Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye ...
{This is NOT the re-start of my getting back to blogging that I've been threatening you guys with. It's just a one-off. I had promised myself to get activated again by mid-May, once T2F was up and running ... and I still intend to keep to that target date. But I juat had to write this, despite the fact that my mind's in a tizzy.}
Weddings - and all the events that surround it - are a bore for me. However, with increasing frequency, I seem to be attending as many as I can, in the hope of bumping into the decreasing list of friends & acquaintances and chatting about the moments and the memories we've shared.
Tonight was going to be no different. A former seafaring colleague was hosting a Valima for his son. I just had to go. My friend and two of his inlaws - both of whom were also in the Merchant Navy - had invited me to all their children's weddings in the past and I'd missed the lot, being away in Dilli or Lahore each time.
Among the sea of acquaintances I spotted an old friend (who happened, as I learnt later, to be visiting from Canada) and headed straight for him with just one thing in mind. I was trying to track the elusive blog commentator, Rayhan, who had suddenly popped into our blogs and , just as suddenly, had popped out again.
19 Comments:
Truth, as they say, can indeed be stranger than fiction.
I had the good fortune of witnessing some of the storms in comment-boxes that Rayhan often managed to whip-up and rather enjoyed the experience!
Meanwhile, I am eagerly awaiting the windmills to start running again.
:)
28 April, 2007 02:20
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28 April, 2007 02:38
Perhaps he was right in not having (or revealing) a blog of his own, because from his comments I had assumed him to be someone much older, and that usually results from knowing more than one should.
Still in a bit of a shock.
It seems cliched especially since he did not even have his own blog, but I will miss him.
28 April, 2007 02:40
During all our moments of speculation, death never once crossed our minds. He brought so much color and texture into our little blogging community. Simply can't believe he's gone. When he disappeared, there was always this hope that he'd be back. Just can't get to grips with the fact that he's gone forever. WTF? Can't think of anything coherent to say; just deeply shocked and saddened.
28 April, 2007 09:55
Deeply shocking news ZAK.
Rayhan manage to tick me off a couple of times too, but I did admire his tenaciously sharp wit.
My prayers go out to all his family and friends. For Rayhan, I pray for eternal peace.
28 April, 2007 18:29
truth be told, there were moments when i wanted to kill him with my bare hands, but this is quite shocking. he did make blogsville a more interesting place. and yes he was cute.
i wish he could bug me about another comment that i'd post here.
in my break from blogging and from the blogging world, i thought that from zak's blog he'd have shifted to sabizak's.
28 April, 2007 18:39
I think it was the Amitabh-Rajesh Khanna starrer 'Anand' that had a similar story and the beautiful 'Zindagi kaisi hai paheli...' song to go with it.
After reading your post I was also reminded of a John Updike quote where he says something like... 'The best thing about dead people is that they make space'.
Great post! And more power to Rayhan wherever he may be now.
29 April, 2007 11:41
i'm sorry Zak...he sounds like such an interesting guy. i've just gone through a lot of your archives, to read his comments.
i think it's amazing though that you unknowingly gave him so much to think about and do, in possibly his last months and that he said that you guys were responsible for the extra days. that's such an beautiful compliment.
01 May, 2007 23:59
What he propably wanted was to wake up this old ignorant wannabe "different" man.
I mean who writes "They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they are all the same."
You are not different, you are not unique, even your thoughts and opinions are just echoes of other people.
Stop the windmills, it is better to be quite and thought of as a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
An
02 May, 2007 10:34
Anonymous, you should have taken your own advice and remained quiet. A blog post about someone's death is no place for you to throw a tantrum. All of us here obviously love Zak and your coming in here and leaving an infantile comment only makes you look stupid.
02 May, 2007 11:02
@ anonymous
this was an obituary not an obitchery. but judging by your spellings you wouldn't 'quiet' know the difference.
02 May, 2007 13:22
Watch out folks its the dreaded spelling police.
I am just tryig to keep the spirit of Rayhan alive.
I am sure he woudl have agreed with my comments.
An
03 May, 2007 00:46
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03 May, 2007 21:20
the first time since tayyaba aunty's death that i just started crying... out of the blue.
i am so sorry to hear the loss of a great human being that none of us met, but all of us said a prayer for...
may his soul rest in Peace. and may God has a good enough sense of humor or Rayhan will be awfully bored! Amen.
05 May, 2007 21:50
@Sabi,
The conclusion dear is quite obvious. All one has to do is go back and read his comments.
Your wit however is scrapig the bottom of the barrel if all you can come back with is a "spelling correction".
An
06 May, 2007 01:22
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06 May, 2007 07:39
@Insi
And it won't be the last. Our friend's getting on, too.
An
07 May, 2007 22:18
Rayhan's death was tragic but he's left us and we have to move on. What's disgusting, and something we have to confront every damn day, is the lack of compassion, decency, and dignity of the human (?) race. Some of the comments on this post are callous and completely out of line. Freedom of speech doesn't mean that you say whatever the hell you want, whenever you want, without regard and respect - just because you bloody well can.
Rayhan was special for some of us. Could everyone else just leave us alone so we can grieve in peace?
08 May, 2007 00:09
I obviously didn't know Rayhan at all, since I'm more of a post-lurker than a comment-reader, but that's truly tragic. I'm so sorry to hear about it.
21 May, 2007 22:58
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