Goodbye to Salim Chowdhrey
It’s been only 10 days since we said goodbye to Dr. Salim Chowdhrey our friend for 50 years. Salim and Meher got married at around the same time as us, and our dear friends Shaheen S Ahmed and Sultan Bhai had a joint wedding reception for us both at their home in New Jersey in 1975.
Dr. Salim Chowdhrey will be missed by us all. Even today, Shahid and I said to each other “we cannot believe he is no more”. But as we are reminded as Muslims, our bodies leave but our souls join another universe. May Salim be at peace and may his kind and gentle character, his community support and his philanthropy- especially with The Citizens Foundation (TCF) always be his legacy. As our sheikh says, we are a sum of our actions here on Earth and may we remember his good actions.
Below is a remembrance from Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed, Shahid’s older brother, who also knew Salim.
“I am sad again. I just learnt the sudden passing of our dear friend Dr. Salim Chowdhery. Why?
He was exuberant, smart and easy going. He practiced psychiatry and treated innumerable patients with various psychiatric disorders. He had a solo practice but was also associated with Saint Barnabas Medical Center (Short Hills) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick).
I met Salim in early 1970s at a social gathering of Pakistanis in New Jersey. It turned out that he and I belonged to the same community that migrated to Karachi from Delhi after partition. He had just finished his residency in psychiatry and was ready to practice what he learnt. We became friends and few months later talked about his arranged marriage plans. He married Mehar, a physician, in Karachi. I met his delightful wife at their wedding reception in New York. Salim and Mehar settled in a lovely house in Short Hills and held many dinner parties of increasing circle of friends. My niece married Mehar’s nephew and our relationship grew even more.
Salim leaves a gaping hole among family and friends. We just have to be glad that we were able to spent some quality time with a great personality. Salim will be missed by those who were his family, friends or even those who merely knew him.”
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