Hajis to fulfil their lifetime dream

HYDERABAD: Hundreds of people thronged the Haj House at Nampally here on Monday but an old man, dressed in brand new clothes, appeared the happiest of the lot. He had every reason to be as after waiting for a life time, he was going on Haj pilgrimage in a few hours.Allauddin (75), who hails from Kurnool, sells sandalwood sticks outside a masjid and earns around Rs 50 a day. Though the sole aim in his life is to visit Mecca, he has been determined that he will not take anybody’s help, not even from his near and dear ones.“Everything is decided... Allah wants me to come now. Hence I go,” a humble and ecstatic Allauddin said. Similar were the views of several other pilgrims.As the first bus full of Hajis clad in Ehram rolled out of the Haj House, all the families and friends wished them the best for the month-long pilgrimage.“We request you to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of the state of Andhra Pradesh,” chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy urged them as he officially flagged off the pilgrimage on Monday.The pilgrimage had started on Sept 30 itself but Reddy couldn’t flag it then.According to the authorities, 7,260 pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh will be going for Haj this year. Among them, 2,433 are from Hyderabad alone.The pilgrims are segmented into three categories, on the basis of accommodation facilities and expenditure preferred. ‘Green’ category pilgrims, who would pay around Rs 1,20,000 get to stay within 1.5 to 6 km from ‘Kaaba’, whereas ‘White’ and ‘Azizia’ categories who pay Rs 1,11,000 and 1,04,000 respectively get to stay 5 to 10 km from ‘Kaaba’ and beyond.The central and state governments and the Haj Committee of AP have taken up various measures and subsidy programmes for the pilgrims. All the pilgrims were given an orientation programme for three months wherein they were given training about Haj rituals, safety precautions etc. They were also given vaccinations - administered and certified by the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM).The pilgrims were visibly happy with the arrangements too. Azam Khan and family were thrilled about their first ever trip to Mecca and said, “Everything has been organised very well.”