![]() ![]() One went off to Karachi and the other one to Dhaka in East Pakistan. They told us that while both of them had left together, they somehow got separated. They later told us about the ordeal they went through while migrating. By then my father had in fact married off one of my brother’s wife who was with us, under the assumption that his son had died. It is only after eight to ten years that they contacted us from Pakistan and that is when we got to know they were still alive. ![]() The grief of their presumed death had resulted in my father losing his memory. My father just assumed they had died in the riots. We did not even know that they had fled to Pakistan. The riots there resulted in them fleeing to Pakistan. However, my two brothers were working in Bareilly back then. They had ensured that nothing happen to us and that we need not leave. But the Hindu families around our house had given us a lot of support. There were a few mob attacks and slogans of ‘Jai Ram’, and ‘Jai Shankar’ would be raised. Both Hindus and Muslims had treated each other very well. Partition had not led to any riots in our village. ![]() However, despite all the loss we went through my father was determined that he won’t leave India. Later, the government had offered him a part of land as compensation but my father refused that as well out of anger. All the land owned by my father was acquired by the Indian government and we were left with nothing. However, independence had come at a huge cost for us.Īfter the English left, however, we felt a huge change in our lives. Slogans were raised and crackers were burst. When the country got free we had a lot of celebrations in our village. Similarly, during Id, my Hindu friends would join in the celebrations as well. I remember during Holi, my friends would come to our house and drag me out and we would play Holi all day long. Back then we never thought about who was a Hindu and who a Muslim. There were a large number of Hindus in my childhood village. We wore the burkha whenever we went out and were forbidden from being among men. But ours was also a conservative Muslim family. We had a large number of servants in our house and they would manage everything. My father was a zamindar and he owned a number of villages. We had a large house, almost like a haveli. ![]()
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