The unpredictable call of death

By Dr Ian Clarke  

Death will come to us all, but no matter how old we are, we hope to do as much living as possible before death comes calling. 

This was not to be the case for Rajiv Ruparelia, who met his untimely death in the early hours of Saturday morning. Rajiv was 35 years old, with his whole life ahead of him, and it was a promising life since his family have assets of hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Rajiv had indeed lived life to the full and was known for his generous spirit and love of fast cars. 

He had married Naiya in London in 2017, and they had a daughter, so was moving between Uganda and London, where his wife and daughter were living. 

On this occasion, he had come to visit his parents and attend a wedding for his friend Jonathan Butera. 

He had dinner with Sudhir and Jyostna, but then decided to stay the night at Munyonyo, hence he was driving on the expressway at around 2:00am in his tuned-up Nissan GT-R. As a rally car driver, he was used to fast cars, and it is likely that he was travelling at speed since he was on a motorway at 2.00am, but he did not realise what was up ahead. 

Over the past year, there has been work taking place on the construction of bridges over the Munyonyo spur of the Entebbe-Kampala Expressway, but at the beginning of this year, the construction was largely wound up and the expressway opened straight through for the Non-Aligned Movement conference. 

One major change was the Busabala flyover, where a temporary roundabout had been introduced during construction, but was then removed. 

Dr Ian Clarke

After that conference, it was reinstated but removed again for a more recent conference. 

I used the highway while going to the airport on April 29, and it was open, but during the week, the roundabout was being reinstated again. Rajiv obviously thought the road was open, came over the hill and drove straight into the concrete bollards.
 
The impact sent the car into the air; it overturned and burst into flames. On so many levels, this was an accident that did not need to happen. 

The combination of speed, darkness, no warning signs and obstacles in the middle of the road resulted in this fatality. 

It was an accident which would not have occurred if normal motorway safety measures had been put in place before the roundabout was reinstated. 

But we live daily with such hazards on our roads in Uganda. My wife and I went to see Sudhir and Jyotsna because we have a long history with the Ruparelia family: Sudhir’s uncle, Babubhai, and his son, Paresh, used to support Kiwoko Hospital in Luwero, but Paresh and his daughter, Nina, both passed away at a young age. 

Later, Babubhai’s wife, whom he had been with for half a century, passed on and then Babubhai himself died. He was a great man of charity, feeding the poor and providing medical clinics through the Hindu temple.

When he was older, he and Sudhir had a big scheme in India to help hundreds of young Indians get married and set up their homes, in which they paid for a mass wedding and a home starter pack for everyone. 

Sudhir and Babubhai also contributed to Hope Ward at International Hospital Kampala, through which we carried out the first open-heart surgery on children with congenital heart defects. 

When we met after Rajiv’s death, Jyotsna was inconsolable, and Sudhir was trying to comfort her. “We had dinner together, and he said he felt that he had finally come home,” she said. 

It was as if she had been given her son back, then he was suddenly snatched away. There is nothing one can say in the face of such grief; there is no amount of money, no words, nothing can take away that pain. Time may slowly erode the rawness of the event, but the loss will always be there. 

Many people look at the Ruparelias — at their wealth, their status and influence — but no amount of money can assuage such a loss. 

Our thoughts and prayers are with this family at this time. Jyostna, Sudhir, Meera, Sheena, Naiya and all the grandchildren, we are deeply sorry for your loss.