Real to reel: the story of a Muslim woman and a Brahmin widow
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Thirteen years ago, a Muslim housewife in Kerala had stopped an old and destitute Brahmin widow from jumping in front of a train and ending a life for which she saw no hope.
The Muslim woman, then 34, took the 76-year-old high-caste Namboothiri woman home, gave her shelter and sowed the seeds for an unusual relationship that bloomed despite their religious and cultural differences.
Their story of affection and harmony inspired Malayalam producer-director Babu Thiruvalla's film Thanichalla Njam (I am not alone), which went on to win the national award for 2012 for best feature film on national integration recently.
The story began on January 22, 2000 when Rasiya Beevi, who is also a Congress member of Ambalapuzha village panchayat in Alappuzha district, spotted an old, frail frame standing near the railway track.
"I thought it was a woman passenger who was stranded after missing the road to the nearest railway station. When I approached her, Chellamma Antharjanam got irritated and shot back, 'you will not let me commit suicide?'" Beevi recalls.
Beevi said Antharjanam told her she was waiting to jump in front of the next train, after having failed to kill herself through other methods. She had chosen the deserted spot hoping that no one would spot her and stop her. Antharjanam missed the train as she narrated her story to the stranger she had just met.
Antharjanam belonged to a prominent Namboothiri family in Central Kerala and was married to a man with psychiatric problems who died five years after their wedding. For about 25 years after that, she worked as a domestic help and returned to her brother's house as age caught up with her, only to be thrown out. Distraught, she tried to kill herself several times until Beevi found her.
Beevi said she took the Brahmin woman home and got her to stay with her family comprising her husband and three children. "She was afraid to stay with my family. Initially, she used to ask me whether Muslim organisations would attack the house for harbouring a Hindu. Her only plea was to allow her to live as a Hindu," Beevi said
... contd.
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