In the Blink of an Eye!

In the blink of an eye, thats all it took, that's all it takes. Saba was in Karachi and I was back in Dubai after a short 2 week break, at home watching TV, maybe it was the IPL, when I got a call from Imran, who told me about Mianreza's passing. At first I think I was too stunned, too shocked to think or process what I had just heard. When you don't believe what you've just heard, you start quizzing the bearer of the news for more info, in a lame attempt to somehow make the story untrue, 'what? where? when? how did it happen? Mianreza, are you sure?' How can someone like him die? Is that even allowed? and just like that, he was no more.

Mianreza and I studied at the same University and then ended up in the same company. I worked at P&G for 3 years, out of which 2 years were spent working on the same team as Mianreza. It was during this time that I got to know him a bit, because to really know Mianreza, you needed to have the same amount of boundless and limitless energy that he had, which I believe is not possible for us mere mortals. 

All my memories of him are happy ones, whether it was working on a project, or coming together outside work which was very often during that time. Working on the skits we put together for our GM's farewell or dancing with him at dholkis and mehndis, or just hanging out at his place playing X-Box, I don't recall a single time where I didn't feel elated or full of life while or after having met him. 

Though I've had next to no contact with him for the past 3 years, I am somehow unable to come to grips with his loss, it still haunts me, and I keep getting flashes of his ever smiling face in front of my eyes. I can't get over how perfect he was, a constant source of fun, happiness, and encouragement. Being away from Pakistan meant that I could not take part in his last rites, and I still don't feel the closure, I still can't fill the emptiness left by his sudden and tragic departure. For some reason I couldn't even pick up the phone and call a mutual friend to share the grief, didn't know what to say, didn't know what to think. All I can muster up is reading a few verses for him from the koran, and somehow keep blessing him so that I pay him back for all the good that he spread while he was here. 

Mianreza, a good friend, a compassionate colleague, an understanding manager, a great man, a complete man, I miss you. May Allah shower his blessings upon your soul and grant you a place reserved for the best amongst us, may he grant the strength to your family and close friends to bear such an irreplaceable loss, for if I can't come to grips with your passing, I shudder to think how your family must be feeling. 

When they're taken away so young, thats when its the most sad because you think of the potential he had to bring so many more smiles to so many more faces. Though I don't understand it now, and probably never will, and I know I'm not supposed to think like this, but I still reserve the right to say that its Unfair and that this world is definitely a sadder place without him.

Mianreza, you will live forever in our memories!