Who is Chandra Suresh?

What is fascinating about Chandra Suresh (played by Erick Avari) is that he is a very powerful figure of Heroes mythology, but he is more of an instigator than a player. His book "Activating Evolution" sought to explain the powers seen by our characters. We first learn of Chandra Suresh when his son Mohinder (played by Sendil Ramamurthy) is informed of his death. We learn, through Mohinder's journey, that Chandra Suresh was a well-known geneticist and professor that left behind his teaching to go to New York in order to find the super-powered humans he believed existed.

Sylar

Chandra Suresh is instrumental in the origins of Sylar, the mysterious, yet shadowy figure that hunts super powers and murders to get them. In the episode "Six Months Ago," Chandra makes contact with a watch repair man named Gabriel Gray. Chandra believes that Grey is one of his 'evolved' humans and he is using research from the human genome project to locate these individuals. Chandra is disappointed when his tests on Gray are inconclusive on whether he has any powers at all. But by now, Gray is desperate to be an 'evolved' human, he wants to be more than just a repair man and he wants to help Chandra find more 'evolved' humans. He learns of a man named Brian Davis who may possess telekinetic powers. Sylar murders Davis and 'acquires' his power. He shows off this 'ability' to Chandra who is thrilled to have made a break through.

HRG

During this same time period, Chandra comes into contact with HRG (Noah Bennett played by Jack Coleman), the adopted father of Claire. The men talk about their daughters and it is through this conversation that we first learn of 'Shanti,' Chandra's daughter and Mohinder's older sister. Shanti is the key to Chandra's obsession with evolution, DNA and evolved humans.

Mohinder

Chandra's relationship with Mohinder is a difficult one at best. Mohinder obviously loved his father, but had a very difficult time understanding him. Chandra admonishes Mohinder to stay out of his work, whether to protect his son or because he truly believed his son would not understand, is unclear.

"Why? It was always this way with my father. Every question met with another question. Never an answer. Only 'why?' Even after he's dead."

His Work

Chandra Suresh lived in an apartment in New York, continuing his research there while also working as the driver of a cab company. There is a recorded message left by Gabriel Gray (now known as Sylar) trying to reach out to Chandra. Apparently Chandra became aware of Gray's murderous proclivities in his obsessive grasp for more powers and wanted nothing more to do with him. It is Sylar that is shown as murdering Chandra Suresh in his cab. But is Chandra really dead? Many fans speculate that he might actually still be alive, having found a way to fool Sylar. His body was misplaced and then later cremated. It is unclear that anyone besides Eden actually 'saw' his body. As it was revealed later that Eden worked for "The Company" could Chandra be in their hands?

While Chandra Suresh himself has only appeared in flashbacks, his book and theories have had a distinct impact upon the series and our characters. Claire realized there may be more out there like herself upon reading it and Peter attempted to use the book to convince Nathan that they do have powers. Chandra's work and life have also profoundly impacted Mohinder's journey and set him on a path that leads to our heroes.

Is he dead absolutely? Will he turn up alive later? Only time and Tim Kring can tell.