1 week Ago
I’ve lived in Lucknow, in the Shia Lines Colony, my whole life. I came to the widows’ quarters four years ago, but my family has been here since the beginning. I watched these quarters get built with my own eyes.
Before moving into the widows’ quarters, I used to live in my parents’ house. At that time, my brothers weren’t married so they gave me and my son the house to live in. But now, my brothers are married, and they have taken the house back.
There is no room for me; they’re already sharing 500 square feet between two families. It is written in Islam that daughters and wives should be given some inheritance or property before the rest is donated to waqf but that did not happen with me. If that had happened for me, I wouldn’t be here.
I would have got a house built in the colony itself because there’s always some problem here in the widows’ quarters. Today it’s wind; tomorrow it’ll be rain. So if I had been given any inheritance at all, I would have used it to make sure my son and I had a house of our own.
Recently, I heard that in Bahraich, there was trouble between some Hindus and Muslims. I heard that there was fighting and riots there. Why would you go to a mosque and create a ruckus there? Or, ring temple bells at the time when namaaz is being offered, and that too deliberately? This is not right.
Living in Harmony Right across where we live, there is a predominantly Hindu colony. It’s by God’s grace that so far we have not had any fights over these kinds of things. This isn’t about timing because in the morning both pooja and namaaz happen.
But, here, usually we adjust the timings of both so that there is no overlap and no one feels disrespected. For example, if we have azaan , then the Hindus stop their prayers. If they have a festival, we take care not to have loudspeakers at the mosques.
They do pooja and kirtans at night, and we also have shab-bedari during Muharram, but there are no objections. When their children have exams and have to focus on their studies, we switch off the loud speakers without even being asked to do so. And they do the same for our children.
Honestly, there was no Hindu-Muslim divide before. And now, with this new law about waqf, I fear the divide will become even more. We are all scared.
We keep wondering: where will we go if this colony is taken away from waqf? And this place is home to so many poor people; it’s their crutch. Since this colony is made on waqf property, no one takes rent from us. We do pay for food and electricity, but even then, if someone has money troubles at times, the caretaker speaks to our maulana and they help us.
The Wind and the Rain My condition is such that I can’t really call the place I live my home. It’s a room with no windows, no roof and no door. Whenever a strong wind blows or it rains, then the roof starts leaking because it’s not solid and made from plastic sheets.
When there’s a storm, I am petrified that the whole thing will blow away or fall down on me and my son. I am most scared about the thought of it crashing down on my son who is just a child. ( As told to Avantika Mehta ).
