Dear Sir,
I am short of words. I do not know what to write and from where shall I start. While writing this piece I might make some mistakes because you will not be able to check it for corrections. Still, if this write up reaches you sir, I request you to visit me in my dream or mail me the corrected copy of it, the way you used to send me my corrected research articles and corrected copies of various chapters of my PhD thesis.
Sir, how can I forget the first moment when I went to you four years back as a scholar. Your smile on day one of my research lasted for all these years and has created a permanent image in my visual cortex. Your encouraging words regarding research will be missed. The way you motivated me to work on a research topic of great importance in one of the fragile protected areas of Kashmir gave me proof of the famous saying that “nothing is impossible but only thinking makes it so“.
Sir, whatever I got during these four years in my career is permanently written there and all credit goes to you. Sir, I am glad in one thing that my name and yours will remain as inseparable before the scientific community in the form of various research articles that we published together. How can I open my PhD thesis that lies in front of me with your signature on its front page? How can I open my PhD documentation file, where on each leaf your beautiful handwriting is there?
Sir, how can I forget your words. While writing this one, I feel you in my room, telling me again and again, “Hameem it should be crisp”.
Sir, everyone among us prayed for your healthy life during the holy month of Ramadan. Your name was synonymous with my supplications and supplications of my parents during the month. University of Kashmir in general and Zoology department in particular have lost a talented, student friendly teacher, and a researcher.
Sir, more often people enquire a research scholar, not regarding his progress of research work but his relation with his research supervisor. Same used to be with me every time I met my friends. To this question, I used to answer them in typical Kashmiri, “Fazili sir chu dilbar…” Sir, in you, this is what we have lost today!!! We have lost a true friend, we have lost a mentor, we have lost a teacher, we have lost a visionary human. How can I forget the way you consoled me last year on the loss of my grandma. How can I forget you? Perhaps, besides my parents and grandparents, you were the only person who used to enquire if I have enough in my pocket. By working under your guidance for all these years I got a proof of a famous saying that “A good teacher is next to God“
Sir, don’t know how I type all this stuff while you walked far away from all of us. I have many questions for you sir. But let me ask you only two of them-
i. Please let me know if it was you whom I saw in the shroud yester-evening???
ii. Sir, was it you whom I saw lowered into the grave yester-evening???
If it is true, then only one thing I can say-
“May Almighty Allah shower his choicest blessings upon you and give eternal peace to your soul”.
Allah Hafiz
Hameem Mushtaq Wani is a Research Scholar at Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir