A decent life April 18, 2021 For some years now I A Rehman Sahib, who passed away gracefully and in harness at age ninety last week, would let out a wry lament, ‘Fighting state oppression presented a clearer adversary than is the case now.’ Society itself had darkened through the years. No matter. He continued to smile, take short, resolute steps and push back against the shadows. He leaves behind a mighty message. One does what one must to preserve decency in society and to live a decent life oneself. Rehman Sahib’s comrade for decades, Professor Amin Mughal, once described for some of us the creed by which the doctor in Camus’ novel ‘The Plague’ lived, even when his efforts seemed so inadequate in quelling the disease. “He did not leave the city when he could have because to do so wouldn’t have looked good. Comrade, the doctor running away from his patients would have been a grotesque spectacle”. Some posts must be guarded, not because it is heroic to do so but because it is what one does. Rehman Sahib never abandoned his post. Till the end he questioned, exposed and resisted. The immediate questions he leaves behind ultimately coalesce into a challenge to the nature of the state that we inhabit. Consider.