He looked anything but sickly. It will surprise you to know that he had two consecutive heart attacks in a matter of days just by looking at him, you'll be unable to recognize the difference between regular him and ailing him. He hasn’t been the sort of a person who would be groaning in pain even if he is in constant agony. Such a jolly fellow, ever laughing and joking around; and a desire to live happily, always.
I don’t know if life is invariably cruel; sarcastic maybe. For some, it is exceptionally painful. Afzal bhai is the sort of man if life throws a lemon he’ll make lemonade and ask “Can you throw more lemons?” He has a different way of treating the world; more importantly, he sees life as he wants to. If he likes you then he will pull your legs more and if he holds a certain aversion towards you, he is going to be polite to you. It was his birthday a week ago and when we all wished him, Afzal bhai was over the moon. He’s a foodie, one of the reasons I admire him; and he’s fond of people who are foodies just like him. Food is love, he says; to be frank, I agree with him. The reason I respect him the most is that he doesn’t have a filter; whatever is in his mind so is in his mouth and won’t change a single word.
He is unapologetically, unconventionally, and uncompromisingly him.
I might have gotten a bit carried away describing the kind of character he is and completely got off the track. The day he had his heart attack was on the night of his 42nd birthday that he celebrated just a week ago and I only found out on Tuesday evening after his second attack. On Thursday, yesterday, we all went to see him although my family met him prior to that. He said to me “Dude, just imagine! I was about to die on the very same day I was born. This is laughable!” The only thing that was going through my mind was the similarities between my father’s health issues and his. My father died roughly 9 years ago, two months less than that, and he had 2 consecutive heart attacks within 3 days. When I reminded Afzal bhai about this only then he realized that he had a second heart attack 3 days after the first one; he was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to get a better and clearer picture of his health condition.
I and my family were with him for hours and by the time I got home, it was almost midnight. Although I went to see a patient but believe me I haven’t had this much fun in months. He had the energy to entertain all of us and keep communicating with his well-wishers too. The sheer willpower of this man had left me astounded. All that time we all had spent laughing and chatting away, he barely could put his phone down because so many people were checking up on him constantly and why wouldn’t they; he’s a genuine and rare breed among humans. And as often as he was apologizing for not being able to concentrate much on our conversation, I understood his situation. There he was talking to us, then dealing with his clinic (he’s a dentist), then checking up on his mother who’s flying from Dallas and stuck in a layover in Dubai (probably); he was multitasking.
I wish I could know that his condition was improving but today I got to hear from him that when the doctor did an ECG on him this evening he informed us that Afzal bhai’s heart is only 45% functional as of this moment. The emotional side of me is telling me to keep checking up on him and the practical me is saying that I should give him time to rest. I do believe that he’s not going to die yet; I don’t know if it’s my soul or my brain which keeps screaming that “No, it’s not his time yet to leave this world” and whichever it was that was speaking to me has never been wrong.
This life may sometimes play some cruel jokes with us, sometimes good people meet sticky ends, but we still have faith that it will treat us well; maybe not today but tomorrow and someday it will. Some day we’ll see rainbows and someday we’ll see shitstorms. It is a mystery; a nerve-wracking, head-scratching, tumultuous, and sometimes tranquil.
