Death lays its icy hands....
Pardon me for sharing a personal loss. We in TIOL yesterday lost a valued colleague, who was responsible for most of our work. Not many knew Nagnath - he was one of our silent unseen unheard backbones. You don't see your backbone, but once you realise that you just lost it, you are lost. Nagnath was one of our most valuable assets, not many know about him, but we in the editorial team depended so much on him. He was our watch dog; he was our strength especially in the case-law segment. The moment we made a mistake, he used to pounce on us and we would rectify it even before anyone realised it. He was the brain and body behind our CD project. He was my colleague for many years and left the department to join me in TIOL. He was so enamoured by case law that he would explain important cases to his uninterested wife. TIOL is possible only because of the selfless dedicated efforts of such unknown and unheard committed workers.
And suddenly God decided that Nagnath is more needed in the other world than with TIOL. I am writing this after I saw off my dear colleague on his last journey. As the last bodily remains of this great friend, whose sharp wit and deep knowledge, which we in TIOL had been fortunate to use to spice up our columns, were consigned to indifferent flames, with me as a helpless spectator, I am reminded that I am just a joker in the circus and the show must go on........ and it will.
But then there is somebody who took care of writing precise head-notes for your case law till yesterday and suddenly he is no more today. A trifle too difficult to bear!
A sample of his sardonic wit. The other day I told him, "I get paid only if anything is left after all the others have been paid". He reacted, "I understand, you get all that is left!"
His name was C Nag Nath and they used to call him CNN. Good Bye Nagnath, We in TIOL can never get a better replacement!