With his red helmet, Imran Zaman was a familiar sight in his Vernon Hills neighborhood as he rode his red bicycle up and down the street. At the age of 3, he began asking his parents about life and death and why people who died couldn’t come back to visit once in awhile. Then five days before his 5th birthday, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer of the nerve cells. He lost his battle with the disease in his home Thursday, Nov. 20, two weeks after his 7th birthday and the day after returning from Disney World on a family trip sponsored by Make-A-Wish Foundation. “He always had it in his head it was a fight,” said his mother, Amrita. “He would ask us how he was doing and how germs multiply and grow. He had a will of iron.” Known as “Gub,” a nickname derived by his mother from a character in a popular Hindi action film, he aspired to be like his hero Batman. His plan on arriving in heaven, said his mother, was to ask for a Batman plane and some weapons, so he could visit hell and extinguish all the germs he was convinced were stored there. His other goal was to become a doctor. “Gub’s mission in life was to invent medicine that didn’t taste bad,” his mother said. Born in New York, where his parents met and married, Imran would refer to himself as a New Yorker, even though he and his family moved to the north suburbs when he was a toddler. “He would say my mom is Indian, my father is Pakistani, but I’m a New Yorker,” his mother said. He was a precocious child, she said, playing with children three times his age. “Gub was kind of always a little man,” she said. He enjoyed his speaking world globe and train set. He also loved listening and dancing to music, ranging from rock to Disney musicals to ethnic songs from India and Pakistan. Other survivors include his father, Raja; and grandparents Kanwarjit and Shashi Singh and Surraya and Raja M. Zaman. A memorial service will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka.
