The 48th death.

[Text by Chiki Sarkar; photo by Siddharth Dhanwant Sanghvi]

Chiki Sarkar was run over by a car earlier this morning. Her family and friends had always worried about her cavalier attitude towards crossing roads and their fears proved tragically right.

It was an untimely death. Ms Sarkar, 37, publisher of Penguin Random House India, had just got married and was full of love and life making constant plans for redoing her flat, having babies and buying the next big hit. Moving back to India, nearly a decade ago, she made her mark at work publishing brilliant new talent such as Pulitzer finalist Daniyal Mueenuddin and commercial hits like the diet book Don’t Lose your Mind, Lose your Weight. She was appointed as Penguin India’s publisher in 2011 and saw the two companies merge last year.

Ms Sarkar was known to be obsessive, passionate and full of ideas – the other side of these was a tendency towards wrongheadedness, impulsiveness and a lack of tact. Constantly on her phone, and always with a book near her, she loved nothing more than to read all day, drink and eat well and be surrounded by a close group of friends and family. She is survived by her beloved husband, Alex Travelli, her twin and her parents.

Our Self-Written Obituaries invites people to write their obituary in 200 words. The idea is to share with the world how you will like to be remembered after you are gone. (May you live a long life, of course!) Please mail me your self-obit at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.