'He feared darkness but the biggest shock.....'; Heart-wrenching note about Rasheen

Actor Siddique’s son Rasheen passed away just days back at the young age of 37. Rasheen was ‘Sappy’ to family, friends and the whole film milieu. No condolences could repair the loss of the family while Siddique was seen distraught in most videos that came after his son’s death. And now, film director Anoop Sathyan has penned a heart-wrenching first-person account of the happenings when he went to meet a bereaved Siddique, accompanied by his father and film director Sathyan Anthikad.

Anoop Sathyan:

“Funeral procedures have ended. Siddique is sitting in front of Sappy’s bedroom near the porch. Maybe it is due to his acting prowess, that Siddique morphs into an actor whenever describing Sappy. I was sitting silently beside my father when he started talking about Sappy.

For Siddique, Sappy is a ‘37-year-old child’ who fears darkness, devours chicken cuisines, and keeps tidiness as his core trait. He hates to see things placed unorderly and will spend all time in the world to set his room in order. Tears filled Siddique’s eyes when talks went to Sappy’s occasional bouts with epilepsy.

The library was Sappy's most sought-after location. He loved reading world books and will deftly skim through it. He even collected the books placed unorderly by other readers and kept them immaculately on the rack. This also made Sappy enter into the good books of the librarian.

It was at this moment that my father intervened. “Siddique, he lived a life of happiness. Far away from the hypocritical, cruel world that we live in.” I thought my father couldn’t be more right.

Siddique: He had an amazing memory. Even when asked about dates of next year, he will answer, shocking us all. But the biggest shock was reserved for another day when Sappy took a bicycle placed on the porch of our house and went away without telling anyone. Panic grew among us and we all started going in different directions to search for him. While we were running amok in search, Sappy cycled back into the house almost one hour after leaving. Seeing my red face, he approached me and told not to scold him. The anger left my face in a whiff as I put him close to me.

Clutching hands, Siddique was shedding tears by now. Like out of a reverie, Siddique looked at us and said “Sappy’s palms are not like us, it is very soft”. This time his face had an amusement. "