characters volume four - meet tabrez

it is difficult to imagine that i have known tabrez for over 8 years now. the first time i met him was a few months after i came back from the usa, when he had come home with ranjit for their final year engineering project. my father was their guide. at that time, tabrez thought i was the teenage son of my father and paid me little attention. gradually as the years went by tabrez became and integral fixture of our lives. every sunday he would find his way over from kurla where he lived with his mother and two sisters (his father was in the uae) or from malabar hill where he gave tuition to young brats in mathematics. he used to be invariably late all the time in coming home. if he said he was going to be there at 11, it was for certain that he would not be there until 5 in the evening. it was frustrating, but all frustrations were dispelled when he came home and laughed his big cackling laugh. and then he was there till some late hour talking about some thing or the other- some clever way to make money, some new deal he had struck, some new arrangement he had made. we became close very rapidly and ranjit, sonal, tabrez and me have spent a lot of time in the low light of my room listening to odd new music (tabrez actually has no ear for music at all) and having earth shattering discussions about love lives and family whom he cared for dearly having this grave sense of responsibility of being the eldest boy, or rather- the man of the family while his father was away.

i don’t think i knew anyone with as much focus and drive as him. the both of us even came up with an idea for a web site for hsc education that he went ahead and registered ‘lastminutestudy.com’. nothing came of it, naturally- but it was fun while it lasted.

he seemed to have his entire life planned out for the next 15 years, every aspect of it was predetermined- professional and personal. and then step by step we saw him going through the motions of living up to his plan. first the teaching assignments at andrews, then the management program at rizvi, and then love that led into marriage. looking back, i realise that it has not been easy but has been made so by his intense energy and drive. it used to tire me a si always felt rather like a lump in his presence.

he moved to dubai a few years back and came home yesterday after his wedding for the first time yesterday. it was quite a surprise. marsha came along with him too and we got to know her a little for the first time. she is delightful and to watch them banter was a lot of fun. they seem to be enjoying themselves in dubai- mall hopping in air conditioned splendour, cooking for each other and washing vessels too. it is sad that he leaves back for dubai in a week. i would have liked to spend some more time with him, to talk a little like we used to. maybe a trip to dubai sometime…

marsha