In Sivakumar’s story, the best and worst of India

"I come from a very simple, humble background." K Sivakumar's every sentence was punctuated by inconsolable tears. "Please forgive me if I get emotional." I had reached out to the former CFO of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) after being moved like hundreds of thousands of other Indians on reading his now viral Linkedin post.

- Barkha Dutt

Sivakumar's 34-year-old daughter Akshaya died all of a sudden - without any forewarning of illness or tests - from a brain haemorrhage, from what was most likely an aneurysm. When he spoke of his daughter, he spoke with the pride of so many self-made, middle-class Indians who have often struggled and worked extraordinarily hard, clawing their way up the social and economic ladder so that they may give their children a better life than their own.

And so it was with Akshaya Sivakumar, who graduated from IIT Madras and IIM Ahmedabad, spent 11 years in the corporate sector, including several at Goldman Sachs, and had grown into a life so secure, unlike that of her parents early years, that she could now afford to indulge her real interests. "She was a quizzer," Sivakumar told me. "She would travel all across India conducting quizzes and she loved origami," he said before his voice trailed into tears again.

But if nothing had prepared Sivakumar and his wife for losing their child in the prime of her life, what happened next was appalling and bone-chilling. Whether it was the morgue, the ambulance, the cremation ground or the police, Sivakumar was faced with brazen corruption, a bureaucratic and hostile system and demands for bribes, big and small, at every step. Given that his daughter had died from natural causes,

THE NORMALISATION OF BRIBERY FOR BASIC SERVICES IS THE STAGGERING AND INCONVENIENT TRUTH OF THIS HORRIBLE INCIDENT. NEARLY EVERYONE HAS BEEN IN A SIVAKUMAR-LIKE SITUATION OR KNOWS SOMEONE WHO HAS