OBITUARY: Sitaram Yechury

Sitaram Yechury had the loveliest smile. Paired with that twinkle in his eyes and the signature chuckle that invariably followed, it was a smile that lit up not just his face but an entire room. That was my first impression. And after close to forty years of friendship and camaraderie, it remains my lasting memory of him. For that smile – disarming and guileless, warm and expansive – captured his very essence: his persona, his politics, his ideology.