Who Was Saradha U? 22-Year-Old Journalist Passes Away After Battling Dengue

A journalist in Chennai named Saradha U passed away yesterday after battling dengue for the past week. The colleagues of the 22-year-old have shared their tributes and the memories they shared together.

In September and October, Chennai hospitals saw a huge number of dengue cases but the rate of infection came down in November and so forth in the next few months. But this deadly disease can take lives if not treated in a prompt manner. Many cities in India saw a surge in dengue cases towards the end of 2022 with several deaths. One such unfortunate case happened with this journalist in Chennai.

Who Was Saradha U?

Saradha U was working at The News Minute organisation lately. She grew up in Chennai itself and completed her school at the Kendriya Vidyalaya DGQA. She then went to Madras Christian College where she graduated with the subject of Journalism. Saradha U worked as an intern at The Hindu and Young World where she wrote columns and stories. According to TNM, Saradha U joined them in February 2021 and her area of interest of films as she covered daily cinema stories, with the experience she moved on to cover more in-depth film-related and feature stories for them. She became a part of their Flix and Feature team. Saradha U used to critique Tamil films and wrote about the representation of mental health, female characters and body positivity in films.

Saradha U was admitted to the hospital a week back says the reports when she was diagnosed with dengue and typhoid. After a hard battle, yesterday she passed away in the heavenly abode.

The colleagues of Saradha U have shared their memories with her. The editor-in-chief of TNM, Dhanya Rajendran wrote on Twitter, "My colleague @saradha_u is no more. A lovely and calm person, a vibrant writer, soft spoken, and someone with a great sense of humour. This was a pic of herself that Saradha really liked. She was just 22. I will miss her, we will all miss her." Another colleague of her, Nithya tweeted, "She was kind, understanding, and opinionated. During a tough time for me, she just sat next to me as a hope. This loss is very personal, that l can't articulate. #RIP@saradha_u. You will be missed," along with a photo of Saradha.

A comedian and friend of Saradha wrote, "To me @saradha_u was always about this. I've had the honour of sharing the stage with her on multiple occasions. The most unique thing about her is that she used to sing a song for every emotion her poems wanted to convey. A sweet voice in singing and a strong voice in her poems," and he shared a caricature of Saradha along with the tweet.

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