Farooque Shaikh : As I knew him.

Some people are larger than life. Farooque Saheb was one of them. This morning I woke up to the news of his passing away and for a few minutes, it just did not sink in… It was not as if we talked or messaged on daily basis a phone call once in a year, a few messages exchanged was enough. When it came to greetings on festive occasions, more often than not I found myself replying to his greetings, and he beat me to it again, just a few days back on Christmas eve.

He was a celebrity,and one does not expect them to take initiative in maintaining relationships, and yet he was a man who took efforts to maintain relationships.

I still remember, like it happened yesterday, when a few years ago I received a handwritten letter from him asking for Dr. Zarina Sani’s book (which was not in publication) and our subsequent phone calls. It was his encouragement that made me start the Devanagari transcriptions of that Ammi’s works so that it can reach a wider audience. I will forever be indebted to him for that little push which I needed at that time;  when I did not believe I would be able to take up such a big task. He not only encouraged me to start the work, he took active interest in knowing what stage the work is in. When I published “Ekkyavan” on http://zarinasani.org, he wanted to have it in print, for his collection.

Farouque Saheb you will be missed and always remembered fondly. I see yet another vacuum in my life that can never be filled.