Karna Upadhyay

Madison - Karna Upadhyay, born November 4, 1986, the light of his parents' lives, Patricia Champion and Shashi Upadhyay, died July 9, 2016.

He was born in the ancient City of Varanasi, India, considered its spiritual capital and holiest of seven sacred cities.

From a very young age, Karna showed deep, strong traits of empathy and compassion for others. These would become the basis of Karna's world view. An elementary school teacher wrote, "Karna is such an interesting mix of kind, gentle, animal-loving sweetness and crash-bang-boom super hero-fantastic energy. How will I survive without this most special, calming, sweet and fun loving Karna in my room next year?" Throughout school, teachers mirrored these feelings. It was these gifts that motivated Karna to volunteer at a police-run orphanage in Peru soon after he graduated from high school. There his empathy and compassion grew for those less fortunate than him and instilled a deep responsibility to advocate on their behalf.

Mixed with Karna's empathy and compassion was his "brightness of mind." He represented his classroom/school in both spelling and mathematic competitions. He received awards for honor/ honor with distinction throughout his primary and secondary education and was continually invited to join academic scholar memberships. He won second place in his high school poetry competition. "Reflections in a Mirror" submitted unknowingly by a teacher. He attended Madison College and UW-Madison with a major in Political Science where he received a 3.97 GPA and was again continually invited to join scholar memberships in Phi Theta Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa (which he finally accepted -- he never wanted recognition for his gifts and talents because he felt it separated him in ways he did not like).

Karna was excited about his future. Although he had not fully decided what new direction he would take: teaching disadvantaged youth because he believed that education was the real empowering tool; going into law in order to be a public defender assisting those who cannot afford good legal representation; going into the Peace Corp to help third-world nations, getting his doctorate in Political Science and teaching at a university in order to impact future generations towards making more altruistic political and social changes; becoming a certified substance abuse counselor in order to help others dealing with this insidious and complex disease.

What Karna's future contributions to a world he believed should and could be a better place, we will never know; but what we do know is that he gave all of himself in his short life and we thank him. Karna, words are such paltry expressions of the bottomless well of our love for you and while we will try to continue on our own journeys the best we can without you, we cannot lie and say, it will be okay. Even with this, we will never forget the sense of joy, pride, and deep gratitude in having known your bright spirit.

A Funeral Service will be held at 5:15pm on Thursday July 14, 2016 at RYAN FUNERAL HOME, 2418 N Sherman Ave, Madison. Visitation will be held from 4pm until 5pm.

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight," - Kahlil Gibran.