When we learnt my two sons were coming home almost at the same time - one on the 11th and the other on the 12th December last - we were overjoyed. We were more than overjoyed in the expectation of our little grandson Reehan's coming. When on the scheduled date they arrived our joy went on multiplying. We were ecstatic when we saw our 'heart' Reehan thru' the glass fencing at the airport. Our joys knew no bounds when I took Reehan in my lap. That was perhaps the happiest moment I had ever experienced.
My youngest son Arshad and our daughter-in-law Pamela left for Canada on the 1st January,'12 last leaving his sad parents behind. We had nothing to do to keep them back. But the saddest moment came when we had to bid farewell to my second son Sajjad and his wife along with our heart of hearts, our dearest grandson, Reehan. He was only eighteenth months' old and learnt to utter 'dada, dadu, baba, nanu' etc when the moment of his departure arrived. We all lost control over ourselves. We felt our hearts squeezed and torn away from us. I never felt so helpless and bereaved that words cannot describe. At the airport he came in his mother's lap to see us off on the other side of the glass fence. I put my palm on the glass and he too put his just on the opposite. He smiled all the while and I felt my heart being torn away. Oh, what a sad and tragic moment it was. After custms & immigration formalities he again came in his mother's lap and we had a chance to take him in our lap. He fondled me keeping his cheek against mine. How sweet and cute he was! Then leaving us in a flood of tears he left with his parents. But again he descended from his mother's lap and came a few steps towards us, gave us a smile and reluctantly taken up by his dad, proceeded towards the passengers lounge. Ah, what a heavenly pleasure did he plunge us in with his arrival and what an ocean of sadness he left us in! Pray, may Allah Almighty protect him and bestow on him all the virtues and wisdom so that he may grow up to be our pride and honour.
However, seeing them off at the airport we came back home. But all the while his call 'dadu, dadu' resonated in my ears and everywhere his tiny hands touching, slapping and moving, as if, started appearing before my eyes. His cuddly face and gaits inebriated me so much that words cannot describe. I felt as if I had lost every bit of joy of life. His departure tore my heart to pieces and as very unusual of me, I found my eyes in tears so frequently that even his grandma' - my wife - began to console me. I don't know why I felt so deeply for him. Is it because I was with him just after his birth in the Stoufeville Hospital, Markham where he was born and brought him home? Thereafter, we spent almost half a year with him. After he was a bit handy, I used to stroll across the drawing room taking him in my lap, fondled and played with him. Sometimes he smiled and chuckled making us even happier and contented. The attachment was so deep that we felt so sad to get back to Bangladesh leaving him behind. But this time the bereavement seemed much more painful and I don't know how long it will take to recompose myself. But I have to accept the reality after all. And this is the way of life. Nothing is permanent and neither are we. Some day I also shall disappear from the face of the earth; but all my blessings and best wishes will always be with him and my children. May Allah Almighty grant them a happy, contented and successful life. Amin.
