It takes two pardons to finally call it quits after 30 years

Dubai: After staying in the UAE for nearly 30 years and exiting the country once during the 1996 amnesty, a 75-year-old man from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is finally calling it quits.

Hanumantha, who first arrived to the UAE in 1977 from Mumbai, yesterday approached the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) to get his papers sorted out to travel back to his country. His last visit to his hometown was in 1996, but was back again in UAE a couple of months with a visa to work as a domestic help.

He was paid Dh900 and his work involved tending gardens, cleaning the house and running errands. A year back he found himself on the streets after death of the family matriarch. Since then Hanumantha has never been able to get a good job and got by by doing odd jobs.

He shared an apartment with a friend in Sharjah but had to vacate because he could not pay the rent. His health deteriorated and he often complained of chest pain. A couple of week back Hanumantha was found sitting on a pavement in Rolla Sharjah.

Exhausted

A passerby found him weeping and after listening to his story drove him to the Indian Association in Sharjah where he was made to fill an application for an outpass. The same individual also got him to the DNRD where he was spotted by volunteers of a Dubai-based Indian organisation Valley of Love.

Gulf News met him outside the gates of the DNRD surrounded by other amnesty seekers who were waiting in queue. An exhausted Hanumantha said that he is old and he is unwell.

Sipping a mineral water cup that was handed over to him by someone, Hanumantha said: “I have no money. I had saved Dh7,000 but I spent it partly on repatriating the body of my friend with whom I once shared an accommodation in Sharjah. He had no one here. I had to spend. He was kind to me. By making arrangements to repatriate his body home, I have to a certain extent repaid his kindness for providing me with shelter when I had none,'' he said.

Married with no children, Hanumantha's wife died while he was in the UAE. His only hope is his younger sister who lives in the district of Karimnagar.

With his hands on his chest, Hanumantha said: “I hope she takes me in. She is a grandmother now. I do not have any children of my own. I used to send money home when my wife was alive, but after her death I did not bother to get in touch with my sister. I was shattered and felt alone.

“I did not feel like going back home as well. I had no one to turn too and hence I stayed on here,'' he said.

On what made him decide to go home now, Hanumantha said: “I get this recurring thought that I will not live long. I give myself a couple of months more. I want to die in my country.''

C.P.Mathew, a volunteer of VOl who is trying to get Hanumantha's paper sorted out at the DNRD said that the 75-year-old is spending the night in one of the parks in Rolla.

He said: “I met him on Sunday and spoke to him at length on his whereabouts back home. He has informed us that he is desperate to go back home.''