I had been thinking of whether to write about this or not. I got news of Rusi Engineer’s demise this afternoon.

He wasn’t exactly a friend, I hadn’t known him beyond meeting him a couple of times and that too among other people. Yet I knew much about him, from our brief interactions, and from hearing about him from other friends in ISABS.

How really do you speak of the death of someone you admired, though you weren’t very close to? Someone who was a part of the community you belonged to, someone who was an influence on the learning and the society that is precious to you?

All I can say is Rusi was a professional member of ISABS with all its people wisdom that is implied. He was a fighter against the cancer that would have taken his optimism far before if allowed. He was an open person not afraid to be himself.

His demise is a loss. His funeral was today afternoon and there is a prayer meeting for him on Saturday at his home. I think that meeting is more for our healing than his. The community needs to mark his presence and to express the empty of his missingness.

I am sad, and for all the lack of contact between us, I will miss his influence on my world.