Mohammad Akram/Malappuram

Dhreeran was in the UAE when his ‘mother’ T Zubaida passed away at Malappuram, Kerala’s, due to Covid-19 in December.

Months later when he reached home he regretted why he couldn’t be there for his mother. With his heart full of agony and pain due to his mother’s death, Dheeran visits the grave of Zubaida every day to speak with her and share his remorse of not being with her when she needed him the most.

Ever since he has managed to take leave from his job in the UAE to return to Kerala, Dheeran has been visiting her grave every Friday to offers his prayers.

Dheeran is a Hindu who was brought up by T Zubaida as her own son. For him, the only mother he knew was the one who raised him and died recently. He has no memories of his biological mother, who passed away when he was a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler.awaz

Dheeran’s mother worked at Zubaida’s home and she died suddenly leaving her two daughters aged 11 and six and Dheeran orphaned.

T Zubaida took up the responsibility of raising the three children. Like her own sons, she educated Dheeran and his sisters Laila, 11, and Ramani, 6, and later married them as per the Hindu traditions.

All the three children were imparted higher education and Dheeran got a job in the UAE

Ever since Dheeran has returned home on leave from his job he visits his mother grave every day and on Fridays offers special prayers there.

Dheeran says, "I am a Hindu, my mother is a Muslim. I was never asked to change my religion. No one told me that I can’t visit her tomb. When I reach my mother’s grave I remember my childhood days.”

Dheeran says his Muslim brother’s Zubaida’s biological sons have never raised an objection to his frequent visits to her grave.