Shashi Kiran Kadaba

A Penchant for Charity
Indian weddings are often extravagant affairs that can last as long as a week. So friends and family of Shashi Kiran Kadaba were taken aback when he and his fiancŽe decided to have a modest wedding, donating whatever money they saved to orphanages in their hometown, Bangalore, in southern India. "He was that kind of person, the kind of guy who would wait before everyone got out before leaving a burning building," said his fiance, Pushpa Sreenath, 26, who drove 30 hours to New York from Texas as soon as she learned about the World Trade Center collapse.

Mr. Kadaba, 26, a software designer for an Indian company, had recently come to New York to do consulting work for Marsh USA, whose offices were on the 97th floor of 1 World Trade Center. Ms. Sreenath, also a software designer, said her fiancŽ was taken with tennis, Formula One racing and big, brash Bollywood movies.

"He was very energetic and skilled at making people laugh," she said. Since 1996, the couple has been largely separated by half a world, although they always remained in communication through phone calls and e-mail messages. "It was hard, but not impossible because I knew I would see him again," she said. "This is different."