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07:18 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
April 3, 2014
I did not know him. Yet, I did. He wrote to me a month ago to say Leena (figured out who Leena was) talked about my column and this intrigued him and he just felt like making a contact, no reason, just it made him feel good.
And I wrote back on this chat thingee on Facebook and we got into a sort of conversation (which I really never do) and he began to comment on Daily Dose and I found him heap smart, erudite, happily clever and courteous and wickedly funny and I saw in his messages how much he wanted to make his dad proud of him.
This is what he said:
Referring to today's Daily Dose: It is a sad state of affairs. My hero in such situations is my father. He disregards legal complications and locks horns with authorities but would never shy away from doing what's needed immediately.
Once while on his way to a meeting, he saw a bus had just crashed and he was one of the first to reach the scene. He got out, put a few injured in the car and told the driver to take them to a large hospital that belonged to his friend. For hours he stood there and flagged down vehicles, loaded them with the injured and sent them to the hospital. He waited till the last one was carried away.
So I said to him: Good on him wish there were more like him.
And he wrote back: Yes. So many such incidents. One tends to look up to him.
And I replied: And not just that, be like him.
He said: You are right. But very large shoes to fill.
This was a week ago.
His name was Lasheen Mannayath. Was. Was. Was.
He died a couple of days ago in an accident on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway.
How did I come to know?
I came home from an IPL conference and my wife said, do you know a Lasheen Mannayath?
And I said, no.
She said, well you are on his Facebook page.
After a moment’s thought, I replied, oh, that smart young kid in a parka, awesome chap, he and I are having these chats (which I never do) on Facebook and he’s into events, we should meet him, sounds like an adventurer, there is something about him that’s impressive, why are you asking?
And she said, you don’t want to know.
Couldn’t keep it a secret, could we?
You should not have gone, my friend whom I did not know, our conversations hadn’t ended.
And for the first time just now I went on your Facebook page and read about you and your friends and their stunned state and let me just say this; you managed to leave a mark in so short a time.
Not many people get to do that.
Goodbye Lasheen and thanks so much for this interlude.
Wherever you are, young man, keep reading.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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