Everything spelled celebration: The pink and white arch at the main gate, the red and blue jute carpet at the entrance, the freshly trimmed wild shrubs, new paint on walls facing the front road, bright buntings strung in the air and large aluminium vessels stacked high near the designated cooking area.
Days after Gulberg Society’s surviving residents came together to remember the family members they had lost on February 28, 2002, in the aftermath of the riots, a 19-year-old’s pre-wedding festivities brought a wave of happiness to the 61-year-old Gulberg Co-operative Housing Society in Ahmedabad’s Chamanpura locality.
“Tum jab aise sharmati ho, dulhe ka dhadakta hai seena…” a wedding song from the 2002 Bollywood film Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam plays on a bluetooth device. Young girls sang along, teasing Misbah, 19, who was dressed in a yellow salwar-kameez for her haldi ceremony on Monday (March 4).
With the family’s women having set camp in three rooms, Rafiq Mansuri, 54, wearing sunglasses, combed his hair outside his residence’s iron gate using his phone’s selfie mode. Each stroke of his comb was punctuated by traditional wedding songs being sung by a group of aunts sitting under a shamiana near him.
All attendees agreed that Misbah’s pre-wedding festivities had brought life back to Gulberg Society. Misbah is to marry Shoaib Tanwar, 22, an engineer, on Wednesday at a community wedding in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh. The couple plans to settle in Pune.
Inside the Mansuri house, the rooms were strewn with wedding clothes, suitcases being packed for the nikaah at Barwani and make-up cases. The women took turns to do each other’s make-up, as children ran in and out of the house, and packed their bags for the journey ahead.
Misbah is the eldest of Rafiq’s three children with his second wife Taslima. He lost his first wife Yasmin when a mob attacked Gulberg Society during the riots that took place a day after the Godhra train burning on February 27, 2002. Sixty-nine people were left dead in Gulberg Society, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. In 2016, a fast track court convicted 24 persons and awarded life sentences to 11 of them.
While 17 of 18 families that lived in the society left after the killings, Rafiq’s continued to live here. Bungalows number 2 and 13 belonged to the Mansuri family. With bungalow number 13 reduced to a ghost of its former glory, Rafiq, his father Kasambhai, his wife and three children reside at bungalow number 2.
On Monday, the Mansuri family welcomed 600-odd guests from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The familiar hustle and bustle of the impending wedding saw the society take on a life of its own. As the women sang, Rafiq was seen either ensuring the milk did not run out so they could keep serving tea to their guests and consoling his 11-year old son who was moping in a corner after being told off by a relative, or making short trips on his two-wheeler for last-minute arrangements.
“What happened (in 2002) has happened. We want today’s celebration to be a reminder of our unity and healing. Some of our former Gulberg residents will join us today as well. I have also invited relatives of my first wife,” said Rafiq.
Poonam Rajveer Gujjar, who said she was like a “sister” to Rafiq, and a neighbour of the Mansuris at Chamanpura, was also present at the ceremony. Gujjar is the BJP Mahila Morcha pramukh (president) of Asarwa area and claims to be on the peace committees of two police stations, Shahibaug and Meghaninagar. She said she has been with the BJP since the past 10 years and is primarily involved in mobilising women’s attendance at party events.
“I tie a rakhi to Rafiq bhai on Raksha Bandhan and Bhai Dooj every year. Since my daughter and son are studying for their board exams, I cannot attend the wedding (in Barwani). So I decided to come for the haldi ceremony,” said Gujjar, as she busied herself serving tea to guests and lending the family a helping hand.
Among the invitees were Firozkhan Saeedkhan Pathan, 50, who lost several members of his family, including his mother, in the riots, and Mubarak Mansuri, 33, who fled to Jaipur after his mother and two siblings were killed in 2002.
Over the past two decades, Mubarak said he only returned to Gulberg Society briefly to see Rafiq, who is a relative. “We left Ahmedabad days after the riot and went to stay with my Nani’s (maternal grandmother) family. What is the use of rehashing history now, especially when we are celebrating a wedding?” Mubarak said.
