Death of a scholar--A World Lost (Agha Saeed)

 

A thousand memories come to mind--UMA, PADF, GTV.  Agha Saeed meeting with locals to decide how Muslims should vote en bloc to have a bigger impact in the US elections.  Agha Saeed coming to give a speech at the MCA after attending a meeting at the White House.  Agha Saeed hosting a program in honor of Tariq Ali.  Agha Saeed arranging literary evenings in multiple cities of the US.  And then the sad news of Agha Saeed’s stroke and his paralysis.  Subsequently, many meetings at his place in Fremont in which he communicated through his iPad and wanted to revive the organizations he had founded.

I did not get to see Agha Saeed in his last days--an excruciating regret I would have to live with.  I hope he left smiling, knowing that he influenced a lot of people and that his legacy will have a far longer life.

Masud Ghani Advocate, another curious COVID-19 casualty

 Masud Ghani Advocate, another curious COVID-19 casualty

More than anything else, it is the caprice of the COVID-19 that is a cause of anxiety for a lot of people.  One and a half-year into the current pandemic, the statistics clearly show that the new Corona virus is vicious to people over sixty-five, and to those with preexisting medical conditions.  Then why do some young, healthy people succumb to this viral infection?  Take for example the case of Masud Ghani, a lawyer from Karachi.  He was a healthy, middle-aged man; someone who should have easily defeated COVID-19…if the general trend had to be believed in.  But it did not turn out this way for him.  On get-ting infected from the virus, he ran high fever.  He stayed at home for a couple of days but when his breathing became labored, he was moved to the Civil Hospital in Karachi.  He remained in the hospital for a week and died on February 9.  
Why are some young healthy people falling prey to the virus that is normally lethal only to the sick and elderly?  Over 2.3 million worldwide COVID-19 deaths later, the medical science is still clueless about these anomalies.  Shameful!