My name is Khan revisited

Captain Matloob Aslam Khan and his gracious wife, Afshan are friends that we’ve picked for life, during my rather long stint at the Directorate of Contracts and Cost Management. I’m fond of him for his naiveté and helping attitude and I suppose he reciprocates it too, in that he has often shown his fondness for me unabashedly – like including me and Lekha for his son’s ‘baraat’, that went all the way to Aligarh, for the wedding and Mrs Khan made it a point to sit with Lekha for the entire day while I underwent a surgery recently. These are priceless gestures, among so many others for which, the both of us will remain indebted to them eternally.
Of late, he’s been quite dejected with his brothers(they’re five siblings- two brothers and two sisters, all elder to him) who’re fighting a dirty legal battle, with the connivance of one of the sisters, over ancestral property – around 100 acres of mango orchard in Bulandshahr. They try every dirty trick to pin him down and the sentimental guy that he is, has tears in his eyes as he narrates every such episode. But the Khans have wonderful assets in the form of their children, Minhaj and Safia, who’re in turn lucky to have wonderful spouses in Aiman and Salman. It’s the chilren’s love that keeps Matloob Khan going, as he is badly racked with a host of ailments – a case of lingering hernia despite three surgeries, recurrent bronchial asthma and to top it all, affliction of the Parkinson’s syndrome!
The Khans are on their way to London, by the early morning 0330h British Airways flight, where they’ll spend five days before flying off to Lagos, Nigeria. Minhaj and Aiman have already fetched up at London yesterday, to be at hand, to receive them. But this trip did not seem to be possible till 1600h this evening simply because the British visa was taking its own time to come. It all started about ten days back, when the visa was applied for, after having got their Nigerian one. It’s said that in Delhi, it usually takes almost a month, to get a British visa and the Khans’ should’ve rightfully catered for this time lag. However, tragedy struck in their immediate circle in the death of a course mate’s wife and they were deeply involved in the attendant ceremonies and hence, the delay in submission of their applications. The British High Commission was in no mood to relent even after being told by the Vice Chief – ‘Dabbu’ Dewan and Matloob Khan are coursemates- that he’s a serving naval officer, all because of the fact that the Britishers do not mess up with security and the most important factor was that his name was Khan!
Here’s wishing the Khans an easy security clearance at the airport, bon voyage and a wonderful holiday. They deserve that after a nerve wracking fortnight!!
Tailpiece. Shaizan, Safia’s son is the youngest person on whom I’ve rendered a ‘Conduct Certificate’, when he was three months’ old, as dictated by the application for his passport. Some crazy requirement, this!!! And incidentally, Matloob Khan was the navy's ace hurdler in his prime.