FALLEN PILIPILI LIVED BY EHRMANN'S DESIDERATA

Casket bearing the remains of veteran sports journalist Oscar Pili pili.

Nairobi; Kenya: "He went placidly amid the noise and haste for he knew what peace there is in silence," American poet Max Ehrmann would have aptly eulogised Oscar Pilipili.

I am not certain Oscar read Ehrmann's master piece, Desiderata. Yet the man his bosom pals called Lipilipi lived by the very words and punctuations of Ehrmann's poem "desired things."

For Oscar went as far as possible to be in good terms with all persons.

Minutes after his demise hit social media Tuesday morning, the ninth day of September, his friends and acquaintances were united in grief and unanimity that he was a quiet, diligent and a hardworking sports journalist.

Sadly, however, his contribution to uplifting the lives of Kenya's sportsmen and women was less celebrated, if at all acclaimed, with his glittering career confined to the back pages of the publication he served with distinction.

It is doubtful, however, if he would ever have called for it, just like Ehrmann would have succinctly put: "He enjoyed his achievements as well as kept to his plans. He kept interest in his own career, however humble; for he knew it was a real possession in the changing fortunes of time."

That Oscar listened to others, "even the dull and the ignorant for they too have their story," would dawn on me years later when we met at the reception of then Standard Group office, Town House, on Standard Street in 2004.

Armed with a diskette containing an opinion piece on Harambee Stars' performance at AFCON 2004 in Tunisia, Oscar ushered me in. There was no Editor to receive my article, but Lipilipi as I would fondly address him later, promised to draw the attention of his bosses.

I doubt I would have his patience for a weather-beaten wannabe journalist yet to my pleasant surprise my article was published.

Two years later I joined the Standard Group as a reporter from where I would learn a lot about and from Oscar. Could he have read, Desiderata? Again, I am not sure but the counsel in the famed poem marked his life.

He was soft spoken and he "avoided loud and aggressive persons," perhaps with the full knowledge that loud persons "are vexations to the spirit."

In one of our early conversations, Oscar once told me frankly and in Luhya accented English: "You write about footibol. I don't like all these noise in footibol. Even when you write what everybody saw, somehow someone will find a way of disagreeing with you." He simply treasured quiet.

For mortals it is not uncommon that when one's star shines brighter, relations are revised. Yet when I would later rise to become his supervisor our relationship remained as amicable as the first day we met. He would gladly divulge his email password to get a story or picture from sent items if only to ease my work as an editor.

He would one day open up to me that he joined The Standard Group as a newspaper loader immediately after "O" Level exams in the early 90s and just like any youth in the country seeking a foothold in any industry, he was only too willing to start at the basement.

The seed of his love for the written word would sprout at Likoni Road and soon Oscar started penning sports news while diligently sweating away loading copies of the publication into waiting vans.

Looking back, I can only see a man who knew well that: "If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself."

Not that he was any lesser in Kenyan journalism, far from it. He simply did his bit and worried about the next story as opposed to the glory-hunting tendencies of many of his colleagues who are tripping to get their names in the lights.

The volleyball world will particularly miss Oscar dearly. When Kenya women volleyball clubs and national team conquered the world, Oscar was there. When a Kenyan swimmer emerged, Oscar was there to inform the world. When a tennis star was born, Oscar was there at the birth to announce it to Kenya.

His nose for a newsworthy story put him head and shoulders above most of his colleagues who are only realizing what a huge chasm he has left, where will they get contacts to for example, the chairman of Nairobi Kenya Volleyball Association or the swimmer Shufaa Changawa? Who will explain the Chukkas in Polo?

The newsroom is a pressure cauldron yet Oscar never betrayed exhaustion or strain that comes with journalism and when he was aggrieved, he would express his disdain in the gentlest manner that would win anyone over to his side.

For many years, his stories drew advertisers to sports pages where they ran. For that, I earned my corn.

He was a fountain of calm. Exemplification of humility. A "true child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars."

Fare thee placidly Lipilipi.