Anwar Fatima (Apajan) & Her Family

Anwar Fatima, Apajan to us, was the first off-spring of BhaiAbba and Apa. Apajan was married to Syed Asrar Husain Rizvi of Sandila, a town near Lucknow. Apajan was our mother and we used to our father as papa. Apajan initially lived in different places as papa was a state government employee and had a transferrable job. Later on when we siblings were studying in Aligarh, she lived with us in Aligarh, moving back to Sandila after papa’s death. Apajan died on November 8, 2001. Papa had died on October 21, 1974.

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Apajan, like all other ladies of her time, was a housewife while, as mentioned earlier, papa was an Audit Officer in the Sugar Cane Co-Operative Department of the state of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). Papa was also a landlord. (The story of this prominent landlord family of Sandila is available separately). Papa did not have the usual traits of a landlord in that he was never cruel or very strict to his subjects. Papa was very compassionate and helpful to his family. Somehow, I have always wished that I could emulate papa in being as helpful and able to take care of the family. I have not seen any other damaad (son-in-law) as popular as papa in his susral (in-laws place).

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Apajan was a very religious person. Besides forcing us for regular prayers, she would also be very strict with us following other rituals. I can proudly can that among the siblings I have the sole distinction of finishing Quran under her tutorial. Muharram was her passion as I am sure she would not flinch sacrificing herself or any of us siblings for the cause of Hussainiyat. Apajan had performed Haj two times and went to ziyarah in Iraq and Syria once. Later on, she went to Iran also for ziyarah. It used to be my duty in Aligarh whenever I will go for majaalis that were recited by her very favorite maulana, Maulana Ali Naqi Saheb alias Maulana  Naqqan Saheb, the most revered Indian maulana of the time, to recollect and repeat whatever I could, in front of Apajan back at home.

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Apajan was not only very accomplished in household work, she was also very intelligent. She was very quick in mathematics. I still remember her always being ready to help us kids with our school arithmetic problems even when we were in undergraduate classes. Apajan was also very fond of Urdu literature and non-fictional Urdu novels. I was her source to keep her supplied with Urdu novels continuously either from AMU Maulana Azad Library in Aligarh or the Municipal Library in Sandila.

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Apajan used to be very active till late in her life. She would always be busy doing something or the other. Even physically she was very active till her death. My kids still remember her going up on guava (Amrood) trees in bhaijan’s courtyard in Lucknow, to fetch some ripe guavas for them.

Both Apajan and papa were big proponents of education. At the time although the prevalent way in Indian Muslim Culture was not towards education, both Apajan and papa concentrated on teaching their kids, especially girls, the modern education besides the religious education. Both sacrificed a lot to get their children well-educated. It was a big sacrifice on the part of both Apajan and papa to have established a home of us in Aligarh, away from wherever papa used to work. Papa would live alone there while Apajan will live with us in Aligarh. I have not seen many families doing this kind of sacrifice for the sole reason of educating their kids. We, the off-springs will forever be grateful to this particular sacrifice of our parents. At least I cannot ever be overcome of this gratitude for my parents. My sentiments towards papa are more severe because his death didn’t give us time to show our gratitude for his sacrifice.