Harikrishna Sukumaran worked for Avon.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: An Indian American engineer living in Stamford, Connecticut, Harikrishna Sukumaran, died of a heart attack on December 25th.
Sukumaran was 46 years. He is survived by his wife Nisha and a 12-year-old daughter Rithika.
Sukumaran worked as Lead IT Analyst at Avon, the global beauty products company. His Google+ profile lists other companies he worked for previously: Pitney Bowes, Bank of New York, Babson College, MetScape, and Iris Software Inc.
Sukumaran had worked in several cities during the course of his career, including in Trivandrum, Mumbai, San Francisco, Boston, Carlstdt, and Stamford, according to his Google+ profile. He grew up in Trivandrum, and attended Model School, Arts College and College of Engineering, all in the same city. His LinkedIn profile has a link to Kakatiya University too.
According to friends of Sukumaran, he had intense pain in one of his legs on the evening of December 25th, around 5:30 p.m. He was at home, setting up a Christmas tree with his daughter. As the pain got worse, he called a friend who lived in the same apartment complex and asked him to meet him in the lobby. The friend called 911 and asked for an ambulance. However, Sukumaran probably succumbed to chest pains from a massive heart attack in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, said a friend.
According to friends, Sukumaran’s wife Nisha is a homemaker. Sukumaran had always been the one to take care of bills and expenses. Due to the holidays, the tragedy has turned out to be even more harrowing for the family, who are financially distressed, and struggling to meet daily expenses.
Relatives of the couple in Kerala apprised Congress leader and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, who represents Thiruvanthapuram constituency in the Lok Sabha, of the situation and the need for help.
Tharoor reached out in turn to the Indian Consulate in New York to help the family in arranging for the body to be sent back to India at the earliest. Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay, India’s Consul General of India, was prompt in reaching out to the bereaved family, and assuring full support.
The local Indian American community and an employee of Avon, who was a colleague of Sukumaran, have also pitched in support to help the family with the funeral and flight to India expenses, which is estimated to be around $16,000.
Members of the Malayalee Association of Southern Connecticut (MASCONN) went and offered their condolences to the family on Friday, and after a day-long fundraising on Saturday, President of MASSCON Giby Gregory and some other representatives handed over $1500 in cash to Sukumaran’s family to take care of daily expenses.
Sadie Lovallo, a colleague of Sukumaran, who works as Senior Executive Assistant, Office of the CIO, Avon, is also turning out to be a savior for the family. She started an online fundraising campaign. The campaign has managed to raise more than $29,000, after an initial goal of $1,000.
It was not immediately known when the body of Sukumaran will be sent to India.
(This story was updated and revised on 12/29/2014. A portion of this story was edited out from the original version at the request of the family of the deceased).
1 Comment
While his death is tragic and sad. It shocking to see that the family was not prepared to handle this financially. His wife had been living in the country with him and yet financially cut off and ignorant of his financial assets.