But You Had To Leave: A Fan Letter To Dr. Stephen Hawking

To,

Dr. Stephen Hawking.

Respected Sir,

It was like any other day. As usual, I was enjoying my day with a cup of coffee when my brother called me. After exchanging pleasantries for some 30 seconds, he broke the news to me. I could not bring myself to believe what I had just heard. I rushed to turn on the T.V. It was true.

“The great physicist Stephen William Hawking has passed” -was flashing across all the news channels.

Wasn’t it just yesterday when I saw you inviting time travellers on the Discovery Channel? Much time hasn’t passed since you asked if time could run backwards, or if the Universe has a boundary. These theories and ideas were enough to boggle a 12-year old’s head.

Drowned into the intriguing ideas of yours, I got interested in reading about you. The more I got to know, more I began to admire the God’s sent nobility that you were.

Often in my childhood, I used to look towards the space, with spark in my eyes, wondering what mysteries lay behind these glowing, distant patterns. Then one fine day, my father bought me a gift, a gift like none other-‘A Brief History of Time’. As I explored what the book had for my naïve self, it felt as if the book was written just for me. As if I was travelling throughout the cosmos through your mind, with those words of yours.

Every incident of your life has been a source of motivation for millions. At the spring of your youth, when you were growing personally as well as academically, when you found the love of your life, when you were finally about to put forward the equation you'd been working on since forever, the worst of the worst happened. Being diagnosed with ALS motor neuron disease is not what happens to every person. Not everyone gets to hear that he is left with just two more years at the age of twenty-one. But you believed in yourself when even your doctors did not. Any other person would have shrugged off his ambitions under 'life is so unfair' tag and gone home; you chose to go big. Who could have imagined that you'd emerge as one of the leading scientific gurus the world would see!

Now that you're gone, I'd pray to Almighty, even if you never believed in one, for your safe journey throughout the universe. You talked of information loss in black holes, funny, I believe your mark on the world would remain intact; you'd always remain with every child who fantasizes about science, in every black hole you summarized, till every string of spacetime fabric breaks. You and your work will be remembered.

You've truly lived up to your words, “No matter how hard life may seem, there is always something you can do and excel at."

It saddens me that you could not see the first image of black holes, despite dedicating your whole life studying them.

Science has predicted that many different kinds of universe were spontaneously created out of nothing. In a world where people regret not meeting Einstein and Newton, I feel blessed to have shared one with you, albeit, for a short span. I've never met you in person, but this loss of your demise is more than tough to bear. Your fading into oblivion has left a void, which no matter what, can never be filled. As the world stands together, on this departure of yours, we won't cry; with your memories safe, clutching a heavy heart, we bid you a good bye.

Rest In Cosmos!

Just another soul you inspired.

PS: As I am clicking the POST button, I hope it happens to reach you too somehow.