MADURAI: S Naushad Rahman (54), better known to the world as Tamil Nadu's first COVID-19 patient to die, could best be described as a role model, hard worker and a man of righteousness, said his kin.
A native of Mangulam village in Madurai district, Rahman grew up in the city with his three brothers and two sisters and graduated in B.Sc. Chemistry from Wakf Board College. After his marriage, he got into the plumbing and borewell business in Anna Nagar. Later, he became a building contractor.
Rahman’s 26-year-old elder son N Mohammed Shafeik said his father showered love, kindness and compassion upon his family and everyone around. “He was a respectable man in society. Come what may, he would put his family first despite a busy work schedule," Shafeik said.
He was very pious, he added. "A typical day for my father started and ended with him praying, visiting a mosque and spending most of his time in worship."
Today, he is still remembered by acquaintances and business friends for his virtuousness, Shafeik said. "My father took up contracts for construction of independent houses. There would be times when the construction cost would surpass the estimated budget. Empathising with the house owner, many a time, he would forgo the extra costs incurred during the construction. When we objected to it due to business losses, he, citing financial struggles undergone by the owner to build his/her dream home, would say it was the right thing to do," he recalled.
"To many, it may come as a surprise that my father who had built homes for others never had one of his own,” he said. The family lives in a rented three-bedroom house and had always thought their own house could be built anytime. “But, only a few months before my father's death, we had decided to build a house on our land, putting together all our dreams,” he recalled
He said his father taught him to always treat women with respect. "Even during a misunderstanding with my wife about three months before his passing, his word of advice to me was to treat one's wife as an equal, valuing her feelings. My father lived by his words till the end, treating women with dignity and respect," he said.
While many of Shafeik's cousins, aunts and uncles are doctors, he said that he and his younger brother became civil engineers as they grew up watching their father work on construction sites. "My father learnt the tricks of the trade through several years of experience and I wanted to learn them better through a professional degree," said Shakeik, who helped Rahman in the business. “He was a role model for the family.”
Rahman had diabetes and wheezing for nearly a decade, family members said. When he had breathing difficulties and high blood sugar levels on March 22, the family did not have the faintest idea that he was symptomatic for Covid-19.
"It was because he made it a habit to eat oily food or ice-cream stealthily despite his health conditions. Before he fell ill, he had eaten ice-cream at a neighbour's wedding. So, we thought it was a regular episode of wheezing. The news that he had tested positive for COVID was a shock to us," Shafeik shared.
Rahman was referred from a private hospital in KK Nagar to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) where he was admitted in the wee hours of March 22 He tested positive on March 23, becoming the district's first COVID patient.
Two days later, in the early hours of March 25, the Tamil Nadu Minister for Health and Family Welfare, C Vijayabaskar, announced Rahman’s death -- the first due to COVID in the State -- on Twitter. He had uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and COVID pneumonia.
Notably, Rahman was the first COVID patient in the State with no history of travel outside the State. His son added that Rahman had only met and spoken with a group of Thai preachers, who all tested negative for the virus soon after.
"He knew he was not going to make it. Being a staunch spiritualist, he told us not to worry and to accept the end destined to everyone born on this Earth,” the son said.
While the hospital had initially said Rahman’s remains would not be handed over to the family in the case of his death, they eventually did and allowed his funeral to be performed as per the family’s customs.
“Yet, considering the large circle of kith and kin and business acquaintances, it remains a void that he couldn't be given a grand farewell."
After his death, Rahman's wife and two sons, who were quarantined at the hospital, tested positive for Covid. They were treated at the GRH and discharged in the second week of April.
Three months on, the family has still not come to terms with Rahman's loss. "My 10-month-old son was the apple of my father's eye. Putting aside his work, he relished watching the toddler crawl and his every minute movement,” Shafeik recalled.
“Today, as my son ages, my mother, painfully yet fondly, speaks of how much my father would have enjoyed watching his grandson take his first steps and grow."