Panwari (Pan seller) is not a very rich individual so a Hindu, by tradition, would be hard put to provide 'Jahaiz' for seven girls. One can sympathize with him and then when the 8th child born to his wife was a boy, one can feel how happy he would be. Right?
Well not necessarily because his wife did'nt make it after the childbirth. He was not only sad but perhaps also nervous about the "shigoon" of his male child.
As it turned out the male child, Ram Pershad, had other 'problems' when he grew up. for instance, he played with girls more than with boys. Did not behave like boys. Then on top of that he would be less enthusiatic about Divali or Dusehra and more at ease and actualy happy with Choti Eid and Bakara-Eid. In fact he would don clean and new clothes on Eids and my older sisters with whom he played tell me that he would also try fasting in Ramzan. These things enraged his father even more who would beat him up frequently.
Our mohallah was mostly Hindu and only a few Muslim (including ours) homes. He was a frequent visitor in our home but after he was 11 or 12 his visits decreased. Like so many of youngsters of those days (and also "not-so-young" people) in our city (saugor) he started 'making birri' (rolling up the leaves in the Birri shape and) earning up to a rupee by the evening (Sitara Chhap Birri was very popular in those days) The owner of the company was a Muslim, I remember as his son was a classmate of my older brother.
Ram Pershad had attended school for 4-5 years to learn basic Hindi (Since I was very young when I started school my mother asked him to accompany me to the school (Same School) and thus one or two years of School must have 'overlapped' with me starting and he finishing (more about the School later.)
Briefly speaking, his father arranged for Ram Pershad's marriage when he was barely 15 or 16 (nothing unusual) but the 'wife' did not stay with him for more than two days and left him
Allah SWT had not designed him to be a full man. His father had, out of desperation, escalated the physical abuse of the young 'man' so he was spending more time with our family and in fact, defying his father he accepted Islam and declared it so because HE wanted to be MUSLIM SO BAD and actually moved in with us.
Why and how Allah SWT placed so much love for Islam in his heart, I do not have any inkling. So are His plans and only He knows about them better. As I think about this question today I am forced to think that Allah had made him "non-man" and Muslim, so that one day when there is nobody to care for my disabled sister he would do it and that is why also, Allah placed so much love in Kakkaji's heart for his adopted (willingly) family. Mind you, I find it hard to say "adopted" because nobody in my family considered him to belong to any other family than ours. Occasionally he would go to see some of his sisters who had been married and settled in some other (nearby) village or town.
At the time of his puberty he must have gone through a mental storm of "sexual-identity" as expected and I do remember an episode of "opium" poisoning which he survived but as he became a Muslim and started living with us, accepted as such, he had no further 'identity' problems. He learnt Qur'an and Namaz from my mother and once learnt, he was regular in namaz and daily morning tilawat, till his last day.
Next I wish to talk about 'Kakkaji and I' as I had my own relationship with him, May Allah reward him Al-Jannah.
Well not necessarily because his wife did'nt make it after the childbirth. He was not only sad but perhaps also nervous about the "shigoon" of his male child.
As it turned out the male child, Ram Pershad, had other 'problems' when he grew up. for instance, he played with girls more than with boys. Did not behave like boys. Then on top of that he would be less enthusiatic about Divali or Dusehra and more at ease and actualy happy with Choti Eid and Bakara-Eid. In fact he would don clean and new clothes on Eids and my older sisters with whom he played tell me that he would also try fasting in Ramzan. These things enraged his father even more who would beat him up frequently.
Our mohallah was mostly Hindu and only a few Muslim (including ours) homes. He was a frequent visitor in our home but after he was 11 or 12 his visits decreased. Like so many of youngsters of those days (and also "not-so-young" people) in our city (saugor) he started 'making birri' (rolling up the leaves in the Birri shape and) earning up to a rupee by the evening (Sitara Chhap Birri was very popular in those days) The owner of the company was a Muslim, I remember as his son was a classmate of my older brother.
Ram Pershad had attended school for 4-5 years to learn basic Hindi (Since I was very young when I started school my mother asked him to accompany me to the school (Same School) and thus one or two years of School must have 'overlapped' with me starting and he finishing (more about the School later.)
Briefly speaking, his father arranged for Ram Pershad's marriage when he was barely 15 or 16 (nothing unusual) but the 'wife' did not stay with him for more than two days and left him
Allah SWT had not designed him to be a full man. His father had, out of desperation, escalated the physical abuse of the young 'man' so he was spending more time with our family and in fact, defying his father he accepted Islam and declared it so because HE wanted to be MUSLIM SO BAD and actually moved in with us.
Why and how Allah SWT placed so much love for Islam in his heart, I do not have any inkling. So are His plans and only He knows about them better. As I think about this question today I am forced to think that Allah had made him "non-man" and Muslim, so that one day when there is nobody to care for my disabled sister he would do it and that is why also, Allah placed so much love in Kakkaji's heart for his adopted (willingly) family. Mind you, I find it hard to say "adopted" because nobody in my family considered him to belong to any other family than ours. Occasionally he would go to see some of his sisters who had been married and settled in some other (nearby) village or town.
At the time of his puberty he must have gone through a mental storm of "sexual-identity" as expected and I do remember an episode of "opium" poisoning which he survived but as he became a Muslim and started living with us, accepted as such, he had no further 'identity' problems. He learnt Qur'an and Namaz from my mother and once learnt, he was regular in namaz and daily morning tilawat, till his last day.
Next I wish to talk about 'Kakkaji and I' as I had my own relationship with him, May Allah reward him Al-Jannah.
2 comments:
you bring tears in my eyes....
Mystic baitay I am writing today that will be smile-producing insha-Allah
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