Cleveland Asian Indian Drowns in Rose Lake, Hocking Hills, Ohio
On July 26th, tragedy struck the family and friends of two young men, Karthick Alagarsamy and Raam Gautham Arjunan, who drowned in Rose Lake, Ohio.
Seven friends trekked on a Hocking Hills trail to reach Rose Lake on the warm Sunday afternoon. Seeing the rope swing and after judging the depth of the water below to be safe, three of them Gautham, Karthick and Kaushik decided to take a dive into the stagnant and friendly waters. What started off as a fun afternoon suddenly took a wrong turn when Karthick jumped in and started to panic. On understanding that his friend needed help, Gautham swam towards him. What happened after that is anybody’s guess. Before anyone realized what was going on, they saw both of them sinking into the water. Help was called for immediately and first responders arrived shortly only to find the visibility too poor and the water too deep to search for either of them. By the time the rescue team could get the necessary equipment to recover Gautham and Karthick, they'd lost so much time and also the lives of two young men.
The loss of such amazing individuals affects the people around them in ways unimaginable. The families are flying into the US from India in the middle of a pandemic holding unbearable grief in their hearts.
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| Raam Gautham Arjunan, 26 |
Raam Gautham Arjunan, 26, was from Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu. Arjunan, who also went by Raam Gantham professionally, lived in the Cleveland area. He worked as an associate product manager in digital payments for CardinalCommerce in Mentor near Cleveland, a wholly owned subsidiary of VISA Inc. that authenticates digital transactions against fraud. He earned a master's degree in engineering management from Case Western Reserve University. He had just got married last year. His presence lives on in the thoughts of his wife, father and mother.
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| Karthik Alagarsamy, 26 |
Karthick Alagarsamy, 26, was a free spirited soul who's friendliness and adventure was well known. He was a student at Wayne State University before working for Goken America in Marysville, Ohio. He lived in Dublin, Ohio. He went to work at Goken America after graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit with a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 2018. Prior to graduation, he was a mechanical engineering intern at DTE Energy, was the drive train captain on Wayne State's Warrior Racing Formula SAE Team and was a graduate student assistant at the university. He was also a graduate of Madras Institute of Technology and attended Anna University, MIT Campus, in his native Chennai city, Tamil Nadu state, India.
"He was a great young man," said Bill Nichols of Goken America remarked, adding that Alagarsamy was "friendly, well-liked and often had a smile on his face. He's survived by his father, mother and sister from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.