The moving picture

Memories of March 1, 2002 8212; the day a mob attacked his chawl at Rehmatnagar in Gomtipur, in the aftermath of the Godhra attack 8212; return. He remembers how a photographer took his picture as he stood, with folded hands, tears in eyes, seeking mercy.

8216;8216;It changed my life. I was not even aware that the photograph was splashed in newspapers until a local reporter came searching for me. What followed was beyond my control,8217;8217; recalls Ansari, a tailor.

OVERNIGHT, Ansari became the defining image of Gujarat8217;s black hour. He couldn8217;t go out without being recognised, there were days when he had to flee when people gathered around him. 8216;8216;This happened once when I was in a garden with my family and again when I went to a watch a movie with my friends,8217;8217; he says.

The unwanted fame, coupled with the constant intervention of the media and NGOs, cost him his job, and Ansari decided to move to Mumbai and later to Malegaon. But the media and NGOs followed him there too, and he again lost his job.

That was when Ansari decided to move to West Bengal with wife Tairobano and two children. 8216;8216;Things were fine there but I was far from the rest of my family. Seven months ago when I came to know that my mother was ill, I came back. Once here,

I decided to stay back,8217;8217; he says.

Bismillahbanu, his mother, enters the room as he says this. Giving her a hug, he says: 8216;8216;This is my ammi. I had to come back for her.8217;8217;

THERE were other reasons too. The fact that his children, seven-year-old Rukkiya and three-year-old Zeshan, would ask questions when they grew up weighed on his mind.

8216;8216;What would I tell them if they asked why I left? I didn8217;t want them to grow up thinking everything and everyone is bad in this state. This is where we have lived for years, this state has given us a lot. How could I deprive my children of being part of a proper family,8217;8217; he says.

Leaving behind the 8216;8216;good English medium school in which Rukkiya was studying8217;8217;, Ansari chose to send her to a municipal school, where all other children of his neighbourhood study. Today, Ansari8217;s family lives with his mother and his brother8217;s family. The two brothers, both tailors, have set up their own business with four sewing machines8212;all donated by different organisations8212;stitching clothes for shops selling men8217;s wear. The business is doing well and it shows on their newly painted and re-done house that had been partly damaged in the post-Godhra riots.

8216;8216;It8217;s great to have him back. We missed him on all occasions, good or bad. And our mother kept worrying about him all the time,8217;8217; says brother Sirajbhai.

The men sit talking among themselves, the women prepare breakfast and the kids are getting ready for school.

It8217;s a picture perfect moment.

THE media attention is yet to disappear completely but Ansari has drawn the line. 8216;8216;Several NGOs come knocking on my door but I tell them I am not interested. My photograph has been used by several people 8212; some with the wrong intention 8212; but that was without asking or even informing me. I have nothing to do with them,8217;8217; he says.

8216;8216;I came to know that my photograph had been again used during Bihar election campaigning but without my knowledge or permission. I have tried hard to put it all behind me, and I don8217;t want it to surface by letting people use that picture. There are so many who lost their family and house in the riots while I did not lose anything or anybody. Then why am I the face of riots?8217;8217; he asks.

His brother says that they have had to be stern about not letting any one intervene in their life or business, which is how they put the chapter behind them.

Ansari has the last word: 8216;8216;No photographs, please.8217;8217;