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saddam

saddam
khan , madhya
pradesh

Saddam Khan (30) wearing a red full-sleeved T-shirt sits in a purplish-brown plastic chair in his small grocery shop in front of a table. He has short black wavy hair with a side parting, and a sparse beard and moustache. His right hand rests next to an open laptop and he is looking down into a notebook that he is holding open with his left hand. Also on the table are a black landline phone, sheaves of computer printouts, three clear plastic sachets, and a large ‘paytm’ digital payment sign with a QR code. Behind him are shelves fully stocked with goods such as plastic bottles of soft drinks, clear plastic jars filled with eatables, biscuit packets, and light bulbs.
Saddam Khan stands on a narrow street between two rows of houses directly abutting the street. He wears blue jeans and a black full-sleeved T-shirt. The front of the shirt has a black-and-white image of a curly-haired young man in T-shirt and jeans against a light grey background. Saddam has a knee brace strapped to his right leg and holds a forearm crutch in his right hand. Two brown chickens and a white chicken stand next to him, turning towards him.
Saddam and his son Mohammad Ahad Khan (4) sits cross-legged on a bed facing each other. Saddam is smiling at Ahad. He wears blue jeans and a light orange full-sleeved shirt with black and grey crisscrossing lines. The shirt sleeves have been rolled up to the middle of the forearms. Ahad wears a maroon T-shirt and beige jeans. His right hand rests on an orange toy tractor with grey wheels. The wall behind the bed is greenish-yellow and has an open window with brown wooden frames and blue glass panes.
Saddam wearing his light orange shirt and blue jeans sits cross-legged on a plain cement floor. Holding a cucumber in his left hand he is peeling it with a knife held in his right hand. A small steel plate near his feet contains a few green cucumber peels. There are three large white plates in front of him. The central plate is empty. The one to the right contains a green watermelon with a large rectangular chunk cut out, exposing the red flesh. The one to the left contains a red tomato and a round, yellow-green melon with green vertical stripes. The wall behind him is dark pink and the right-hand wall is greenish yellow. Next to the right-hand wall, two sets of three purplish-brown plastic chairs have been stacked one on top of the other. To the left of Saddam there is a large black fridge.
Saddam poses with his family on a sofa. From left to right: Standing, wife Shehnaz Khatoon (25); sitting on the arm rest, nephew Rehman Khan (10); seated on the sofa are Saddam’s mother Khadija Khatoon (55), Saddam, and his father Naseem Khan (61) with Ahad sitting on his right thigh; and standing, Saddam’s sister Sabeena Khatoon (34). Shehnaz wears an orange salwar, dark green kameez, and an off-white dupatta draped over her head, chest and shoulders. Rehman wears a black fez on his head, faded blue jeans, and a black, full-sleeved, close-neck kurta with golden buttons down the front. Khadija wears brown chappals, a salwar-kameez in a light brown design on a white background, and a dupatta of the same material covering her head, chest and shoulders. Saddam wears a beige full-sleeved T-shirt, light blue jeans, and grey sneakers with orange laces. Naseem wears dark grey pants and a full-sleeved shirt with light blue checks on a white background. Ahad wears a purplish-brown T-shirt and beige jeans with orange, grey and red irregular patches. Sabeena wears a black churidar, a kameez in vertical stripes of brown, grey and black, and a dupatta in a red and grey pattern draped over her head, chest and shoulders.
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“I wanted to study further and join a company but since domestic finances needed immediate attention I thought it better to run my small shop”

If you go to the vegetable market in Bhopal’s Bluemoon Colony you might see a kirana shop (a small general store) where 30-year-old Saddam Khan handles sales and operates a photocopier machine. “I open my shop at 10 a.m. and shut it only at 11 p.m.” he tells us. He doesn’t have far to commute, though. He just has to take a few steps to reach his house, since the shop is attached to it.
 
Taking steps is not very easy for Saddam, who was struck by polio at age three. But his life has been on an even keel so far. “I had a great time in school,” he recalls. “My dearest friend in school was Mohit Saini who is my best friend even now. He runs a flower shop close by. We meet very often and also play chess together.” Although Saddam does like playing online games like Super Mario Brothers on his mobile, chess is by far his favourite game.
 
Saddam’s father Naseem Khan (61) opened this shop for him in 2015 after he completed Class 12, telling him, “You can either keep studying or take care of this shop.” Saddam did both. He did his Bachelors in Chartered Accountancy (BCA) and would have liked to pursue MCA and “work for a company” except for the exigencies of the family economy. “Once I got married I realised I needed to take care of my wife and kids, and running the shop made more sense.” He and his wife Shehnaz Khatoon (25) live in his parents’ home with their two sons: four-year-old Mohammad Ahad and Mohammad Ali who is just one month old.
 
Naseem Khan, who is a Class 1 thekedar (contractor), and his wife Khadija Khatoon (55) hail from Bihar but later moved to Bhopal. (Incidentally, we learnt that Khatoon is not a surname but an honorific title of Turkish origin, given to women.) Saddam has two older and two younger sisters: Sabeena, Raveena, Tabassum and Zeenat. “They are all married and live nearby and we meet regularly,” says Saddam. “My family has been my biggest support.” He is especially close to Raveena, who has always looked out for him. Even now she tells him, when there is a chore to be done, “You stay here, I’ll do it for you.” One or the other of his family members looks after the shop when he takes a break.
 
Saddam got married in 2017. “Shehnaz is my aunt’s daughter and hails from Bihar,” he says. “She is very sweet natured.” He adds: “She is always trying out new dishes – her kababs are my favourite!”
 
Saddam says he always wanted to work for the public good. Now he wishes his two sons would do the same – earn the respect of society by working for their welfare. “I would very much like them to be a doctor and a police officer – that is, if they show interest in these vocations.”


Photos:

Vicky Roy

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