Goodbye, Guiding Light

 

Ashis Kumar Mallik, 13.09.1954 – 16.09.2020.

Maa & I miss you every single moment. I'm trying to control the tears, but they seem to have a way of their own. Wherever you are, Baba, I hope you are at peace.

Thank you for teaching me the meaning of honesty & integrity, of perseverance and patience, of practising what you preach and finding joy in the little things. Thank you for the many sacrifices you made, neither the magnitude nor the worth of which I will ever be able to repay. For me, Kipling's lines - "If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, / If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too; / If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, / Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, / Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, / And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise" - have always been about you.

I hope I can always keep you alive within me. And I hope in the days to come, if we make it past these wretched times, I can be someone whom people call out to, with joy, pride and fond remembrance –

“Oi j Ashis da’r chhele.”