India, Jan. 24 -- I've taken to long-distance driving. That's why I chose to drive from Mumbai to Kochi, where my mother lives. On my return, on a whim, I asked Uncle Toney, my father's younger brother, if he would like to drive back with me. I wasn't sure he would say yes.

Uncle Toney is not a man who does things because someone wants him to. He does them because he decides to. At 77, that distinction matters. But he is also the last of my father's siblings still standing; the final living link to a time that shaped me without ever quite explaining itself.

So when he considered it and called to say he would ride back with me, as far as a friend's home in Bengaluru, I understood the weight of the moment immediately.

We agreed to leave ...