Faizul Hasan Qadri, a retired postman from Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, shot to fame after he built a mini Taj Mahal in memory of his deceased wife. The 83-year-old met was hit by a motorcycle on Thursday evening while he was taking a walk outside his house in Kaser Kalan village.
Qadri, breathed his last in a Aligarh hospital and will be buried beside his wife in the very tomb he painstakingly built for her, just like the king and queen whose monument inspired him.
“He was taking a walk outside his house around 10.30 pm on Thursday when some unidentified vehicle hit him. He was lying injured and I received information around 1 am. I rushed him to a local hospital and later to Aligarh where he died around 11 am on Friday….” Mohammad Aslam, Qadri’s nephew, told Hindustan Times.
Constructed on 5,500 sq ft in the once-obscure village of Kaser Kalan in Dibai tehsil, the cement and brick structure built by Qadri might not equal the Taj, but it won many hearts because of the undying love of the retired postman for his wife whom he lost in 2011 to throat cancer.
The locals who were amused by his grand announcement fondly called him ‘Shah Jahan of the poor’ as they witness the monument taking shape, Times of India reported.
Qadri not only built Taj Mahal’s replica for his wife, he had also donated his land for a government school for girls, which has now been constructed adjacent to the ‘Taj’.
