Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Grandma talks abouts the life before India-Pakistan Partition
Share:
by mridul | August 15, 2007 at 06:04 am
1218 views | 18 Recommendations | 4 comments
Photos
When I first thought about writing this I had thought this would be
very long & would run into many pages but unfortunately my grandma
wasn’t able to recall all the things of that time so I’ll be scripting
whatever little my grandma could tell me.
My great great grandfather
used to work for a king of a province in Pakistan. Grandma isn’t sure
what post he served on – he was either an engineer or an advisor to the
king. He used to get salary in the form of gold coins, also called
ashrfiyaan. My great great grandfather was very close to the king’s family, I
think more so to the king’s young son. The king’s son died at a very
young age & this incident came as a shock for my great grandpa; he
was so saddened by his death he left the job.
This is my
family’s favorite story; it is especially popular among the members of
the youngest generation including me since it talks about the king
& the ashrfiyaans.
Before the marriage of my grandparents,
my grandma used to live in the Sindh region of today’s Pakistan while
my grandpa used to reside just south of that region. My grandma’s
hometown is Mirpur Khas. Mirpur Khas is an important city of the Sindh
region & is very close to Khokhrapar which has a direct railway
link to the city of Munabao, Rajasthan in India.
My grandpa was
born in 1926 & he got his first job as a clerk at the Imperial Bank
(now India’s largest bank, State bank of India) at the age of 17. Very
surprising but my grandma doesn’t know how old she is because in those
days nobody used to get birth certificates made for their children, she
also doesn’t know her birthday so we celebrate their birthdays together.
My
grandparents got married on July 10, 1947. Neither of them had ever
seen each other before. The talk of partition was gong on at that time
& the riots had already started in some parts of the country.
Grandma talks about the peaceful days her family used have. She recalls
that just opposite to her home a Muslim family used to live with whom
they her family had very warm ties. Her home used to have a window or a
small gate kind of thing where her mom used to sit and talk to the
ladies of the opposite house while doing the household work.
I
often ask her if she would like to go to her hometown again and visit
her home and with a dropped head she says that everything would have
been changed by now, "I won’t be able recognize anything". I wish I
could take her back to her home & now it’s easier too because the
High Commissions of both the countries easily grant visas to senior
citizens.
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Shanoj Nambiar
Almere Stad, 16, Netherlandsnalindes
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 07:35 on August 15th, 2007
mridul, this is a wonderful way to mark the independence of these great nations. your story is moving and interesting. Good Stuff.
at 08:35 on August 15th, 2007
mridul, thanks for this...what a beautiful tribute to your grandmother and a lovely monument to India's independence. Great work!
at 15:37 on August 15th, 2007
mridul, A great story and a great time to tell it.
at 19:02 on August 15th, 2007
Mridul, I agree with the others - yours is a wonderful story and one of many thousands that reflect the lives affected by Partition and Independence. For me part of today has been reflecting on these stories and sending good wishes which I would like to send again to all people in and associated with India and Pakistan. Unfortunately for me, a child of the sixties, we knew nothing of this history - perhaps it was too recent to teach to school children. However, when I think of the millions of lives affected and compare this to, say, the numbers affected by the First World War which is so much part of UK history for my generation, it comes as a shock to realise that Partition was not taught - perhaps it was shame on the part of the establishment over here. Anyway, there has been a huge amount of coverage of the 60th anniversary in the British media, much of which has been moving, surprising and informative. And, once again, I send good wishes to all on this day!