My friend Anil Wilson lost his battle to pancreatic cancer last week. When he first told me last October, almost in passing, that he had been diagnosed with cancer, I lapsed into stunned silence while he continued to say that he had already searched the Net and learned that there was, at best, a 2 per cent chance of recovery. He had always been so healthy that he had hardly ever even needed to take an aspirin! When he undertook what he thought was a routine medical test, the doctor’s pronouncement was devastating. Yet, in our subsequent meetings, he discussed his condition almost clinically, and went beyond it to discuss everything else that was happening around us, the forthcoming elections and, of course, matters that related to St Stephen’s College. With us always was Rita, his most supportive wife and a noted educationist in her own right. On one occasion, we spoke of our respective journeys, the need to do whatever we had to to the best of our abilities, but in a spirit of surrender to the Universe, for none of us could ever know for whom the bell tolled and when.

I first met Anil at a farewell lunch for the previous principal, Dr Hala, as early as the winter of 1991. I have to say, like my colleague and fellow Stephanian, Dr S.Y. Quraishi, I thought — rather incorrectly — that he was not the ideal choice for principal, because he had neither studied nor taught in College. He was comparatively young at the time of his appointment and he would have a very long tenure. But at that lunch, I was bowled over by his charm, his clarity of expression as well as his experience as an educationist. Over the subsequent months, I interacted with him quite closely and his ideas and his emerging vision for the college brought us together. We became friends. Our families met socially. Within about a year or so, he had blended surprisingly well into the ethos of the college. Within about two years, I began to think that he had always been there!

... contd.