We joke about death and dying. But it’s hard to accept when it actu­ally strikes. It hap­pened ear­lier in the year when a close friend lost her hus­band. He was in his 30s. Two young chil­dren. She’s never worked in her life. One day, he had a stroke and he was gone. He was trav­el­ing in another coun­try. Just like that. I asked her then, how she was cop­ing. “I don’t know,” she replied, “I still can’t believe he’s gone.” Now, of course, she feels it and all I can do is won­der how she’s man­ag­ing since she’s in another city and I have lit­tle except a few words to offer.

On August 26, I received an SMS from a dear friend in Mum­bai inform­ing me that our for­mer col­league from rediff.com, Anjum Nair, passed away the day before. He used to sit about 2 desks away from me at work. He was suf­fer­ing from stage IV can­cer and fought a year long bat­tle with the dis­ease. I met his wife Patcy a few times – always cheer­ful and smil­ing – and my thoughts go out to her. I won­der how she’s cop­ing, but like him, she is incred­i­bly brave. He touched the lives of every­one he worked with. He was 32 years old. He was way too young.

Anjum, wher­ever you are, may you rest in peace.