Mahi rests his mother next to father

In tears and stunned silence, Tanzid Sultan Mahi walked out of the graveyard without speaking to anyone. At just the age of 14, his life has been thrown into depths of unfathomable darkness.

It was dusk and the air thick in muffled sobs all around. There were people all around, well-wishers and relatives; but you could tell from the blankness on his face that nothing mattered anymore.

He had just buried his mother, Afsana Khanam, just 10 days after he lost his father, Captain Abid Sultan, who piloted the ill-fated US-Bangla Airlines plane that crashed in Nepal and snatched away the life of 51 people on board in the most untimely and unfair fashion.

Relatives of Afsana Khanam, wife of US-Bangla plane crash victim pilot Abid Sultan, receive her body after she died at Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital in Agargaon on Friday morning, March 23, 2018. Photo: Prabir Das

Mahi had not the heart to see the dead body of his mother when doctors at National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital, Agargaon, pronounced her dead at exactly 9:30am. He was sitting a floor below, on the second floor, alone, while his relatives were making arrangements.

He was there, when his mother’s janaza was held at Gausul Azam mosque, Uttara-13, standing in shoulders with the crowd of relatives and well-wishers. But he never spoke to anyone, not even when they came and laid down a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Mahi walked beside the Hearse that took Afsana’s body to Banani military graveyard this evening. He even threw the first handful of mud on her body, all in an unusual and peculiar calmness, and silent tears rolling down his cheeks.

Just a few days ago, he had buried his father’s dead body just next to where his mother was being laid. At that time, his mother was lying in the ICU fighting for her life. The hopes were always slim; very few could survive such back-to-back stroke attacks.

He had realised, perhaps then, that nothing in his life would ever be the same again.

When all was done at 7:00pm and the prayers completed for salvation of the departed soul, Mahi walked out, going through tearful embraces and words of consolation with that blank look on his face. Speaking barely a word, he cried in solemn silence and walked away from the grave of his mother.