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Elderly couple’s relentless search for missing adopted son
Financially weak, with no help or resources and no social reach, the grief-stricken parents Sajida Begum and Idris-ul-Hasan travel from one corner of the city to another with posters in their hands, appealing to people to help find their missing son Prince who is mentally challenged.
LUCKNOW: Old age and poverty fail to deter Sajida Begum (65) and her husband Idris-ul-Hasan (70), who hit the streets of the Old City here each day, determined to find their mentally retarded adopted son Prince, missing for a month .
Their tiny, dilapidated house in a narrow lane of Kashmiri Mohalla in Lucknow’s Old City is gloomy and silent, the couple in angst.
Though poor, Sajida and her husband were happy a month back with their adopted son Mohammad Tauqir, 17, aka Prince. Ever since he went missing on November 6 , the couple, barely able to manage two meals a day, has been desperately awaiting his return. So intense is their desire to be reunited with their son that Sajida and Idris are not relying solely on the authorities but are themselves putting in all efforts to find him.
“My son has gone missing. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see him again. He is mentally retarded and can’t take care of himself,” said Sajida Begum, showing a photograph of Prince .
“We were a childless couple. Hence we adopted him. Though we were not his biological parents , we raised him as our own son,” said Idris, holding an A4 size paper poster titled ‘Gumshuda ki Talash’ with a black and white photograph of his son, his details and contact number .
According to Javed Hasan, a distant relative of the couple, a few years after marriage, Idris and Sajida were traumatised when they found that they could not have their own child. “However, they adopted little Prince and found solace and a new purpose in life, ’’ he said.
“They named him Mohammad Tauqir aka Prince. However, their happiness turned into agony when after a few years they realised that their child was special,” he informed.
“We went to doctors who told us that our baby was a special child and that his brain grew more slowly than his body,” said Sajida.
She said she owned some property but sold it for the treatment of her son and also to keep the kitchen fires burning. “I went to many doctors for his treatment but all said he could not be normal again. He would often injure himself and we would run with him to hospital . We even sold a portion of our house for his treatment,” she said.
Still, poverty was no bar when it came to their son’s health. “We gave him good food, medicines and treatment, cutting down on our own expenses , so that he could survive. We only have this small house to leave him when we die,” she said.
Sajida is the only earning member of the family. She teaches the Quran to children in her area for which she gets ₹500 per child. “Earlier, I had 11 students but now there are just 4, so I get ₹2000 every month. However, we get rice and wheat on our ration card that keeps our kitchen fire burning,” she said .
Financially weak, with no help or resources and no social reach, these two grief-stricken parents travel from one corner of the city to another with posters in their hands, appealing to people to help find their child. Idris has been making rounds of Saadatganj police station where he reported that his child went missing in November. Since then he makes sure to visit the police station once a day but returns with no hope.
“We’re trying to find him. Pamphlets have been distributed and his details have been shared with nearby police stations and even sent to other districts,” said Praveen Kumar Singh, SHO, Saadatganj.
Meanwhile, the couple spends most of the day scouting around on the streets. “We have searched Chowk, Thakurganj, Bazarkhala and Talkatora and now we will go to other areas as well,” they said.
