After 42 days of quarantine, FATHER-SON DUO FINALLY MEET

NEW DELHI: It was 12 midnight but sleep was miles away from 95-year-old Hakeem Manzoor Hasan’s eyes. At times the old man looked at the wall clock and then rested his hopes at the house door. His anxious wait of 42 days was coming to an end as his 75-year-old son Rizwan Ahmed was returning from Delhi’s Narela quarantine centre on Monday night.

At regular intervals he slowly walked to his grandson Khursheed and asked him to give a call to his father and inquire how much more time would they take to reach home. This process was repeated multiple times until at 4 am on Tuesday morning when Rizwan Ahmed and his wife Naseema finally arrived home with 10 more residents of Tajpura and Majra in Saharanpur.

All of them were part of Jablighi Jamaat and completed more than double the required quarantine period at Narel, after which they were taken from Nizamuddin Markaz on March 30.

As the couple got down from the car, they were received by the family members, who were all awake not just for Sehri (pre dawn meal in Ramzan) but to receive the elders at their ancestral house as well.

“This feeling could not be described in words. I am so close to my son that he is more of a friend to me that my son. I barely ate without him when he was around. This is the first time in life that he was away for such a long time. The uncertainty in the whole episode made matters worse. However, I am glad that my son and daughter-in-law are back,” said Hakeem Manzoor Hasan.

Manzoor Hasan has spent days following developments on Nizamudin Markaz closely on television since the news of COVID-19 outbreak broke on television and subsequent developments thereafter.

“There is nothing like being able to see my father again. It was a nightmare. I am glad the ordeal is over. Home is home, no quarantine facility can provide you that comfort which you get after seeing our loved ones,” Rizwan Ahmed said.

Both the father-son duo in the afternoon went to see the fields as the women of the house prepared for the grand iftar (breaking of Ramzan fast).

“I am glad that they are back before Eid and some days of Ramzan are still remaining,” Khursheed Rabbani, son of Rizwan Ahmed said.