Malati A. Jani peacefully left this earth on the morning of December
31, 2020 at home. And as a leaf falls ever so gently to the ground, so
also did her breath leave her body, even as she listened to one of her
favorite recorded chants, Nirvana Shatakam, sung by Dilip Kumar Roy.

She culminated her 90-year long journey with peace, accompanied by
a gratitude-legacy for a love-filled lifetime of experiencing all that
mattered to her – the joys of family, deep friendships, and fulfillment
of her roles as mother, grandmother, wife, sister, daughter, and
friend. And so too mattered the growth of her mind and spirit,
immersed in a life of learning and sharing, influencing countless
people, especially children. She demonstrated incredible resilience
and always brightened the room with that ineffable smile, a smile of
acceptance and equanimity in the face of chronic severe physical pain
from disabling arthritis over decades. Most of all, as throughout her
life, especially in later years, she grew evermore into being a pure
conduit for the puissance of love for her immediate circle of family
and friends and all sentient beings. Whether near or far, one felt that
power expressed through the countless moments of laughter, wise
and empathic discourse, constant awareness of the aesthetic,
compassion for the vulnerable, and the ever-present joyful gleam in
those beautiful eyes. And while her crippled gait hid the dignity of her
stride, she kept constant company with the Mystery within and behind
life, a Mystery ever brimming with curiosity and bursting with wonder.
Such enormity of spirit and grandeur of heart, paradoxically confined
to that frail petite frame, enabled her to transcend life's suffering and
burdens. And with what fortitude and surrender she bore the greatest
burden of all in the fateful last year of her life – spending each day
without the physical presence of her one and only love, my father, her
partner of 71 years! How she missed him indeed. And so too, during
this last earth's orbit for her terrestrial trek, and despite the wind-
gusts of grief and loneliness trying to snuff out the flame of her faith,
she managed to stay steady and strong, transforming her vulnerability
into a vastness of space. Ever true to herself, despite this great loss,
she kept reading, thinking, smiling, conversing, praying, reflecting,
learning new facts, sharing her joys, listening to music, watching
dance, staying enthused by the little things of daily life, honoring the
ephemeral, and yet rooted in the eternal.

She is survived by so many, near and far, including her son, Asim and
his wife, Smruti, a grandson, Arjun, a remaining brother/sister-in-law,
Gautam and Renuka Mehta in India, and another sister-in-law, Ranna
Mehta in the US. The rest include nephews, nieces, cousins and an
extended circle of other relatives and friends who became relatives,
because for "mom", everyone was part of her family-at-large.

She had so many incarnations – professional and personal.
Professionally, from her youthful days, she scholastically excelled to
become one of a handful of female attorneys in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
in the post-independence India of the 1950s, when she litigated cases
of domestic violence, divorce and social activism causes. She then
joined her husband as a Fulbright Scholar, both coming to Duke
University for graduate work in Psychology. The diverse positions she
held over the following decades included being a Professor of
Philosophy, a producer of children's and women's programming for All
India Radio, and a children's librarian for 20 years at the Tampa Public
Library (now the John F. Germany Public Library).

The context of her personal life story was remarkable – playing out from
the days of the pre-independence "Quit India Movement", to the prime
ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru - whom she admired greatly and
at whose home, Anand Bhavan, she was once an invited scholar-in-residence
for several weeks. She enjoyed a 5-year long premarital platonic
friendship phase with her future husband, Arvind Jani, a paduka-
wearing philosopher-lawyer and reader of Karl Marx and Sri
Aurobindo. Their interactions, before and after marriage, consisted of
countless trysts discussing a staggering range of topics from
philosophers such as Socrates and Radhakrishnan to Indian culture,
spiritual matters such as the Gita and other scriptures to economics,
sociology, psychology, art, music, dance, history, science, comedy,
literature, child development, politics, human rights and more.
Whether on park benches in public gardens when they met or the
dining table at home 60 years later.

Her indomitable courage (Zodiac sign of Leo), marked her path, facing
the challenges and adversities that life offers to all of us. And she was
a mom's mom, whether it was being a wonderful cook making scrumptious
Indian Cuisine dishes or carrying out supplemental home-school type
lessons in spelling and vocabulary for her 6-year-old son, Asim or later
immersing him in the library where she worked. She introduced him
not only to tales, fiction and plays that children are drawn to but also biographies,
history, science, poetry, art, spirituality, geography, architecture, philosophy,
and a broad range of topics. Ensuring this sustainable shared space of
a life-long love of books and continuity of a richly informed dialogue
throughout life. Nurturing a deep friendship, she gave all that she
could to him, including being a role model in forgiveness and
generosity and magnanimity of spirit, and offering her blessings right
up until the last week of her life. And what a deep love she had for
Arjun, her grandson, and his mom, Smruti, both of whom literally
infused vitality and provided company and comfort over the last
decade of life. We will miss her but know she is freed from the
confines of her body, returning to that Mystery, once again unified
with her husband, her youngest brother, her friends and all those dear
to her who preceded her.

Thank you, mom for your Presence of Love, then, now, and forever!

Please view the recording of the online Zoom "Life Celebration" event we had for Malati Jani on 2/21/21 below:

ONLINE ZOOM RECORDED LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/sK4gt-o7udg2e9nKMT3RSnjK7Is3B7F93MnO8VAWmdnQD3OkmEcK6R_8KR6ueJt1._EeP6KB0it-sUreZ?startTime=1613917673000

• Start to about 11 min-40 sec: Intro and formal Eulogy (including most of the Obituary text above plus a little more detail)
• From 12 min-35 sec to 20 min-20 sec: Embedded short video (has slight audio interruption that is then corrected)
• From 22 min-15 sec till the end (1 hour, 31 min) – Comments/shared memories from several participants


Please make the following donations too:
Libraries Without Borders:
https://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/donate/

American Library Association:
https://ec.ala.org/donate/projects

Krishnamurti Foundation of America:
https://www.kfa.org/malati/

Matagiri:
https://matagiri.org/donate