Remember people who contribute

Offering a tribute is easy. Remembering a person is not.
Three hours from now, November 18, 3 p.m. I will be at the Memorial Meeting at the Union Christian School in Chetput.
The meeting celebrates the life of a young man who went by the name of Jesson Varghese.
Jesson died in his sleep at his home in Triplicane. He was about 50.
He had been to his doc the previous week for his annual medical check-up and was told that all was well with him.
Days later, I had to stare at an Obituary advert in 'The Hindu'.
I stared and stared at the advert before I called up his sister.
Jesson died less than 10 days after I wrote about him here, in my column. I had written on our relationship with the Mac. Steve Jobs had just passed away.
Jesson was a tad disappointed that he could not push what we had started on many, many years ago. A free-sheeter called 'SideWalker'. He didn't share that disappointment with me. His brother John did share his brother's thoughts when the two of us sat and went down memory lane in the room where the Bishop had blessed Jesson's cold body before it was taken to the cemetery.
As I prepare to share my thoughts of the young man at Union Christian, I wonder if I should tell his friends and the community if we could go beyond the Condolence Meeting to remember Jesson.
Many years have rolled by since another friend of mine passed away. A. J. Desouza was one of the finest athletics coaches this side of the country.
He groomed a legion of athletes who went on to win laurels for themselves.
But AJ, as we and the world knew him did not earn many friends and chamchas for his no-nonsense attitude.
Today, AJ is history. And forgotten. But for some reason I have a sticky thought - that this man needs to be remembered. He deserves it. After all, AJ did a lot for this city's sports community.
Should we host an annual Beach Race in his name? Can we have a trophy or a scholarship awarded at the state level to the best young athlete?
The thought remains - how do we remember ordinary people in our communities who have done extraordinary things?