life

Goodbye

This morning began with bright sunshine. Within moments, it was overshadowed by the heartbreaking news of the untimely passing of one of my dearest friends.

We had been friends for over fifty years.

Ours was the kind of friendship that quietly grew alongside life itself. We witnessed each other’s victories and setbacks, celebrated milestones, weathered disappointments, and watched our lives unfold along very different paths. We chose different careers, built different worlds, yet never doubted that we could count on each other whenever life demanded it.

Curiously, we almost never called upon that promise. Beyond an occasional introduction to a prospective customer, our friendship asked for nothing and gave everything. It was built entirely on trust, respect, and the comfort of knowing the other person existed.

Our families knew each other mostly through the stories we told.

He chose to remain single, dedicating his life to his family and friends. A frequent traveller because of work, he lived simply, spoke little, carried immense kindness in his heart, and had an unwavering faith in God. He never sought attention, yet he quietly became the person many leaned on.

Learning that a suspected insect bite had taken his life within just a few days was difficult to comprehend. Something so small, so invisible, could end a life so meaningful. It reminded me how fragile our existence truly is.

His home today was overflowing with people. Family, colleagues, neighbours and friends. Many of them knew only him and no one else in the room. The gathering silently testified to a life that had touched countless others, often without anyone noticing.

Among all the emotions of the day, one sentence from his mother will remain with me forever.

“He has left us. Don’t stop visiting me while I am still here.”

There are moments when words become heavier than grief itself.

People cope with loss differently. Some try to fill the void. Others quietly learn to live around it. Neither is right nor wrong.

As I drove back home, one thought stayed with me.

In the end, we leave behind neither our possessions nor our achievements. We leave behind the memories we create in the hearts of others.

We cannot take those memories with us. But they become the gentle threads through which we continue to live in the lives of those who loved us.

Thank you, my dear friend, for over fifty years of trust, laughter, conversations and silent companionship. You made my life richer simply by being in it.

Sadgati Praptirastu.
You will be remembered. Always.
——
You left without a last goodbye,
Like evening folding into sky.

Yet every heart your kindness knew
Now keeps a little light from you.

Perhaps we never truly part.
We simply change
The place we live,
From beside each other
To within each other’s hearts.

~ mh

When Desire Learns to Speak Louder Than Doubt

For the longest time, I believed that courage was the absence of doubt.

Age has a way of correcting such misunderstandings.

Looking back, I cannot remember a single meaningful journey that began without doubt sitting quietly beside me. It was there when I started my first venture with more enthusiasm than resources. It was there when I walked away from familiar paths into unfamiliar opportunities. It was there when I stood before rooms full of people, expected to have answers while secretly wondering whether I was asking the right questions myself.

Doubt, I discovered, is not an intruder.

It is a permanent resident of the human condition.

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The Invisible Inheritance of Care

There are some phone calls that do not begin with a ringtone.

They begin with a feeling.

A sudden tightening in the chest. A strange alertness before the mind has processed anything. A silence in the room that changes shape.

It was sometime past midnight when the phone lit up beside the bed. Her name appeared on the screen – my former colleague’s daughter. For a brief second I simply stared at it, disoriented by the hour more than the name itself.

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