In remembrance, Kedar Shrikhande

On August 5, 2015, the world lost a bit of its sparkle. A young man I was proud to know if only briefly, Kedar Shrikhande, passed away at the age of 34. He had battled Duchenne muscular dystrophy from the age of 6, and in the end, the brevity of his life notwithstanding, I think we must judge that he won. Look at this video he posted eight years ago:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5cFbGf9mEM?rel=0&w=420&h=315]Feel the exhilaration. Catch that James Bond theme. That was Kedar. Real as they come. Not about to left behind by anyone!As I return to the worlds of my fiction and nonfiction work in progress--and that has proved surprisingly difficult to do right now--I'm going to try to summon up this image, downhill plunge and all. I'll try to remember that as risky as writing might seem, it's far less so than life itself.