A relative from Pune called her in October to ask if Shakir had been written about in the series. ‘‘I immediately went to get the paper to see what was being written. I liked it so much that from the next day we started getting the paper to read about the victim’s families,” says Rehana.

On many afternoons, she says, these stories lighten her pain as she realises she isn’t alone. She reached out to one of them after reading their story, a family from Borivali who were also from her native place in Nashik.

“The family was hesitant, but I spoke to them and shared our feelings and experiences. When we read about others going through the same thing, it feels that we are not alone in this. At least humara dard thoda kam hota hai,” she says.

Both Bohra Muslims, Shakir and Rehana are from Malegaon. “Ours was an arranged marriage. My father always wanted to get him as his son-in-law,” she says. “Hardworking, meticulous and systematic. That’s how I remember him when we came to Bombay in 1965 and he was a practising lawyer. At home, he was a gentleman. Very tidy.”

Daughter Naseem (39), living with her parents along with her son ever since her divorce, has her own stories about her father. “He was always calm and I have never seen him angry in my life.”

He loved home food, recalls Naseem. “As though his sole incentive to earn was for that. His staple afternoon diet was chappatis and sabji. He took it in his lunchbox for the last 40 years. Even when he was chief metropolitan magistrate. He was a workaholic.”

... contd.