Book excerpt: While writing about Irrfan, it is impossible to speak in the past tense. Even though some people are not physically present in this world, they remain present in our thoughts and emotions. When you think about them even for a moment, you can see their image emerging right in front of you. I first met Irrfan in the last months of 1990. I met him with his partner Sutapa Sikdar during their meeting with my cousin Alka Srivastava and her husband Ishaan Trivedi. Irrfan had come to Mumbai aiming to test his talent. While reading this book, you will discover Irrfan's clarity of thought. He was clear from the very beginning that after completing NSD he would work in films. Films were his target and he achieved this goal with hard work and dedication. He succeeded in his aim. He had begun to spread his wings and was ready to soar... But that was not to be. He was caught unawares by a rare type of cancer. The hopes and dreams ended abruptly. I now feel that my every meeting with Irrfan remained incomplete. Many pages that could have been filled remained blank due to his death. Those blank pages keep fluttering, but nothing can be written on them now. I went through a unique experience while preparing the first eBook on Irrfan. I must have taken thousands of interviews, but never have I experienced this strange feeling before while writing them down. In the course of compiling the book, I have read and corrected the entire text several times.