To Sir, With Love. Messages from the Heart

Abstract

Oh, the irony of life! How it teaches us things that we do not want to learn otherwise. It takes us through times
of deep sadness to reveal the meaning of true happiness. It brings upon us days of utter chaos so we can
appreciate and be grateful for peaceful times. And it takes away from us people we love and hold so dear to
make us understand what their presence truly meant to us.
Professor Faisal Masud, otherwise so reverently and lovingly referred to by all as 'Sir', was also taken away from
us suddenly. There was no warning…we got no time to prepare for a life without him. Just like that, one august
afternoon, two months shy of his 65th birthday, Sir left us for his eternal abode leaving a void that, I know, will
never be filled. It's been a little over a month now but my friends and I, who'd been closest to him, still live in a
disassociated state, functioning robotically, trying our best to grapple our way through the fog that surrounds
us. That fateful day and the events that followed seem etched in our minds forever and it takes very little to
bring it all back. We are still reeling from the suddenness of it all and keep playing, in our minds, the hours and
days leading up to his death, searching for clues that could have indicated what was to come. There have been
countless agonizing moments of self-reproach for perhaps failing to recognize signs of ill-health or not being
mindful enough towards his personal health while forever nagging him with our own problems and ailments.
Sir's passing away was unexpected, to say the least, and we have yet to fully process it. What pains us the most is
not having had the chance to say goodbye, the wish that we could somehow have known of things to come in
order to say and do what we wanted to; that we could have just had one more brief moment with Sir to tell him
how much we loved him and held him dear, apologise for the many times we might have hurt him, let him
know what he truly meant to us and how profoundly lost and insecure we feel, now that we no longer have his
sheltering presence in our lives.
This article is meant to serve as a very small tribute of love and respect to Professor Faisal Masud: a giant of a
man with remarkable intellect, a mentor to thousands and a great soul of matchless courage and confidence
who worked hard his entire life and used his position and influence for the good of his country. He lived a life
of dignity and integrity; he died in the same manner. Sir, here are some of the heartfelt things we wanted to say
to you but never got the chance. I know you won't be able to read it in this life but we are firm in our belief that
our actions in this life have a mark in the next. I hope we can tell you when, God-willing, we see you in the
hereafter