Just when it was felt that COVID-struck Kerala was developing an unnecessary fear of the dead, a village mosque in Wayanad has shown that compassion still remains uninfected.
When health authorities asked whether 62-year-old Thalassery native Laila could be buried in their cemetery, the Mahallu Committee of the Varambatta Juma Masjid in Wayanad's Vellamunda panchayat readily agreed.
Laila's last journey
Usually, only the bodies of those under the four mahallu committees in the area are buried in the Varambatta 'khabarstan'. It is also the only 'khabarstan' for four masjids in the area.
Laila was from another district, from Kannur. “But when we realised her relatives wanted her buried in Wayanad, we did not think twice,” said T K Mammootty, Varambatta Mahallu Committee member.
Laila was based in Bangalore, where her husband and sons run a business. She had visited a hospital in Bangalore for acute pneumonia and she was referred to Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur. A COVID test was done at the Bangalore hospital, and it showed negative.
The result came late and it was already past midnight when the mobile ICU carrying Laila started from Bangalore. By the time the ambulance reached the Muthanga check-post, Laila's condition worsened and the check-post authorities directed that she be taken to the Sulthan Bathery Taluk Hospital. She died on the way.
Laila's family's last wish
A TrueNat test done on the sample taken from Laila at the Taluk Hospital showed she was positive. A COVID victim has to be buried at the place of death. Laila had no one in Sulthan Bathery and her relatives expressed the wish to bury her in Varambatta, where her son lived.
One of Laila's sons, Hussain, had married from Nerippara near Varambatta. But the masjid under Hussain's Vappanam Mahallu did not have a khabarstan. Also, the Vappanam Masjid was under the control of the A P Sunni faction while Varambatta's was controlled by the E K Sunni faction.
But when the Wayanad additional district magistrate called up the Varambatta Mahallu Committee members, they did not even ask for time to think.
Varambatta's first COVID burial
“We just asked them to bring the body. But we also reassured our people saying it was foolish to fear COVID spread from a dead body that is sheathed in two layers of plastic. No one raised any objection,” Mammootty said.
Laila's body was then transported 45 kilometres from Sulthan Bathery to Varambatta. By then volunteers led by C Mooyi, as per the instructions of Health Department officials, had prepared a pit eight-and-a-half feet deep at the Varambatta khabarstan.
The body was handled by the young volunteer group of Jamaat-e-Islami called the Ideal Relief Wing (IRW). It was the same team that had buried Nipah vicitims in 2018.
Mahallu secretary A Jafar and members T K Mammootty, P O Nazar, Kannadi Ayub and Riyas A K were present at the venue. But Varambatta residents, by way of precaution, largely kept away from the area.
Wayanad's secular icon
The understanding shown by the Varambatta Mahallu Committee was not surprising as the masjid, situated in the shadow of the Banasura hill, is a famed secular symbol in the area. Its major attraction, Dillikkoya Thangal Makkam, rests on a piece of land donated by the Keezhpattu family, a prominent Nair 'tharavad' in the area.
Dillikkoya Thangal, so named because he is said to have come from Delhi, was reputed to be a savant and a miracle worker who had struck a close friendship with Keezhpattu Kanaran Nair, the head of the Keezhpattu family in the late 19th century.
The bond lasts to this day. “The annual festival at the masjid, normally held in March, is an all-religion event. Hindus and the tribal people in the area wholeheartedly take part in the events along with our Muslim brethren,” said Kunhiraman Nair, one of Kanaran's Nair's descendants.