Vijayashanker Paramsothy

Daily Caller to Malaysia

Vijayashanker Paramsothy, known to one and all as Vijay, had been just about everywhere in his 23 years. He was born in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; he had visited friends in Turkey, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Germany and England.

On Sept. 8, 2001, he attended a wedding in Spain. "He was looking very elegant that day," the bride, Ana Oliver, wrote to Mr. Paramsothy's father. "He made lots of new friends." But he loved New York, and he came back Sept. 10, in time to return to his job the next day as a financial analyst for Aon Corporation in the World Trade Center

Though he lived half a world from home, in Astoria, Queens, he called his parents in Malaysia every day and visited them when he could.

"He was a great companion to me," said his father, Paramsothy Sivapakiam. "We were on the same level. We would drink together. We liked to play jokes on each other. When he got a movie camera, he said, `The first thing my father will do is take pictures of me in the toilet.' "

The son lived through a close call in the World Trade Center in 2000. He was in an elevator that overshot its highest floor, hit a ceiling and then fell 15 feet. His back was injured, and he spent four months in a cast.

Five days before Mr. Paramsothy died, his father had a heart scare in Malaysia. "A palpitation, 199 beats a minute," Mr. Sivapakiam said. "But I survived. If only I had died he would have come home and he would still be alive."