‘Lost my favourite son…’: In Surat, 65-year-old businessman grieves three family members who died in plane crash

Nanabawa still remembers the day of June 6, almost a week prior to the crash, when “his favourite son” Akeel and his family, British citizens based in London, had come down to Surat to surprise him on Bakrid. Akeel ran a placement business in London while the family was based in Gloucester.

“When I reached our ancestral home, I saw Akeel recording a video on his mobile phone, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Tears rolled down my face, and I almost collapsed out of happiness. He told me that he had come down to Surat to celebrate Bakrid. This memory will remain etched in my life forever,” says Nanabawa.

His friend Rashid Shaikh, 45, says Nanabawa’s life has not been the same after the plane crash. “Earlier, he used to smoke two packs of cigarettes, but now, he finishes five of them in a day. Before the air crash, he concentrated more on his business and was not seen much with his friends. Now, he spends most of his time in the mohalla, meeting people,” he adds.

Shaikh says Nanabawa’s friends and neighbours avoid discussing the Ahmedabad plane crash with him. “We discuss various subjects and make him laugh, so that he returns to a normal state. He also gets irritated when we ask about his ongoing business and says: ‘Money is not everything in life. What will I do with such money as I have lost my favourite son?’”

Filled with nostalgia, Nanabawa narrates the story of his life — of how he got married to his cousin, a British citizen, when he was 23. They had four children: Ismail (40), Akeel, Hamza (32), and Abdul Rehman (30). The last one is visually impaired, he shares.

“I worked in various firms and earned a steady income to support my family. I owned a house worth crores, amassed wealth in London, and raised my children, providing them with a good education,” he tells The Indian Express. The couple separated and Nanabawa came back to settle down in Surat in 2011. He remarried and went on to have two sons with his second wife.

Abdulla regularly visited London every two to three years to meet his sons and their children. He holds an Indian passport, unlike the rest of his family who are British.

Fondly talking about Sara, 4, he says, “She is the only girl child in my first wife’s clan as well as my children’s family.” Nanabawa would take Sara on rides on his motorbike to the market.

He had dropped Akeel, Hanna, 31, and Sara at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on June 12 and was returning to Surat when he got the news of the crash. He promptly returned and camped at the Civil Hospital for days, waiting to claim their bodies.

On June 18, when Nanabawa was offering prayers after the burial rituals of Akeel and Hanna, he got a call that Sara’s DNA had matched. He rushed to Ahmedabad to bring her remains to Surat where the three were buried. Sara was among the 13 children below 12 years of age whose DNA strains took a long time to extract.

On the compensation offered by Air India and Tata Sons, he says, “The money cannot bring my son back, what will I do with such money?”

He further says, “The Air India officials had contacted me and offered a compensation amount, but I refused it. When Ismail and Hamza were travelling to India from London to attend the burial, Air India officials at Heathrow Airport contacted them. They offered free air travel from London to India, as well as accommodation. They declined all the offers. We are not after the money. We want the truth to come out. My son Hamza has contacted a legal firm in London, and they are looking at legal options.”