As Haj's costlier, many choose minor pilgrimage Umrah

City businessman Aftab Malkani performed his first Haj in 1994. Since then he has been planning to go again with his family, but the rising cost has deterred him. This Moharrum, a few months from now, he, his wife, daughter and mother are booked with private tour operator, Al Khalid Tours and Travels, for Umrah, the minor pilgrimage, instead of Haj, which will fall in mid-August.
Malkani is among a growing tribe who have postponed repeat Haj for the Umrah, which costs less money and time. While Haj is obligatory only once in a lifetime for those who can afford it, Umrah is performed through the year and involves fewer rituals. According to Saudi Arabia's ministry of Haj, till May, 635,775 Indians performed Umrah. "The figure must have crossed seven lakh," says an industry source.
Catering to the growing demand from Umrah pilgrims are several private tour operators, who tailor the tours to suit the pilgrims' capacity to pay and convenience to take time off for the holy trip. "A pilgrim who has paid Rs 4 lakh for Haj can easily take five members of his family for Umrah in months other than Ramzan (Ramzan Umrah costs higher) as we charge just about Rs 75,000 for Umrah and provide five-star facilities," says Al Khalid Tours and Travels owner Yusuf Ahmed Kherada. The facilities include air travel, stay in five-star hotels and buffet food at the hotels and travel in luxury buses, both in Mecca and Medina.
Umrah is performed within the premises of Haram in Mecca, which houses the cube-shaped, black-clothed ancient Kaaba and the holy mosque. After anti-clockwise, seven circumambulations of Kaaba, Umrah pilgrims offer two units of namaz a few feet away from the shrine, drink from the zamzam spring on the premises and then make seven rounds between the nearby two mountains, Safa and Marwah in commemoration of the desperate search for water on then burning, barren land by Hagar, wife of Prophet Ibrahim for their son Ismail. Umrah concludes with tonsuring or partial cut of the hair. Haj comprises all the rituals of Umrah plus a four-day stay in the tent city of Mina and a day-long vigil at the massive plains of Arafat.
Tour operators say the last-minute distribution of additional 10,000 Haj quota to them with the direction to charge these pilgrims rate fixed by the Haj Committee worsened the crisis. For the lowest category, the Haj Committee charges Rs 2.41 lakh while leading private tour operators charge Rs 4 lakh in the lowest category. "If this additional quota was released six months earlier, tour operators would have managed it smoothly.," says Afzal Patel of Atalas Tours and Travels. This year 1.6 lakh pilgrims are travelling through Haj Committee while 60,000 have chosen private tour operators.