HE HAD the bright intellect of an engineer and the throbbing heart of an artist. He was an accomplished engineer, painter, published poet and author who was also deeply immersed in spirituality, sports and photography. In life, he kept his amazing versatility to himself; never showing off, never seeking accolades. But the inspiring story of Rashid Hamza needs to be told, at least now that he’s no more. Born and brought up in Mahdi Bagh in Nagpur, Rashid was a top-notch professional – a mechanical engineer who retired as the General Manager of Tata Power. He was also an unusually gifted artist whose work fascinated all who saw it, including people like Ratan Tata and Dr Mohan Bhagwat. A kind, humble, soft spoken, jovial, God-fearing and talented person, Rashid joined the Maharashtra State Electricity Board as a junior engineer at Paras, later climbing to the rank of Deputy Chief Engineer at Koradi. From here, he was sent on World Bank assignment to Zimbabwe for ten years.

 

He came back to India in 1998, at 55 years of age, happy to join Tata Power Company as General Manager. He retired in 2004. Apart from his professional life, the real worth and charm emanated from his selfless social service, his acts of kindness, and his passionate pursuit of so many hobbies in spite of many health issues. He was always thankful to our Spiritual Leaders for their guidance and blessings and ready to serve them and the community in any way that he could. Rashid’s long list of hobbies includes badminton, golf, cricket, chess, photography, reading novels, writing poetry and short stories, sketching, painting, gardening and even cooking. He was lucky to receive useful tips and paint alongside his wife’s uncle, Yakub Malak, an internationally renowned artist.

 

Apart from making portraits of our Spiritual Leaders and his own family members, he was tasked with making portraits of celebrities like singer Ghulam Ali, former CJI Sharad Bobde, and Justice Zaqa Haq, which were presented to them. He also made a portrait of the late Ratan Tata, which he presented to the legendary industrialist. He also painted a collage of 56 miniature water colour paintings on a single sheet of paper, depicting scenes from all the States and Union Territories of India, a copy of which was presented to Dr Bhagwat when he visited Mahdi Bagh. But perhaps his greatest passion was sketching. He always carried a sketchbook and would capture any interesting subject with quick strokes of his pen or pencil. He has left behind more than fifty sketchbooks as his legacy. Once when he was in Rwanda, he was sketching two magnificent hills.

 

The next day an article appeared in a Rwanda magazine about him which said, “From the water plant of Kimisagara, the view of Mount Jali and Mount Gisozi is impressive. In twilight, a man is seen standing before the two large water-basins. Although he is an engineer specialised in water and power plants, he has eyes for nothing but the two majestic hills while he is making a sketch of them in his notebook. After only two days in Rwanda, this representative of one of the bidders has already yielded to the country’s charm. He will return to his country with a series of sketched souvenirs of the land of the Thousand Hills, in between pages filled with notes of megawatts, water flows and other technical notes that only engineers understand.”

 

During COVID, Rashid started writing short stories and poems with unusual endings which were compiled in a book titled, ‘Twisty Tales and Rhymes’. He published it and placed it for sale on Amazon and Kindle. Within a short time, he was a published writer. Later he also wrote and published his autobiography titled ‘My Story’. He lived his life to the hilt, always making the best use of time and setting a very healthy example. Though there is a lump in our throats, we take solace in one of the many sayings quoted by him in his book, ‘My Story’: Say not in grief, “he is no more,” but in thankfulness that “he was”.