By Aliza Noor

Wearing a cream and olive green Kurta-salwar suit, 39 year-old Nargis Saifi glanced at an old photo album in front of her. This album held all her dearest memories of jailed human rights activist Khalid Saifi and their children. An album which shows what their life once was. An album that cannot be recreated since Khalid’s incarceration.

Nargis is now the same age at which Khalid was arrested over five years ago by the Delhi police. The concept of time and ageing, responsibilities towards his family weigh heavily on Khalid’s mind in jail, he tells The Quint.

“He had told me this line once: ‘In my film, you are my hero, and in your film, I’m your villain.’ I told him it’s nothing like that and that he’s our hero, for all of us,” Nargis told The Quint, in a voice that has only become stronger with resistance over the years.

Khalid has been languishing in Tihar jail since February 2020 in the Delhi riots ‘conspiracy’ case (FIR/59) much like Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, Sharjeel Imam and others. He is also an accused in FIR 101 of 2020 and FIR 44 of 2020 but has been granted bail in both of them.

To take a deeper look into what half a decade of imprisonment has done to Khalid, and the ramifications on his family, The Quint met with Nargis and their children and has exclusively gotten responses from Khalid to some of our questions.

When Nargis sat across me, she covered her face with a mask, barring her eyes. Every time she spoke about Khalid, her eyes shone, the crow’s feet around her eyes deepened as she smiled. This time, a little more so.

Khalid was granted 10 days interim bail in August to see his ailing son. Though the reason for his brief visit home was sombre, his visit had made the world of difference to them. “It was like our Eid when he was home,” remarked Nargis. The children, wearing a bittersweet smile, nodded their heads in agreement.

‘Father & Son Hugged, Cried’

When Khalid was arrested, his sons, Yasa and Taha were 11 and 9 years old and his daughter, Maryam was only 6. They have grown up now, but Khalid could not see them grow.

This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.