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How he saw grandma’s bag on TV

Rahi Gaikwad

65-year-old Fatimabi Rehmat Sheikh was killed in the firing at the CST

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

Coping with the loss: Fareeda Sheikh with her son Adnan (right) and daughter, Afrin at their home in Ambivli.

Ambivli: “I saw grandma’s chappal [footwear] and bag on TV,” chirps six-year-old Adnan. He is referring to television footage in the aftermath of the massacre at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on November 26, 2008. His grandmother Fatimabi Rehmat Sheikh, 65, was killed in the firing there.

Every Wednesday, Fatimabi used to make a trip to the CST by train to visit a dargah near the station. Then, she would rough it out on the streets for two nights and return to her daughter’s house on Friday.

Some nights she would take refuge in the waiting area of the CST. Wednesday, November 26, was one such night.

“She left home around 7.30 p.m. When we switched on the TV at 11 p.m., I could not believe what had happened. We called up my brother who was also following the news. We set out to look for her, but there were no trains,” says her daughter Fareeda Sheikh.

The next morning, Ms. Fareeda began a search for her mother. Little did she know that it would take her three whole days.

Ms. Fareeda said: “My first instinct took me to the dargah. They said they had closed the gates that night and did not know where my mother had gone. We started looking up hospital wards at GT, Cama, JJ and St. George’s hospitals. We thought she might have been injured. The thought of her dying never occurred to us. When our hunt drew a blank, we went to the police station at the CST on November 28. Now I think we should have just gone to the police first.”

Confusion

A singular problem awaited them at the police station. Fatimabi had tattoos on her arms, done in a village fair in Gujarat, where she grew up. The tattoos led the police to believe she was a Hindu and they entered that as her religion in their papers. This led to confusion.

Ms. Fareeda explains, “Her arms have something written in a language I do not understand. My mother was a Hindu by birth, but she married a Muslim and embraced Islam. Her family disowned her because of this.”

Shuttling between the police station and hospital morgues took a toll on Ms. Fareeda. “I was distraught and weak. We were getting nowhere and I had small children back home.”

Finally, on the third day, they realised that a 65-year-old Hindu woman listed in police and medical records at a hospital morgue was indeed Fatimabi.

Paperwork, identity proofs and checks constituted another ordeal, as the mother and daughter had different ration cards.

“We got the body on the November 30 at 6.30 p.m. We made the burial arrangements for same day as much time had elapsed. My mother’s body was black and swollen. There were bruises. I could not look at her body again, Ms. Fareeda recounts, her eyes dense with tears.

Daily struggle

The loss aggravated the daily struggle for survival for Ms. Fareeda, who stitches garments for a living. She has two small children and an ailing older sister to support. Her husband drives private vehicles, but work does not come steadily. The funeral expenses pinched the family so hard that Ms. Fareeda had to sell one of her sewing machines and a refrigerator, among other things. She had not received the Rs. 5-lakh compensation for lack of proper papers. All the documents, including the ration card, were destroyed in a flood in Ambivli five years ago, she says. There are no photographs either. The voting list with the names of all the family members is the only evidence left.

Significant contribution

Ms. Fareeda says her mother’s contribution to the family’s kitty was significant. Many worshippers at the mosque would offer Fatimabi money and help in kind. This added to the family’s resources.Says Abdul Razaq, a dargah resident: “She would struggle for her family. She would come even during the rains and would sleep outside on the wet pavements as the mosque gates shut in the night. A devout Muslim, she offered namaz five times a day. Many helped her regularly, giving her Rs. 50 or Rs. 100, or some sweets. Even now, people ask after her. They want to know what happened of her and offer help.” says Abdul Razaq, a mosque resident.

An endless and harsh struggle for survival defined Fatimabi’s existence. “She used to say ‘I do not want to depend on anyone.’ Our father had died very early. She brought up the three of us [two sisters and one brother] by selling knick-knacks. Although we are grown up, she never stopped making a living for our sake. She has raised my children,” says Ms. Fareeda.

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