This too shall pass: On the loss of my buddy, Alireza.
I've tried many times in the last few weeks to write about an utterly tragic incident in my personal life, but I found myself speechless every time. I lost one of my closest friends of all time – definitely the closest in the city. I'm trying my best to write a few lines in the hope of being able to move on or at least cope with it. I got to know Alireza about ten years ago when I graduated from engineering school and was moving to Vancouver. He was my cousin's fiance, Susan, who married her a year later. We formed a friendship group with my cousins and some of our friends. We called it the Vlad Group – Vlad was the name of a kind Armenian officer we…