Habib Miyan with two of his great grandchildren. Picture by Gopal Sunger

Jaipur, Aug. 19: Habib Miyan, who was born around the same time as Mahatma Gandhi and had been blind for 60 of India’s 61 years of Independence, died this morning. He was 138.

Frail but spirited, India’s oldest man who went on Haj just three years ago and had a hip replacement surgery last year appeared to know his time had come.

Yesterday, the centenarian called Rajesh Nagpal, the bank clerk who had made him famous, over to the house where six generations of his family lived and told him softly: “I am going to go now.” He died at 3am. He was suffering from diarrhoea and had been throwing up.

Nagpal was posted in State Bank of India’s Transport Nagar branch in Jaipur in 1998 when he noticed the old man who would come to collect his pension. He dug out the dusty pension order that showed Habib Miyan had long turned 100.

He had started drawing a pension of Rs 1.46 on June 1, 1938, when he retired as a clarinet player in the maharaja’s band. In 70 years, that rose to a princely sum of Rs 2,698.

The chance discovery changed Habib Miyan’s life. The Limca Book of Records recognised him as the country’s oldest man and the media couldn’t have enough of him.

The SBI certifies him as 138 years old, giving his birthday as May 20, 1870 — Vladimir Lenin was born a month earlier, in April 1870. But his family claims Habib Miyan was born Rahim Khan, son of Kallu Khan, in 1869 — the year of Gandhi’s birth.

“If you treat your body well, the body will treat you well,” Habib Miyan would tell anyone who asked him the secret of his long life, great nephew Mehmood Khan, 54, recalled today.

Jaipur celebrated his birthday on May 20 every year since Nagpal found him. Except this year. Shaken by the May 13 blasts that killed 68 people, Habib Miyan decided there would be no party.

He would spend most of his time in his decrepit house, praying and telling stories to his family of 26 great nephews, their wives, children and grandchildren, who all lived under one roof.

The stories would be of Maharaja Ram Singh II, who was on the throne when Habib Miyan was born and whose 45-year rule is called the Golden Age of Jaipur.

The children and grandchildren of his brothers had been his family, after his wife Saida and their four sons died 70-odd years ago.

Sometime in his late teens, Habib Miyan’s elder brother helped him get a job in the Jaipur State Band, where he played the clarinet for nearly four decades.

If Habib Miyan missed the good old times, he would not show it, great nephew Mehmood said. Asked to compare the present with the past, he would just say: “The old days were good then, and the modern times are good for now.”

Mehmood added: “The aged are always complaining of something or the other but Habib Miyan would never nag. He was lively at this age, too. And he always looked forward to his favourite meal of meat korma and kalakand.”

His dream to go on Haj was fulfilled when two benefactors from Britain sent him Rs 300,000. Three years ago, Habib Miyan became a Haji.

Last September, Habib Miyan slipped and fell in the bathroom and had to undergo hip replacement surgery. Dr R.K. Varma, who operated on him, said he was surprised by the number of calls he received from Muslims and Hindus asking about the man who was also called Aabe-e-Jaipur (Jaipur’s lustre).

A large number turned up at the funeral today.