Old Haj pilgrims' retreat turns hundred

MUMBAI: It was once called the Gateway to Mecca. But today, the crowds passing mechanically through the ancient arched gates of this heritage structure in Crawford Market are unaware of its legacy. Before Haj House opened its doors to pilgrims in the mid-1990s, it was the four-storey Mohammed Haji Saboo Siddique Musafirkhana that would host Haj pilgrims from across the country. Recently, this iconic building turned 100. Comprising 89 rooms and a mosque on the ground floor, the building is testimony to the generosity of the philanthropist whose name it bears. In an age when no Indian Haj pilgrim travels by sea and Haj flights from many cities have substantially reduced the number of pilgrims reaching Mumbai, Musafirkhana is fighting its own irrelevance. While a part of it is still being used as a retreat for patients seeking treatment in Mumbai and for a few Haj and umrah (mini-Haj) pilgrims, the building is largely used as a hostel, a school and a centre for vocational courses. "We have to make use of the rooms for the benefit of the community," says Bashir Patel, chairman of the Musafirkhana Trust. Apart from a school, technical courses like mobile phone repairing, air conditioning and tailoring by Fazlani Institute of Vocational Education and a hostel occupy the major part of the building. Occupying half of the third and fourth floors, the hostel is perhaps the gem among institutions run in this century-old building. Jointly run by Educational Endowment Trust and Aishabai and Haji Abdul Latif Charitable Turst, it houses a total of 60 students."The building is centrally located place and convenient for the students who cannot pay astronomical rents for accommodation in the city," says Abdul Kader Fazlani of the Aishabai and Haji Abdul Latif Charitable Trust says that when the Educational Endowment Trust, run by volunteers from India and Turkey, approached him with a proposal to set up a hostel of international standards in Mumbai, he suggested renting rooms at the Musafirkhana. "We already ran technical courses here and knew some of the rooms could be used for the hostel purpose," says Fazlani.Before the Musafirkhana formally opened in 1912, Haj pilgrims in the subcontinent-from Dhaka to Delhi-would pitch tents near Mumbai's port and wait for ships to carry them to Jeddah and back. Thus, they suffered great hardship, apart from being susceptible to disease. A decent guest house was the need of the hour. "Mohammed Haji Saboo Siddique donated Rs 5 lakh-then a handsome amount-and the then governor George Sydnehem Clarke laid the foundation stone for the building in 1909," says Abdul Rauf Sumar, a former chairman of the Musafirkhana Trust.Sumar is all praise for the Musafirkhana's founder, who was instrumental in setting up several other institutions in the city, including a maternity home and a polytechnic. Siddique "is an inspirational character for today's generation", says Sumar. "He died before the Musafirkhana was completed. His numerous institutions continue to serve the needy."Initially, the Musafirkhana had offices of the shipping company that took pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. The railways, too, would open its counter here during the Haj season, while a health centre took care of the pilgrims. Today, the Maharashtra State Haj Committee runs its offices from a room in the building while training camps for pilgrims are held weeks before the Haj flights begin.The Musafirkhana, Mumbai's original Haj House, today looks like a poor cousin of the 22-storey, ornamented Haj House on Paltan Road. But the relic is metamorphosing into a hub of educational institutions. "This is heritage structure and so we cannot alter it. The best we can utilize is open educational institutions here," explains SumarSumar says commemorating the building's centenary is not yet on the cards. "I will suggest a grand celebration at the next meeting of the trust," he says, raising his head from a patient's file at the M H Saboo Siddique Hospital, Dongri, another gift from the Musafirkhana's founder.