Javed grew up on the same street as my own children did, just a few houses down the street. During my early morning exercise, I would notice his mother speeding past me, ringing her doorbell several times to wake her children, and then picking up speed again.
Driving home these days, I think that, like us, Javed will have used the very same route at the end of each day to head safely home. It was in this neighbourhood that he could be seen riding his bike. It was here where he will have played and studied hard and slept soundly at night. It was here where his parents inculcated the values that people speak so glowingly of today.
But we were connected even before that. Javed's paternal grandparents were my parents' neighbours. As we ourselves grew up, we often heard our parents mentioning their names, and we overheard snippets of telephone conversations between them. Today, Javed's dad and mine are colleagues.
But our families are not only connected as neighbours and friends and colleagues. We are connected because we are parents. We understand what raising families mean. We understand the joys and struggles, and we are certain that the joys outnumber the struggles.
We cannot fathom what has happened, and we cannot imagine, even for a second, what Javed's parents and siblings and loved ones feel. But please know that we will keep you in prayer.
Verily, from God we come and to Him is our eventual return.