Mohd Habib..

Here's a story I want you to read: Mohammed Habib, Delhi's Dead Body Collector, has just turned 8o, and he has no plans of his retirement. He has been collecting the city's unclaimed corpses since seven decades! He must have disposed hundred of bodies for free,he had picked up many dead bodies during the 1984 riots after Indira Gandhi's assassination and must have buried countless during the partition of India and Pakistan. Nothing has changed in Habib's life, he still lives in the same footpath with his blind wife Amna Begum. His meeting with his wife was equally interesting, 19 years ago, when he was attracted to her by her statement, "Whenever she felt cold she hugged a dead body and slept as they never troubled her and they never turned around!" This undertaker of dead bodies, has no fear of dead bodies. Occasionally, he slept with a corpse the whole night to protect them from animals! He has a daughter who lives with him and a son who has died.He once adopted a small baby girl whose mother got killed by a speeding train. Since the child was a Hindu, he brought her up as per Hindu traditions and got her married to a Hindu boy. Habib is always worried about winters and the biting northerly winds. The number of deaths doubles during winters. Earthquake and floods don't discriminate between rich and the poor, but unfortunately, the winter does discriminate; the winter kills many every year due to their lack of proper clothing! Habib is also worried about one more thing : " What will happen to a person after him, who comes to Delhi in winters in search of a job?"