From the facebook wall of M. Noushad
it’s hard to write about the loss of a person with whom many memories are connected in various ways by various friends. Omar Shareef, our friend, deserves more than a facebook note or update. May be our alumni scholarship scheme is to be named after him. While listening to his father, on the second day of Shareef’s funeral, I felt a deep anguish. His father earnestly wanted the culprits – the anonymous driver who refused to stop his vehicle and take our bleeding friend to the nearest hospital – to be punished. He was sitting silently when Shareef’s elder brother Ameen and his uncle were describing the last days at the hospital.
Then came the topic of tracing the anonymous driver who collided with the bike and fled. If he had stopped the vehicle and taken him to the nearest hospital, there wouldn’t have been this much loss of blood, at least. The head injury could have been less severe. The picture perhaps would have been a bit different (yes, despite the inevitability of our fates, of course!). At this moment, Shareef’s father spoke criticizing our system and its corruption. He also expressed hope saying that our country still has a rule of law; we are not living in complete anarchy. “I am emotional in this affair. I am his father, I lost my son”, he told us in English.
Ranjith, Rajesh and I listened to him, searching for empty consoling words. We told him that we would be with the family if they’re moving ahead with the legal procedure, if they need any sort of help from us. I’m writing this to share you about this promise, my friends. It goes without saying that it has become our moral responsibility to be in touch with his family, as long as they need it, because not only it would sooth their grief to some extent, but also it might help to find and punish the culprit(s). It’s not to avenge the injustice and pain our friend and his family suffered, but to serve as a lesson for our society, where at least the civil society remains vigilant and sensitive to people’s lives and possible losses. I consider Omer Shareef a martyr of our society’s alarmingly poor civic sense, among many other people being martyred on our roads every day. Prayers for his soul.
Then came the topic of tracing the anonymous driver who collided with the bike and fled. If he had stopped the vehicle and taken him to the nearest hospital, there wouldn’t have been this much loss of blood, at least. The head injury could have been less severe. The picture perhaps would have been a bit different (yes, despite the inevitability of our fates, of course!). At this moment, Shareef’s father spoke criticizing our system and its corruption. He also expressed hope saying that our country still has a rule of law; we are not living in complete anarchy. “I am emotional in this affair. I am his father, I lost my son”, he told us in English.
Ranjith, Rajesh and I listened to him, searching for empty consoling words. We told him that we would be with the family if they’re moving ahead with the legal procedure, if they need any sort of help from us. I’m writing this to share you about this promise, my friends. It goes without saying that it has become our moral responsibility to be in touch with his family, as long as they need it, because not only it would sooth their grief to some extent, but also it might help to find and punish the culprit(s). It’s not to avenge the injustice and pain our friend and his family suffered, but to serve as a lesson for our society, where at least the civil society remains vigilant and sensitive to people’s lives and possible losses. I consider Omer Shareef a martyr of our society’s alarmingly poor civic sense, among many other people being martyred on our roads every day. Prayers for his soul.
