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| The story of a Muslim woman who adopted the three children of a Hindu woman working in her home |
Decades ago, a Muslim woman in India adopted her three Hindu children after the death of her housekeeper, and thus an extraordinary story of motherly love, compassion, and tolerance was laid, which has now been made into a film. Immortalized by
BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi spoke to the children who were adopted by Thinadan Subeda in 1976.
One of their sons, Jafar Khan, got teary-eyed when he first saw the film Anu Swaantham Sridharan. However, his brother Shreedharan, who was sitting with him during the launch of the film, started crying.
Both Jafar Khan and Shri Dharan are 49 years old, but they are not related by blood. Jafar Khan is a Muslim, while Shri Dharan is a Hindu. However, when you ask Jafar Khan what Shridharan means to him, he says, 'He is my brother, but it is more than that. It happens to me all the time. I don't know what to say to him. This is my partner.
However, the woman through whom Jafar and Shridharan grew up together was actually Jafar Khan's mother Subida, who died in 2019.
Subida's heart-wrenching story is a reminder that amid religious differences, humanity ultimately triumphs. This story comes at a time when India has been witnessing an increase in religious-based conflicts over the past several years.
The story begins in the year 1976 when Shridharan and his two elder sisters Ramani and Leela's mother Chakki die while giving birth to their fourth child. Meanwhile, the fourth one could not be saved.
Chaki actually worked at Subida's house. So Subeda decided to adopt their children. They didn't do it legally i.e. no paperwork was done because the laws were not that strict in those days.
Shreedharan says that at that time even his relatives were not ready to adopt the children, but the children's father gave permission to Subeda as he was 'unable to raise children himself'.
Subida already had two sons, Jafar Khan and his elder brother Shah Nawaz. After adopting Chalki's children, she gave birth to her daughter Joshina. Thus these children started their childhood together.
Her story made headlines when Subida died in 2019. Shri Dharan, who was working in Oman at the time, took to Facebook to pay tribute to his mother in an emotional post that went viral. In it, he asked his friends to pray for his mother's 'grand reception in heaven'.
In this post, he called his mother 'Aam' which is commonly used by Malayali Muslims for their mother. After seeing this post, many people asked the question that if you have a Hindu name, why are you calling your mother 'Aman'.
He says that he asked me whether I was a Hindu or a Muslim, because my name was Shri Dharan, so it was obvious that I was a Hindu.
He was asked countless and many times painful questions, but Sridharan answered all these questions patiently, at a time when he was grieving the death of his mother.
He also emphasized that neither Subida nor her husband Abdul Aziz Haji asked their adopted children to accept Islam.
"It was a sad time for me," he says. My parents always taught me that caste and religion do not matter. We need compassion. We, humans, change ideas.
Subida lived her life and raised her children under this philosophy.
Leela, now 51, says her mother (Subida) used to take her to the temple 'whenever my heart felt like it.'' I used to go to festivals.
"My mother used to say that it doesn't matter whether you follow Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity," says Shridharan. Every religion gives us the same message and that is to love and respect everyone.
Other children also have many childhood memories. Shahnawaz remembers the day when his mother came home, carrying two-year-old Shreedharan.
He says that his sisters Leela and Ramani were behind. My mother said that day that she will stay with us from now on because there is no one to take care of her.
From then on they were a family.
Shahnawaz recounts how all the children slept together on the floor and were overjoyed when Joshina was born four years later.
Over time, when all the children grew up, Shri Dharan and Jafar Khan's bond deepened and they did everything together, it was as if they were 'twin brothers'.
Shahnawaz and Jafar Khan tell us that the siblings rarely fought, although 'Shri Dharan was the most loved and pampered by mother.'
Jafar Khan says with a smile that 'unlike me, Shri used to do all the work and was very honest. Maybe that's why Amma liked him so much.
The siblings share that they also learned several important lessons from their parents. For example, Shahnawaz remembers how his mother used to help people beyond her means and did not mind their caste, caste, or class differences did not keep it.
"Anyone could come to my mother and ask her for money for education, marriage, or medical problems and she would somehow arrange it," he says. They often did this by taking loans which they later paid off by selling their native land.
All these stories form the backbone of the movie Anu Swaantham Sridharan. The director of the film is Siddique Prawar.
Pravor is among those who contacted Sridharan after reading his Facebook post.
He says that there is so much humanity hidden in this story that society should know. He says that he has tried to show the beauty of human relationships through this film.
The film had a special screening at a theater in Kerala on January 9 and Pravor is now raising funds for its commercial release.
Shridharan and Jafar Khan's other siblings, who now live in different cities in India, say there is no better way to pay tribute to their mother.
"I have only good memories with my mother," says Leela. It's sad to think that these memories were limited but I'm happy that they will be remembered forever through a film.
Shahnawaz says that when Amma died, we realized that people discriminated against us.
"But we are still the same.".