BANGALORE, 4 April — Akram Sharif enjoys life in Sharourah. In the meantime, his family suffers in poverty. Will Indian expatriates help his wife find out exactly what has become of her husband?

Shamshad Begum is a distraught mother of two children. Her husband, Akram Sharif has been working in Sharourah, Saudi Arabia, for 10 years with an electrical contractor. As well as not sending money to his wife and family, Akram has neither written nor spoken to them for the last two years. He has not even paid them a visit since he left for the Kingdom 10 years ago.

Saddled with the two kids, Zaid, 12, and Rafia, 11, Shamshad says that Akram had gone to work in a shop at Sharourah.

According to latest information received through Akram’s friends there, he is happily working with another electrical contractor in the city.

Shamshad told Arab News that she wants Akram back home to care for the family, or at least to send her a regular remittance. She said she would welcome news that he was to be deported from the Kingdom.

Akram has not sent any money except SR400 during the months immediately following his departure.

Shamshad has had to take up a job in a small firm and privately tutors students in the evening. She says that her meager salary is barely enough to make ends meet.

According to Shamshad, for the first two years her husband used to contact her by phone every two or three months. Later, the phone calls became less frequent and during the last five years it is she who has been having to call him. There has been virtually no telephone contact in the last two years.

Every time she spoke to him, he promised that he would visit Bangalore within 15 to 20 days.

Now she has had enough, and she wants Indian expatriates in the Kingdom to help her by letting her know the whereabouts of her husband — or failing that, to privately persuade him to return to Bangalore. Her worst fear is that Akram’s visa has expired and he is residing in the Kingdom as an overstayer.

At the same time, she hears from others that Akram is in fine fettle and “enjoying life” in the Kingdom.

Shamshad says she wants her husband back, if not for herself, then for the sake of the proper upbringing of their kids.

Shamshad can be contacted in India on [email protected].