Tahir Bhat
SRINAGAR
When couples take marriages vows, they refer to the adage: ‘till death do us apart’.
But there are many couple who go beyond that. One such couple left this world on Sunday, with a difference of barley five minutes. They lived in Kupwara’s Kralpora belt. The twin deaths surprised the entire belt sending mourners to the family in hoards, literally.
Habibullah Malik, 65 of Kralpora Kupwara and his wife, died with a difference of barely five minutes. They were married for 51 years, family sources said.
Malik was suffering from jaundice for a few months. He breathed his last at his residence at around 9:05 am. His wife Taja Begum, 65, couldn’t tolerate the death of her companion of half a century. She fell unconscious within seconds it was cardiac arrest killing her too.
Malik was married at the age of 14.
Malik retired as an Extension Officer in state run Animal Husbandry department. After he retired, Malik continued working in his fields and refused to let age slow him down.
Maliks’ are survived by a son and four daughters, who are all settled.
“They were together all the time and they left together,” Malik’s son Javaid said. “If one would fell ill, another would accompany him or her to hospital. They would worry a lot about each other.”
Family sources said when the last moment of Malik’s time came, his wife was sitting with him. She infact told him to recite the Kalima. Once he breathed his last, she had a bout of pain – the first time she was separated, fell unconscious and died.
Residents in Kralpora said Malik was a religious person and spent most of his time in religious functions. “He never said no to anybody who he could help and he was good to his neighbours,” one resident said. “He is the person who donated his own piece of land to the local graveyard.”
The funeral prayer of Malik and his wife was offered at playground of the state run middle school at Kralpora after Zuhar prayers. It was a huge gathering in their funeral prayers. Mr and Mrs Malik are not far away from each other in the graveyard also. They were laid to rest, side by side.
Couples’ dying together is a rare phenomenon and it this romantic side of the human life that is a challenge to science. Though there are not many easy interpretations to the phenomenon, people usually say a better and long time companionship makes the couple “soul mates” to the extent that, a scientific study has proved, their hearts beat together in sleep. These are also being referred as ‘broken heart’ deaths.
