Anurag Anurag and Sidharth Assija were children when they first met in a classroom in India eight years ago.
“I was a stranger there,” Anurag recalled. “He talked to me. He approached me, very friendly.”
The pair had been friends ever since, travelling to Canada together as international students in May 2017. After their studies at Centennial College in Toronto, they moved to Halifax, one after the other.
They both had jobs and Assija had a new car.
“Everything was so perfect,” said Anurag.
“But we never know what’s going to happen.”
Assija, 22, died in the hospital after going under water at Chocolate Lake in Halifax on Wednesday and failing to resurface. It was roughly 10 minutes before rescue crews reached him, at which point, his injuries were deemed to be “life-threatening.”
READ MORE: Man sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries after near-drowning in Chocolate Lake
Anurag wasn’t at the lake that day, but said he had plans to join his friends about 30 minutes after the tragic incident. He said he prayed for Assija’s recovery.
“I can’t express it in words,” he told Global News. “He stayed in my heart, every time, every moment, every day.”
Anurag described Assija as a “talkative,” “happy” person who was well-liked by everyone he met. The pair shared what Anurag described as a “brotherhood.”
In less than a day, an online fundraiser to send Assija’s body back to India, where his parents can perform his last rituals, raised nearly $25,000. The fundraising goal was $15,000.
Assija worked at the Domino’s Pizza on Quinpool Road, where his co-workers described him as incredibly hard-working.
“He’s a really awesome employee,” said the store’s general manager, Roselyn Orceo. “If last minute, I need stuff — there’s an emergency for my driver — he’s the one I can rely on.”
“He was a really nice guy,” added co-worker and friend Aryan Kumar.
“I remember when he came here, this guy is really hard working, more than us…He’s really playful outside as well. He used to send money to his home as well.”
Assija was originally from Malout, a town in the southern part of Punjab.