Our Self-Written Obituaries – Heena Khan, Copernicus Marg
The 45th death.
[Text by Heena Khan; photo by Ziya Khan]
Deeply religious, she lived her life behind a veil of illusions. However, sometimes, just sometimes, Heena Khan would wear her modesty quite literary, too, as a hijab. It was her private way to hide her innermost thoughts from the world’s prying eyes.
“Heena was worldly-unwise,” says her friend Payal who knew the author from their days at the J-school.
A writer, Ms Khan was forever haunted by words – her words that were locked up inside her, and which she shared with the world only after disguising them as fiction. Her prose and poetry hinted of gentle sadness.
Picky as she was, she chose to pass away in her sleep. The final moments were painless. In fact, she was dreaming of people in some far-off place who kept closely-guarded secrets, and who were just beginning to confide in her. With her, an entire set of secretive characters is lost to us.
Ms Khan never wished to die, and she continues to live with her readers – in their hopes and dreams, and also in the actualities of their tangible existence.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return.
Our Self-Written Obituaries invites people to write their obituary in 200 words. The idea is to share with the world how you will like to be remembered after you are gone. (May you live a long life, of course!) Please mail me your self-obit at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.
With her, an entire set of secretive characters is lost to us. Beautiful line. I don’t know about the set of characters, but I will miss her. Terribly.