I remember vividly the last time I met Rafi. I went to Bangladesh in the summer of 1995 for 4 weeks. Rafi was also in Dhaka at the time. I initially planned that since that was the first time we were together in Dhaka after coming to the US, we would do plenty of things together. However, that plan somehow did not materialize. Rafi was busy with his family affairs most of the time. So I probably only saw him just 2 or 3 times during my entire stay. However, I guess he felt guilty about it. My departure flight was at 7 in the morning with my reporting time being at 5. He could not manage to come the previous day. At 1 am I got a phone call from him saying that he was coming to see me. I initially thought he was only kidding. I realized that he was not when I woke up again at 2 in the morning by the door bell. To my utter surprize, Rafi Ahmed was in front of the gate waving at me. I opened the door with him informing me that his 40 minute rickshaw ride from DOHS was a pleasant one indeed. We chatted for the rest of the night. At 4.30 a.m., I went to get ready and when I came back I found him sleeping on my bed like a baby. I said good bye to everybody and packed everything up to leave for the US and before heading for the car, woke Rafi up. Of course, all my gripes about him for not spending time with me during that visit was gone by then.

This was Rafi...impulsive, crazy and always fun to be around. It's been three years since he went back to sleep. I wish I could wake him up again to come and visit me one more time. I wish I could introduce him to my wonderful wife about whom we shared so many anxious teenage conversations. I wish I could tell him that now that I was living in his favourite city, he could come and visit me as much as he wanted.

Today is Rafi's birthday. His birthday was hard to forget since it fell on Pohela Baishakh. When we were kids, we used to have parties at his place. In the US, the wishes went in the form of a phone call or an email. Now that I have started to write up about him, there are so many stories I am starting to remember. I am not even going to try to write them all. But I know wherever Rafi is now, he is perhaps thinking about his days with us and telling us "tora manush hoili na, ekhono purano jinish niya panpan korosh; bhalo hoya ja, bhalo hoite poisha lage na".

Happy Birthday to you, Rafi !!! Hope you are having a good one up there.

--Asif