On the death of a friend

For unknown reasons, I was reminded of a friend with whom I had lost touch over the past years, particularly after moving to Oregon.

So, I googled him ... only to find out that Shahab Rabbani died almost two years ago.

Monday, June 9, 2008
In Memoriam: Dr. Shahab Rabbani, SPPD Alumnus
from SPPD Staff Reports
The USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development deeply mourns the loss of an exemplary – and beloved – member of its alumni community, Dr. Shahab Rabbani.
After a years-long battle with cancer, Dr. Rabbini has passed away. His funeral services took place on Friday, June 6, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Shahab was from Iran, and was one of the many who were forced to exit the country after the theocratic revolution in 1979.  His exit was a story struggling his way through sympathetic Eastern European countries, then to Western Europe, and finally to the Land of the Free.

We had quite a few lunches together, and occasional dinners too.  Learnt a lot about Iran and some of the cultural aspects there.  Through him I came to know about a religion called "Mithraism", which apparently was a serious competitor to Christianity back in Rome. It was fascinating to find out how much Mithraism, Hinduism, and the Zorastrian faith have/had in common, and how Christianity itself has a lot of common ground with Mithraism.

Shahab's parents--his mother, in particular--were big fans of Indian movies, even from their years in Tehran. I quote Shahab ofen; he said something along the lines of: "my mother could not understand a word uttered in the movies.  But, she laughed when the heroine laughed and cried when the heroine cried, and enjoyed the songs."  Of course, the older Hindi songs were unlike the contemporary ones--the older songs in Hindi often reflected the Persian cultural heritage that the Mughals brought with them.  His parents were also rice eaters and Shahab joked that if there was no rice served at parties that his parents went to, well, after they returned home they would eat a little bit of rice :)   

Shahab was more a creative arts person than the architect/planner that worked as in his day job.  I suspect that he enjoyed the arts infinitely more.  I remember going to the first exhibition that he had of his photos--in the library at Beverly Hills.  The guy was in his elements, and significantly different from his persona at work, and more like the person he was at the lunches and coffees we had.  One of the sites still has links to some of his works, along with an email address to contact him. (That is from where I grabbed the photo.)  I suppose you never cease to exist in the internet.

Shahab did get married, finally, and he and Olga visited us when we lived in Bakersfield.  I am still searching through to track that photo down :(

I guess sometimes we drift away in our lives and soon we lose contact with people that we later wish we hadn't drifted away to the point of not even knowing that there was a long battle with cancer and then death.

Am absolutely glad our paths crossed, Shahab.