By: Tariq Banday
A class in himself. A genius par excellence. An avid lover of books. A wonderful friend. A great philosopher. A brain that had an exceptional quality to think, understand and analyse.
Arshad Malik was different, in more ways than one. Unlike others of his age including me, he had no love for positions and posts. He would work to the best of his capabilities with a complete sense of commitment and dedication. His loyalty to his friends, colleagues and the institutions he worked with had no parallel. In all of your thematic conversations with him, he would always make you feel a winner, even though he and even you knew that Arshad was always right and almost eternally impregnable.
Arshad’s love for loneliness was beyond imagination. Missing classes to find peace in the shadow of massive Chinars at Kashmir University’s Naseem Bagh Campus was one of his favourite ‘extracurricular’ activities during our post grad days in the Media Education Department. Initially I thought he was wasting his time but then after observing his behaviour and conversing with him on various issues at length, I could see how he had been turning this seemingly leisure into productive thinking.
In silence, he would find the reason, rhyme and rhythm to communicate, which would then get reflected in his extremely enchanting conversations. He may have read hundreds, nay possibly thousands of books, but his knowledge was far above and beyond bookish. Laden with extraordinary thinking skills, brilliant perspectives and unique understanding of issues, it was always a treat to listen to him. Though he would talk less but would always talk sense.
He would never say no to your requests and friendly commands. He was always there to listen to you, to help you out. His scholarly temperament was never an obstacle to discuss ordinary things with him. He would quickly understand your level of knowledge and comprehension and accordingly adjust his contents of communication to make you feel convincingly comfortable. To talk about his writing skills, he was absolutely magical with words. His ideas were amazing and the way he would put them in words was in itself a communication wonder.
Hearing the news of his death was devastatingly shocking. But to me the only relief is that he may have played a short innings but that has been productively prolific; calm yet catchy, simple yet successful.
Good Bye Arshad! Will miss your kind heart, beautiful mind.
The author serves J&K Bank.
