At 11.30 pm last night I got a SMS from a friend. This is what it read “Just heard from my friend at the Oberoi. The last body out was Rohinton’s! I'm dumbstruck”. The funeral was today at 3.45 pm.
Rewind to a few days ago when I first heard that Rohinton was stuck at the Oberoi. I smiled to myself and told a friend. I feel sorry for those poor terrorists. We all had a good laugh. Such was our belief in Rohinton. We never ever thought that we would see this day. Such was my belief in my friend, who I knew for 15 years. 15 years of working with him, fighting with him, playing the fool with him. In fact, I don’t think I ever really did business with him! We were friends. PERIOD.
I remember when he got his first O2. It was a phone he had little clue about. (He mastered it later though). The software did not have the ability to recognise an SMS. And the sender’s name was only a number. It drove Rohinton insane. I had a similar model and I dug into the Net and found a patch. It worked! I called up Rohinton and told him. I could sense the relief when it started working and his calls of gratitude as well as the SMS. That was Rohinton. And when I graduated to a new O2, while he stuck to his old one with an antennae, I always called him and told him if I was speaking to the bawa with the antennae phone? It drove him mad and the usual response was a slew of the choicest vocabulary that the Hindi language can offer.
What will I give to hear that vocabulary again. That jocular face, the genuine concern in his voice for me when I came back from Singapore, always telling me that I should be doing much more than what I am, and that I am worth much more. Coming from him, I always believed him. Such was my faith in our friendship. No more. No more.
Our last time together was at a Goan restaurant that he loved. I even forget the damn name. We had a great time and that is all I will want to remember Rohinton for. He had that uncanny knack of making people love him. “Chief, when you are next in Mumbai, do give me a call and we will get together for a drink. Same place. Yes?” “Of course”, I would say.
Rohinton, my friend, adieu. This is one promise I will never be able to keep again.
(Rajul Kulshreshtha, Managing Director, Motivator, GroupM)
Extracted from Rajul Kulshreshtha’s blog