Dr. Rubina Inayat/ Peace At Last

Dr. Rubina Inayat 

Peace At Last

by Dr. Nasir Gondal

This Wednesday, the 17th of June,  I was robbed of a friend.

She was not feeling well for some time. Apparently she felt better in between.  Then things worsened. Ambulance was called and she was taken to the hospital. Somewhere along the way she left for somewhere else.

Rubina Inayat was a private person. Knowing her and Sajid for almost two decades, I did not know that she was sick, and she was sick for a long time. They kept it close to their chest. That is perhaps it came as a shock for most of us.

For many of us, APPNA is extended family. It is a home away from home. Belonging to different alumni and specialties, living in different places, Here in APPNA we meet people like ourselves, sharing the same hopes, fears and concerns, hailing from similar backgrounds, we develop a larger circle of friends and colleagues. It was my privilege to know Rubina through APPNA.

It was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when APPNA was handling the issues facing our young physicians and their visa issues, this couple from Rhode Island, finishing their respective training, started to get active in APPNA.  They were a team and rivalled each other in their shared passion for issues and causes.

APPNA faced one issue after another and she was in the middle of all. While dealing with the APPNA task force for young physicians and the visa issues, there was the 2005 earthquake. Overnight a group of young volunteers got together, and started collecting funds and equipment and shipping it out. They coalesced to form the taskforce for earthquake relief and APPNA Social Welfare Committee relied heavily on its work. That is where Rubina's skills of networking and organization shined.

She never looked back. APPNA history is incomplete without mentioning her multiple times. From the Committee of Young Physicians, Bone Marrow Registry, Career Counseling, APPNA House in Bronx, serving in various committees and in the Board, and during the last days of her life working for COVID crisis, she gave a large portion of her life to APPNA.

As if involvement in APPNA and her Fatima Jinnah Alumni Association were not enough, she was fully engaged in Pakistani community in central Florida. Her quest for justice and equality found many avenues like Rise for Equality. She seemed to never stop working.

Being active and strong-minded she always stood by her convictions; and by those she felt needed a voice. She had an amazing quality to find resolutions in crisis. She could make sense out of a complicated situation and offer simple and workable solutions. She could argue her point without raising voice and temperature. She always had a calming effect. The last couple of tumultuous years of APPNA would have been worse for the organization had her calming and sane personality not at the scene.

I learned a lot from her. I learned how to stay calm, how to stand your ground, not to lose focus and remain polite. A meticulous organizer, with an eye for the details, she was an avid campaigner and advocate for causes close to her heart.

While working to make APPNA a better organization and world a better place for all of us, she was fighting another war, a war of personal survival all by herself. With Sajid by her side, she was struggling for her breath for many years.  Perhaps she did not want the outside world to factor that in while dealing with her. She did not want charity.  She could take the world. And she did.

Blessed are those who make a difference in others' lives and leave the world in their debt. I am fortunate to have known Rubina and to call her a friend.

You have been through a rough journey. Rest in Peace.