Samir Panda and Suchitra Panda
Samir and Suchitra Panda’s relationship was defined by the distance between Odisha and Baltimore and by the family work they continued to share across it. Suchitra coordinated their parents’ household and their father’s medical care in India, while Samir sent money and remained involved by phone and video. The rakhi Suchitra sent him became their most visible connection across the distance.
Growing Up
Suchitra was three to four years older than Samir and watched his academic ability become apparent early. She was intelligent in her own right, but the Panda family’s educational resources and expectations centered more heavily on Samir’s potential. He recognized her intelligence and remained interested in her life and judgment after leaving India.
They grew up together in Gopalpur-on-Sea, sharing the childhood of a coastal Odia town: the ocean at night, the heat, the salt air, the community where everyone knew the Panda family and the Panda family’s ambitions for their son. Suchitra was present for all of it, including the parts that Samir’s brilliance sometimes obscured—the ordinary business of family life that continued regardless of how many entrance exams he passed.
The Departure
When Samir left for Harvard University at eighteen, Suchitra remained in Odisha and became the sibling physically present for their parents’ later needs.
The distance became the defining feature of their adult relationship. They communicated by phone and video call, speaking in Odia, the language that made Samir sound like a different person than the one his Hopkins colleagues knew—faster, more musical, laughing more. When Samir called home, it was often Suchitra who answered first, who gave him the real update on their father’s condition before their mother got on the line and said everything was fine.
The Rakhi Thread
The cotton thread at Samir’s wrist was Suchitra’s. For Raksha Bandhan, the festival celebrating the bond between siblings, she sent a new rakhi by post from Odisha when they could not be together. Samir replaced the thread after the old one frayed and continued wearing it beneath his sleeve or watch.
Suchitra knew Samir was gay before he came out at Harvard and accepted him without qualification. Her rakhi carried that same ordinary knowledge of her brother rather than a conditional version of him.
Their Father’s Illness
When Pradeep Panda suffered a heart attack followed by a stroke during Samir’s doctoral program, Suchitra became the primary manager of their father’s care. She coordinated medical appointments, handled medications, managed the household, and was physically present for crises and the day-to-day work of recovery.
Samir sent money, called regularly, and asked Suchitra for detailed updates about their father’s condition. The siblings’ experience of managing a medical crisis across the distance between Odisha and Baltimore helped shape the problem that Samir later addressed through Haven.
Haven was designed in part around the need to monitor someone when family members could not be physically present. Suchitra’s work on the ground and Samir’s effort to remain involved from Baltimore became part of the project’s family history.
The Extended Family
Suchitra navigated whispered conversations, pointed silences, and questions about when Samir would marry within the extended family. She deflected pressure where she could and remained consistently accepting of his life and relationship.