Empty Hands But A Full Heart
“It was this indescribable moment; we hugged and broke down in tears. It was such an emotional scene, as if we were born anew in this world,” Sajjad said.
“After spending two nights in Mumbai,” Sajjad said, “we left for home on 12 July.”
After being checked for Covid 19 infection, they were relived to go home.
“We reached home in the afternoon –– and people had already gathered to receive us,” Sajjad said.
As soon as the news broke in their locality, announcements were made on loudspeakers, informing people that Shah had reappeared after 18 long years.
At first, Younis, Shah’s elder son, said that people refused to believe that his father was alive. Later, he said, when the family along with the neighbours received him, people started believing that Shah had actually returned, and the news spread like wildfire.
“We assume that we are born today. Life is complete now and we will spend it with whatever calamity comes our way,” the family members said.
Halima said: “The eighteen years of longing for me were like ‘saer peth sahlab’ (It was a flood of hardships).”
“We are thankful to Allah for reuniting our family after almost two decades,” Halima said, while recalling a Kashmiri proverb –– ‘tsulmut yeye, magar gulmut chehe yewan ken’ (‘The missing may come but the dead won’t return’).
However, her husband Shah has one regret – that he returned home empty-handed even after eighteen years – with only a single pair of clothes that he used to wear.
(Ishfaq Reshi is a journalist based in Kashmir.)
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