Hyderabad, Jan. 1 -- Sometimes, it is difficult to write about a person one is familiar with. I find myself in this very predicament while sitting down to pen these lines on former Law Minister Asif Pasha, who passed away on December 28.Death transforms someone you know into someone you knew - a truth that feels painfully real today.

I was with him just a day earlier, on December 27, when he felicitated Faizan Zaki, the young prodigy who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee Championship in the United States.At 96, Pasha appeared remarkably healthy, alert and spirited. He had come to the MediaPlus office at Gun Foundry to collect a copy of his much-awaited autobiography, No Regrets.

Holding the book in his hands, he gently flipped throu...