Character sketch of shahid ali

In the beginning of Amitav Ghosh's account of his friend Agha Shahid Ali, we encounter a young man who was fast approaching his death. He had been under treatment for cancer for some fourteen months but he could still stand on his feet and spoke lucidly albeit with occasional lapses of memory. He possessed a superior intellect, an irresistible charm, a certain frankness and candour of manner. He did not take his illness too seriously and would often make light of his failings. A powerful personality, his voice was like none other, at once lyrical and fiercely disciplined, engaged and yet inwardly deep. Agha Shahid Ali specialised in the most trivial exchanges, speaking about food, half-forgotten figures from the past, a convivial and enthusiastic man who loved entertaining in company in spite of his failing health. Shahid had the magician's ability to transform the mundane into the magical, he was a man who loved life and all its attendant paraphernalia. Even in his darkest moments, he could make other people laugh. Shahid never lost track of the progress of the evening's meal. He could tell from the smell alone what the exact stage in the preparation of rogan josh. He set great store on the authenticity and exactitude of food preparation and would not tolerate any deviation from traditional methods. He pitied those who took shortcuts in life. he had a special passion for the food of his region as a Kashmiri Pandit. He used to have a recurrent dream in which all the Pandits had vanished from the valley of Kashmir and their food had become extinct. It was a nightmare that haunted him and he returned to it continuously in his conversations and poetry. He was a man given to enjoying life and experiencing everything that came his way. Shahid was fond of Begum Akhtar's music, an abiding presence in his life. He was also an experienced practitioner of repartee and had several interesting anecdotes to share. Agha Shahid Ali could be the life and soul of any gathering, a figure of poignancy and pathos who never stopped living life even when life gave up on him.