Rest in peace

How often do you know of a person, so full of life yet so detached from the common trivialities, so loved yet so very respected and so honorable that even the most brazen speak of him with a distinct respect and the close ones, with an honor? One whose very heir know not of his vast correspondeces, of such wide spheres that it traverses through thousands of miles and each of the acquaintiance being bonded in a sentiment of gratitude over some favor done, a hand lent, a help granted? One whose brothers miss him like rarely would a brother be missed, spilling even in their white ages at his remembranace, calling him a ‘one-in-a-million’ brother; whom thousands of strangers are bonded in a nameless bond, crying at his death so bitterly that sweeping all the containments of others, of his very family? Of his friends, relatives, even of the far, neighbors – everyone, indebted to him, one way or the other, in material or immaterial, in person or in general – to what he contained or to what he conveyed, to the cause he incessantly followed.

And what to talk of his family, who seems to live in a stupor even when it’s a year to his death, still hanging in that years-long of love bestowed which’d been like the slow, incessant drench of a meek rain shower, drenching them thoroughly;unable yet to adjust to the loss of a kindly figure, always there to help anyone, in anytime of the day or night, in anyway whatsoever, be that travelling miles to make a conversation happen or initiating a welfare institute in a sub-urban part.

I knew just one such person in my life – and he left me in the emergency ward at Narowal hospital, after an accident on July 1st, 2008, planting one last kiss moments earlier at my forehead – I’d never known the agony of parting but that day, a nightmare to my life, that day marked this parting – and more than a year to his parting, I look to a post-him identity. Every achievement, each feat accomplished, each award gained seems meaningless without that smile that completed it all – or perhaps I tried it all just to look that smile at his face, the childish look in his smiling eyes – to fetch that grand prize of his joy and a few words of encouragement from him. Nothing could match that treasure – not the mightiest of the successes.

They say death’s an abrupt end – I felt so, with so many unanswered questions, so many things to discuss with him, with so many plans been made together, yet to be seen to their fulfillment….it felt abrupt, it truly did. But when I come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t that abrupt. Maybe he had traversed beyond the needs, wants of this world – beyond the trivialities of worldly affairs. Maybe he simply stopped appreciating the material aspect of life in that he no longer pursued it. And for that, God took him back. I realize, as I look back, maybe everything does happen at a certain time.

All these days, I have missed him terribly – and though the bitter pain has healed with a timeful patience, I miss his alot.

I just hope I could stand to his expectations – to follow him in the course he adapted to lead life, a life of a great balance between all it’s facets. I hope I could honestly claim one day that Dad would’ve been proud of me.

We shall meet again in a better abode, inshaAllah.

May he rest in peace (: