For decades, the Kamal Maula mosque in Dhar, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, has been like a second home for 78-year-old Mohammad Rafiq.

Rafiq has been the muezzin, who calls Muslims to prayer, at the mosque for 50 years. Before him, his grandfather Hafiz Naziruddin used to lead the prayers even before India gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.