Prabhati Sarkar

Born in Delhi in 1945, Prabhati was the youngest of three sisters and a devoted daughter. With music teachers as parents, she grew up in a musical household. This fostered in her a love of music and teaching that she carried throughout her life. Shortly after becoming a teacher, in 1967, Prabhati met and married her husband and companion of 55 years…and oh the adventures they had. From honeymooning in the Himalayan mountains, to being newlyweds living in an American settlement in a tiny Indian town, to leaving life as they knew it for America in 1969, Prabhati was fearless. She loved new places. She loved meeting people. She loved exploring. She truly was a citizen of the world.

In America, Prabhati assimilated to her surroundings well and created friendships that would last a lifetime. She adopted Western customs gracefully but never forgot her Indian roots. In 1971 and 1982, Prabhati began her most cherished adventure of all: motherhood. She worked hard to expose her children to art, sports, culture, travel, and the realities of life, while instilling in them the importance of community, and demonstrating to them what absolute devotion to family looked like in action.

While Prabhati was a dutiful wife and mother, she had a strong sense of self. Entertaining her many friends and treating them to her masterful culinary creations gave her life. Her obsession with cooking was only matched by her reverence of flowers. She made each of her homes beautiful by creating gorgeous, vibrant landscapes outside and blooming displays inside. While always careful to balance her duties towards others with her own hobbies, it was very clear that Prabhati loved bringing joy to others and loved creating beautiful things.

In her later years, as her travels and adventures slowed down, Prabhati was blessed with the two loves of her life -- her granddaughters. She taught them to be gracious, confident, kind, and brave. Her love for them was unconditional.

While she will be dearly missed, Prabhati left every part of this world more beautiful than when she found it. One of the last books she read was a collection of Maya Angelou’s words which included the following:

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

Brava Mom, well done.

A private family cremation ceremony will be held the week of August 23, 2021.

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Throughout her life, Prabhati was an avid reader, educator, and ally. To honor her, in lieu of flowers, we’d like to end this chapter of her story with a meaningful gift to the organization Room to Read.

Room to Read is a global non-profit breaking the cycle of childhood illiteracy and poverty in a single generation. Room to Read's innovative Literacy Program ensures primary schools in low-income countries have libraries filled with books in the children’s local languages, as well as teachers and librarians who are trained on how to engage a classroom of eager, young learners. By the end of grade 2, children in Room to Read's Literacy Program read 2 to 3 times faster and read with 87% greater comprehension than their peers in non-Room to Read program schools.

We’ve started a drive to teach 300 children to read and write for one year. All funds will go directly to Room to Read.

Click here to donate: https://give.roomtoread.org/PSarkar

Thank you for supporting this goal and thank you for the love and friendship you showed Prabhati through the years. She loved each of you very much.

With love and appreciation,

Malay, Neel, Melissa, Shoma, Elina, Ayla