The story of a Muslim woman who adopted the three children of a Hindu woman working in her home

 The story of a Muslim woman who adopted the three children of a Hindu woman working in her home

Decades ago, a Muslim woman in India adopted her three Hindu children after the death of her domestic worker, and thus an extraordinary story of motherly love, compassion and tolerance was laid, which has now been made into a film. Immortalized by

BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi spoke to the children who were adopted by Thinadan Subeda in 1976.

One of their sons, Jafar Khan, got teary-eyed when he first saw the film Anu Swaantham Shridharan. However, his brother Shri Dharan, who was sitting with him during the launch of this film, started crying.

Both Jafar Khan and Shri Dharan are 49 years old, but they are not related by blood. Jafar Khan is a Muslim, while Shri Dharan is a Hindu. However, when you ask Jafar Khan what Shridharan means to him, he says, 'He is my brother, but it is more than that. It happens to me all the time. I don't know what to say to him. This is my partner.

However, the woman through whom Jafar and Shridharan grew up together was actually Jafar Khan's mother Subida, who died in 2019.

Subida's heart-wrenching story is a reminder that in the midst of religious differences, humanity ultimately triumphs. This story comes at a time when India has been witnessing an increase in religious-based conflicts over the past several years.

The story begins in the year 1976 when Shridharan and his two elder sisters Ramani and Leela's mother Chakki dies while giving birth to their fourth child. Meanwhile, the fourth one could not be saved.

Chaki actually worked at Subida's house. So Subeda decided to adopt their children. They didn't do it legally i.e. no paperwork was done because the laws were not that strict in those days.