Pyar

"He spake well who said that graves are the footprints of angels."  ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I've been feeling nostalgic these past few days as I've started the month of personal introspection that always preceeds my birthday.  I've been thinking about the people who played a part in my life in years past but have somehow slipped away.  One of the people on my mind was my old friend Pyar Dossal.  I haven't seen him in about fifteen years since he retired and I left my executive position with the bank.  So it was with surprise and sadness that I read the notice of his death in today's paper.  

Pyar was a facinating man.  I worked with him at an insurance company in the 1980s.  He was an actuarial executive; I a human resources specialist.  It was a young company with most of management in their thirties or forties - except for Pyar.  Pyar was thirty years older than I am.  I was just thirty when I went to work at the company.  In those days I didn't know Pyar well.  He was quiet and unassuming.  I was young and bold.  I remember speaking with him as he packed up his office when he left the company.  It is the only time I remember saying more than good morning or good night.

Some years later I ran into Pyar when I was working downtown.  He had become a pension consultant, I had moved into the ranks of senior management as a human resources executive at an American bank.  He invited me to lunch and I accepted.  That was the first of many delightful lunches we shared.  Within a couple of months, I fired the pension consultant we were using at the bank and hired Pyar.  Over the course of the next few years, we got to know one another.  He introduced me to the world of Indian cuisine.  We talked about our families, our lives, our hopes and dreams.  He spoke to me about his work with Amnesty International and about his life as a young boy in India.  Those lunches were special.  I'm grateful that I got a second chance to know Pyar.  He taught me to open my eyes to the quiet, unassuming person in the corner that I might otherwise miss seeing.

Pyar Dossal left the world a better place for his having been in it.  Sleep well my friend.  You've earned your rest.