Warangal: In a heart rending incident, a Muslim woman conducted the final rites of an elderly man according to Hindu rituals at Hanamkonda on Wednesday.
The woman, Md. Yakubi, runs Sahrudaya old age home along with her husband Chotu. They found the old man, Keerthi Srinivas, sleeping on the roadside at the old Hanamkonda bus depot. They took him in about two years back.
He was in a very poor shape. Beside other ailments, he was suffering from paralysis. He was given treatment for his ailments and was cared for all these days. His health, however, continued to deteriorate due to old age. He died on Tuesday night.
“We had the contact number of one of his relatives who visited him once or twice. Through him, we approached Srinivas’s son Santhosh. Even though he visited in the morning, he refused to conduct the final rites saying he had converted to Christianity. He said he would not take possession of the body. Since we took care of his father all these days, he asked us to take care of his dead body also. So I decided to conduct the rituals myself. All these days I served him, I feel grateful to serve him even in his death. He was like my own father,” Ms Yakubi said.
Ms Yakubi’s husband Chotu was not present when Srinivas died and he could arrive only after the cremation was completed. “Srinivas belonged to Station Ghanpur. He used to do tailoring work. He was abandoned by his family and used to roam the streets and sleep on the roads. We brought him to our home two years ago. He has been with us since then,” said Chotu.
