Remembering Vivek aka Hawas
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Yesterday something happened that broke my heart. It was May 23, the birthday of Vivek (Hawas), who passed away in Dec 2013 due to an unfortunate accident at his workplace. And here there were people on Facebook, wishing him a “Happy birthday” with different kinds of smileys two years after he has died.
I do not recall the first time I met Vivek, it might have been some engineering workshop lab or C programming or maybe in the hostel . We had some classes together in first 3 semesters and we lived in the same hostel. Not everyone in first semester had laptop and he was one guy who everyone went to for watching movies downloaded from the campus network. He was very helpful even to the people who kind of used him for their own benefit. He was always nice to me, so much so that I recall one incident when he gave his laptop to me to watch “movies” :P
Hawas was one of the better CounterStrike players, which sometimes led to situations like this. (By the way, please do not go by his nick, he was very respectful of women, as his batchmates from Electrical engineering would agree, though he used to crack one-liners with a straight face like no one.)
We stayed in the same hostel for 2nd and 3rd year in college but due to different courses and hostel floors, our interaction was limited to mess, common room and sometimes going to each others room mostly if had a tech problem or if we needed each others help in assignments.
I remember him giving me his workshop uniform after first year so that I could give it to one of my juniors (it did not fit and that uniform is still with me). Ever helpful and trying to learn about new things that would did not even concern people who should really know them. In fact, my last online chat with him was him asking about bitcoin.
I came to know about the accident from a mutual friend. At that time, I was living in Pune and he was hospitalized in a hospital in Mumbai. I was at the helm of a growing startup and could not go and see him, not knowing how critical he was at that time, a decision I will regret the rest of my life. I had not lost anyone who I have come to know since childhood, till him. I still remember crying on the day I came to know he has passed away, never cried like that since I was a kid.
Vivek, we miss you. You were a great friend and a gem of a person. Hard to find people like you today.
