Remembering Rahul: A comrade and spirited activist

18 May 2009, 0440 hrs IST, TNN
May 5. It was 6 am. Rahul's lifeless body lay before our eyes. We stared at it in disbelief, hoping he would get up and talk to us.


His wife Twinkle wept inconsolably and his son Swaraj, 7, sat by his side in a daze. He had just come from his grandfather's room and had no idea what had happened. The boy who waited every night for his father, did not know that he would never come back.

Rahul was only 36. At 5 am, a massive heart attack claimed his life and before the paramedics arrived, he was no more. When he was being taken for post-mortem, I noticed the gold necklace around his neck and bent to remove it. Swaraj whispered, "Gently please, it will hurt," and the statement shook my heart. My guess was right: The little boy had no clue his father was gone forever.

The hearse came and as Rahul's body was being hauled, he asked, "But why is papa still unconscious?" Nobody said anything, as Twinkle gently took her son away.

Rahul's parents were shocked. Their son had gone before them. To lend a shoulder for own son's funeral procession can be a crushing blow for any parent. But they did not cry and that worried me. Perhaps they had steeled themselves because they had to look after Twinkle and Swaraj.

Rahul had joined us at The Times Of India only about 18 months back. An activist at heart, he had specialised in Right to Information (RTI) Act and used it to fight for people. He used to train Gujarat government officials on RTI. He would write about RTI's success stories and be euphoric if he won a case under the act.

The six-feet tall Rahul was always fighting with the system and had the unusual ability to fight back after defeat. I remember how he would be lost in thoughts and smoke one cigarette after another.

On that fateful night of May 4, Rahul seemed in a different mood, at work till about 10.30 p.m. Normally a quiet guy, that day he was freely cracking jokes. He even hid a burger brought by a colleague something quite unlike Rahul. The colleague asked everyone, as Rahul wore a mischievous smile on his face and said, "You will get it back, but will you give me half?"

The fun continued till late in the night. It was 10.45 pm when Rahul and two other collegues called up senior AMC officials and pulled their leg on a press note issued by an animal-rights group that wanted chicken statues to be erected at busy road junctions to protest non-vegetarinaism. Then Rahul planned to take the joke a step forward the next day and distribute copies of the press note to government and AMC offices.

But, the next day at 5,15 am, I got a call saying Rahul was terribly unwell. By the time I got ready there was another call saying he was gone. I refused to believe it.

At the besna, Twinkle found it difficult to control her tears. Just then, little Swaraj suddenly took a handkerchief, wiped her tears and poured her a glass of water for her. It struck me like a bolt of pain that the little lad suddenly looked very grown up.