By Saleem Rashid Shah
Bashir Ahmad Shah might have been a paramedic by profession but through his dedication to serve his people, he was a character one only comes across in legends and folktales. Destiny shapes such individuals but once in generations. In him the people of Rohama Rafiabad not just lost a dedicated paramedic but also a father figure.
I remember a dreadful yet amusing episode when a severe toothache kept me riling with pain all night and Bashir Ahmad Shah (Mama as we called him) decided to take me to a dentist he knew in the newly opened Sub-District Hospital of Baramulla the next morning. As we reached the dental section of the hospital, the employees there got up and greeted with respect and reverence a former colleague of theirs. Known for his sharp wit and a scathing sense of humor, Mama sat beside me as I lay on that peculiar dentist’s chair, its recline unusually long, awaiting my dental examination. The drill buzzed in my mouth as the doctor cleaned the cavities to be filled with the new Zinc Oxide filling. I was shrieking with pain and I heard Mama whispering in my ears the words I will never forget: ‘Eat more toffees’. Ten years later, the Zinc Oxide filling is still buried in my teeth but Mama is no more.
Bashir Ahmad Shah joined the department of Health in 1970’s as a ‘Khidmadgar’ but his father, Peer Saif Ud Din Shah, had entirely different notions of his only son. For him he was a pampered dreamer, someone who was well cared for but hadn’t yet settled on a clear path in life. On his first posting in tehsil Handwara, Mama had barely stayed for a week and had come home in protest about the job being too hectic and difficult.
At his uncle Abdul Ahad Shah’s insistence, he reluctantly returned to work. He took him to Handwara and placed him under the guidance of a trusted doctor. What began as a profession he initially disliked soon became his true calling, one he would grow to love passionately for the rest of his life.
The decade of 90’s was the one marred with strife and terror in Kashmir and in our village of Rohama (in Rafiabad) the only healthcare provider was Bashir Ahmad Shah. To the people, he was nothing less than a doctor. In an era when stepping outside after dark was unthinkable, Mama fearlessly tended to his patients, unwavering in his commitment. He had a unique habit of sleeping in the room closest to the main entrance in order to ensure that he would immediately hear if someone knocked at night. It was a time of such fear that even opening the gates felt daunting, let alone venturing out to care for the sick and injured.
His family would often worry for him and at times scold him for putting his life in danger but he wouldn’t listen. When asked if he ever feared going out with patients at night amid such strife and turmoil he would laughingly reply that ‘the nerve that carries the emotion of fear to one’s mind didn’t exist in me.’ At times in order to sneak out of his home at night without waking up his family he would escape through a window and come back through the same, so that the family wouldn’t know in the morning what had transpired in the night. A dedicated public servant whose commitment went far beyond the confines of a 10-to-4 workday would be an apt description of him.
Reacting to a condolence post, a facebook user and a respected teacher of Rohama, Mr Gulzar Ahmad Bhat wrote: ‘Bashir Sahab was a noble soul who rendered unforgettable service in almost every household of Rohama. I remember a day in 1986 when I had a shooting pain and was crying for relief, my father took me to his home at around 2am in the morning. In a few knocks on his gate, Bashir Sahab opened the door, examined me and gave me an injection. I felt relieved in a few minutes. In Bashir we lost an apostle of humanity whose vacuum would take generations to fill.’
Thousands of people carry countless stories about this remarkable man. His life and service touched many, nearly all of whom gathered for a final glimpse of him before he embarked on his eternal journey. Austrian psychologist Viktor Frankl, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, writes that a person who has a strong ‘Why’ to live can endure almost any ‘How.’ For Mama, that ‘Why’ was his unwavering commitment to selflessly serve his people, even in the most challenging times, a purpose for which he endured every hardship with courage.
He departed quietly on the sacred Friday of the holy month of Ramazan, at 2 PM on March 7, 2025.
- Saleem Rashid Shah, a book critic and researcher, is the nephew of the departed
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