Izhar…. a legend!
“I think you have every right to know that your friend , that is me, is suffering from Cancer and is fighting it right now in Bombay Hospital,” was the message I received one day from Izhar.
“What nonsense,” I said to myself. Not ready to accept it, for obvious reasons, I immediately dialed his number. As soon as I heard his voice I knew he was serious about it. Rest is understood as it is not always important to hammer the obvious. I don’t know what my silence conveyed to him and how many his words consoled me.
I had not met Izhar then, but we were connected through e-mail, FB and telephonically.He happened to read my article in Kasmir Times and sent one mail as feedback in response, that goes like this:
Awesome story
Inbox | x |
| 12/15/09 |
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Dear Veena, read your story in Kashmir Times "entitled" "I saw God in his eyes". It made for a good read. It has been wonderfully penned down and takes a reader right into what you and your family had experienced at that time. I hope things will and are changing for the better. We will again be one. I will able to sit with all my Burn Hallian friends, including Sunny Pandita, Pankaj Mahaldar, Sanjay Razdan, Ajay Mam, Vikram Handoo and many others. I wish, I could see them all again. I miss my favourite teacher Munshi Sir. I miss your community like anything as my father, a university scientist had over a dozen Pandit friends and I used to enjoy the company of my well-read uncles and their kins. God bless you and your family always....regards Izhar
| 12/21/09 |
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. Yes, I was in Burn Hall between 70s and 80s. Sunny used to secure first position in almost all the standards. He is a refined guy, always talked sense and his speech at times had no parallels. I haven't seen him after matriculation but a school mate -- Adil Bashir -- told me Sunny is in
We grew along with this friendship. It was a wonderful relationship. There would be time when we would not be in touch for a month or so, but when we would, it would be like as if we had been constantly in touch. I would not consciously think of him. But when I would, it would be acknowledgement to a constant being within me which perhaps needed no acknowledgement. We hadn’t seen each other but I had introduced him to my family. he promised a number of times that he would come to
He was full of life, very pleasant to talk to, a very good photographer besides being a journalist by profession. Above all he was secular by character .once he wrote while we were discussing political scenario of j&k:
| 4/21/10 |
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Dear Veena
Not only Jagmohan, the fear also played its role in the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Muslim-majority
He lived every change in nature and captured it through his camera and pen. His latest photographs of winter in
Who could have thought of such a deadly disease to such a lovely person. Not atleast me… but for this heart breaking SMS. That day onwards when I would call him, he would console me by saying, “I will fight it Inshaallah! But pray for
It is during this time that I happened to go to Sgr. And it was then i.e. on 28th of July, 2011, I happened to meet him for the first time and alas, for the last time as well…. to have that one life time memory. We fixed the evening time. I along with my brother went Dalgate, his home, to meet him. He had given me his address and I had requested him to remain indoors as I would be able to locate the address and I would manage to reach him. When we were about to reach his home I saw him waiting outside, on the road, which he later on explained that he could not hold himself indoors that time. I saw him coming in our direction and I asked my brother to stop the car. I got down and heard myself asking, “Izhar?” and him replying, “Veena?” simultaneously. He extended his hand and by the time I realized I have to extend mine in response, he had withdrawn his. Shaking or not shaking hands did not matter… in fact nothing mattered. We were meeting for the first time as if we had departed a minute ago or perhaps never departed at all. That day he introduced us to his family. We were together for about an hour. He came to see us off at the main gate of his home. Again it was difficult to depart…. Depart never to see each other again or depart to be in everlasting bond of friendship and purity and of selfless and sincerity… the bond I am still bound by.
Your explanation of Izhar and the bond you shared is beautiful, almost too much for a medium like this to handle, but must say you have managed well. I would say you have been lucky to have known someone like Izhar. Of course Izhar's untimely death is absolutely tragic.
ReplyDelete:) very beautiful, some relationships are so beautiful :)
ReplyDeleteA tragic story about a real man...
ReplyDeleteVeena,
ReplyDeleteI compliment you for your beautiful expression of
the relationship ..you could be a prolific fiction writer..
thanks sanjay and mari....
Delete@ agnishekhar:
thanks for the compliment...i wish i could have been one. your saying so matters a lot to me. i am elated.