On Tuesday, November 26, and Wednesday November 27, I was in New York city to attend a few meetings at the United Nations. However, on November 27th there was a long gap of three hours between meetings. I did not want to waste the three hours gap. As per usual, when I have a long gap between the meetings in New York, I visit sardar Taj Khan at his shop on Broadway Street which is just 15 minutes’ walk from the UN. He is always gracious enough to feed anybody with Halal sandwich and will never let you go without having ginger tea. So, I walked to his shop just to spend a few hours with a real gentleman.
I was stunned not because Taj Sahib was not there, but the nonverbal surprise expression shown by his colleagues at the shop. His colleagues are not all Pakistanis except one, the rest of them are from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Elsa lavador, Guatemala, etc. He is in the hospital for the last nine days and we are missing him dearly, their expression revealed nothing but shock. They did not have any details of his hospitalization. So, I met his brother Sardar Haleem Khan, Chairman JLKF, North America whose shop is also on Broadway Street, just three meetings walk away. He was obviously very concerned about the health of Taj Sahib. He told me that Taj was in New York University Hospital. I left right away to visit Taj Sahib at the hospital which is just 10 minutes’ walk from his shop.
Those who know Sardar Taj Khan will testify that he is such a courteous, soft spoken yet respectful person. When I met him at the hospital, he had just returned from a three-hour procedure and was resting at his bed. He told me that he felt some abdominal pain along with some respiratory issues. A day early, they performed an endoscopy. All the tests which were conducted by various physicians were negative. However, he was expecting the result of today’s procedure to be available on Friday, November 29.
Taj Bhai, you have been here for the last nine days, and no one knows about your hospitalization, I asked. His answer will not surprise you because I know he is a sincere person and always thinks about others. He told me that Fai Sahib, I do not want to burden my friends. One has to pay at least $90.00 garage parking charges in this vicinity, which is too much and secondly, the visitation policy of the hospital allows only one person at a time. So, if you have three to four visitors, they will take turns and spend at least two hours just to visit me. Therefore, I decided not to disturb them and did not tell anybody about my admission at the hospital. I was very impressed to see the sense of kind heartedness and humanness in Taj Sahib. However, today, he allowed me to make this announcement.
Please pray to Allah for the early recovery of our lead team of Kashmiri activities in New York and Washington, Sardar Sawar Khan Sahib, former Advisor to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir; Sardar Zarif Khan Sahib, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir and Sardar Taj Khan Sahib, Senior Vice President, Kashmir Mission, USA. May Allah give them all Shaifa-e-Kamilah! Ameen.
(Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai is Chairman of World Forum for Peace & Justice, New York.)
