By Mudassir Maqbool
Pulwama: In Wahibugh village in Pulwama district a Muslim friend has over taken as a guide and crutch for his Pandit friend who lost his eye sight due to diabetes.
The village is five kilometers from district headquarters.
Paray Lal Pandita, who is head of one among 7 Kashmiri Pandit families has lost his eyesight to diabetes three years back. Since then, help is always needed for him to move around.
“I was diagnosed of diabetes 10 years ago and 3 years back after a stroke, I lost my eyesight,” Paray Lal told INS.
He had undergone a surgery but couldn’t regain his eyesight.
“There is hardly any vision in one of my eye and the other eye has very feeble sight,” he said.
Even though his son is always there to help him, but his friend Bashir Ahmad Dar has taken over the duty to be by his side always.
Family of Pary Lal says that whenever he desires to go for a walk around the village he sends a word to his Muslim friend,Bashir, who comes rushing within no time.
It’s Bashir who for years now holds his hand and and walks him round the village .
“It is not only me who helps Paray Lal to walk around, whenever I am not present at home he phones my brothers or anyone from the Muslim community who make themselves present at once,” Bashir said, adding with him he enjoys the walk and feels at ease than others .
“Here I feel all villagers are members of my family but I have a strong attachment with Bashir,” Paray Lal said, adding that he also accompanies him to Srinagar whenever he has a consultation with his doctor.
Paray Lal, a retired branch manager in Indian Postal Department, said that he had friendly relation with Bashir, who is a farmer, for many years but the relation became intimate after he became diabetic.
Bashir narrates that years ago they were living in poverty and often would face shortage of finance to marry their wards.
“Those days, it was Paray Lal’s father, a kind heart landlord, who would lend a helping hand to such parents,” Bashir says.
Paray Lal treaded the same path before he was bedridden he used to spent his part time resolving land disputes or family disputes among Muslims.
“They have more faith in me than members of their own community,” Paray Lal confides, who also also used to give free tuitions to Muslim kids from class 10th to 12th.
