Khan Sahab Is No More!

Khan Uncle is no more! I feel that the best way to give you a glimpse of the wonderful personality of this man would be to quote his own words. Immediately after his engagement with Shama aunty, her brother came up to Khan Uncle and said “Khan Sahab, meri behen Shola hai shola!” Not to be outdone, maintaining his composure, Khan Uncle wittingly replied “Koi baat nahi! Tumhari behen shola hai to mein baraf ki laadi hoo… usey pighla doonga.” This probably exemplifies the personality of this humor-loving and witty personality.

Khan Uncle passed away last month (I’ve been wanting to put up this post since long!) after a prolonged illness. But even in death, he showed his true character. After he suffered 2/3 continuous heart attacks, the doctor said that he would survive a maximum of 24 hours. Well, he struggled for a full three weeks before his end finally came!

Who Khan Uncle is and how was he related to me is a long story. In short, he was a family friend and had worked in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)—the same company in which my father worked. At IOC, he worked from one table and one office for 25 long years! Reason: Every time he was due for promotion or transfer, his superiors insisted that his salary be increased and he be retained in the same office. The result was that after his retirement, the department itself was closed (amalgamated with another department)!

Every person right from his colleagues to the peon approached him with their problems. Why even peons approached him for help them with the admissions of their children. He would readily grab a pen and write a letter to the principal of the school as if he/she was his childhood friend. The interesting thing is that such ideas did work a considerable number of times. So, for every problem, Khan Uncle had one solution: Ok, get my pad, Ha, so what is the name of that person…. Ok… Dear…. Remember we had met at the park last month?

Hearing the news of his death, my brother remarked “Now, Shama aunty will find it very hard and lonely to carry on with life. Khan Uncle had very good Akhlaakh (loosely translated, mannerisms).”

Truly, nowadays, very few people have the kind of akhlaakh he had. He’ll always be an inspiration for me. It’s a pity that there are very very few people with good akhlaakh around now.