’ exercise that we apply on everything. Like in love. It doesn’t matter if you can or cannot justify the effort and time spent in chasing a dream. What is important is that you believed in the dream and the need to take the journey. Let’s not trivialise what Manju did by even pontifying on whether it was worth it or not. Let’s not demean a believer! If you need to do anything, try dreaming the dream that he probably had.’’

On reading this, I realised that I had never really understood my friend. This anonymous reader had. Honesty is like love. Inexplicable. Unjustifiable. Just do it. Like Manjunath.