Sad Day

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Everyone on the campus was sad today as a greatly loved student, Sashi, completed his studies and left today for his home in far away Nagaland. One of our friends said she cried over the weekend every time she thought about Sashi being gone.

Nagaland is a territory of a number of indigenous tribes that straddles the borders of India and Burma. Sashi lives on the Indian side of the border and is a staff member of the Oriental Theological Seminary there. He told me they have about fifty students.

Nancy and I got to know Sashi through his work in the library repairing older, damaged books and preparing new books for placement on the shelves. Sashi had a quick smile, was extremely friendly, was always willing to help others. He loved people here and people loved him.

When I first saw Sashi I thought, “I wonder what part of Asia he is from? Maybe Indonesia.” I would never have guessed he was from India. I read on the Internet that only people of the various tribes live in Nagaland Indian nationals have not moved there. Each tribe has its own unique language and there are even differences in language between villages of the same tribe. Sashi said that all the teaching at the seminary is in English.

Sashi sent everyone at the seminary here an e-mail the night he left expressing his love for the school and the people here. In the e-mail he wrote of the beauty of Nagaland and of how wonderful it is for hikers. So, all you hikers start making your plans to visit and hike in Nagaland. There is no question the seminary could use volunteers and supporters. Good, religious books mailed to their library would be most welcome.

The only thing we have found so far that we do NOT like about this seminary is the fact that so many people come into our lives who we quickly come to care for and then they leave. From the very first week we were here when we met so many wonderful librarians from all over the world until this week when Sashi left, we have said hello and goodbye all too quickly to really wonderful people. It must be very hard to work and teach here when you know those who live with you may leave long before you are willing to say goodbye. We will never forget Sashi and we dream already that we may be able to go and help in his seminary library some day, but we know that might not be possible. He will remain in our hearts and in our prayers.

All day long, from breakfast until the end of the day talks in the halls, it seemed everyone was talking about how sad they had felt all day. What an impact Sashi made on us all.

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Photos

Sashi and Harold
Sashi left early this morning for his home in Nagaland.

Sashi With Fellow Library Workers
l to r : Bill, Sashi from Nagaland, Tina from Macedonia, Mirka from the Czech Republic, Katerina from Kazakhstan, Nancy, and Honza from the Czech Republic. We all will miss Sashi.