It was 10th of November, 1947, two days before Diwali, the Dhan teras day, when people buy household utensils, new clothes and jewellery, if they can afford it, in preparation for Diwali. Diwali is the festival of lights, as this is the day when Lord Ram with his wife Sita had come home after a …
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No. 29. Home is where the heart is
Home is where the heart is, but where is home now? That afternoon, when Murti had been praying for Usha’s safe arrival in Punjab, that afternoon in Delhi, Usha and Nanna were sitting in the Tanga, the rusty horse carriage, drawn by an older man, who had been with them since that morning, when he …
No. 28 A new India
“India of my dreams! An India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony. … Women will enjoy the same rights as men.” (Gandhi 1931) https://www.mkgandhi.org/indiadreams/chap01.htm By the time, Usha and Nanna arrived in Delhi on 2nd of November 1947, the number of refugees there had already reached half a million. As a result, …
No. 27. The flight
Usha and Nanna had been sitting on a bench at the Srinagar airport. It was almost 6.30 pm, 1st of November. They were waiting for the aeroplane which was going to take them to Delhi. After a couple of nights in Delhi, at their Auntie’s house, they were going to take a train to reach …
No. 26 That week of hell!
In Khanna, Murti was getting restless. He was worried sick for Usha, whom he had left in Srinagar, when he had come back to Punjab at the end of August. India had gone through a lot, since its independence and its partition, that had been harsh, cruel, and bloody. People on both sides of the …
No 25. The end of an era
Autumn and Spring months are beautiful in Kashmir, colourful and fragrant , sunny and warm, quite different from the Winter and Monsoons months which though still beautiful, are moist, and wrapped in mysterious fogs, clouds and snow. Especially in Autumn, as the saffron harvest gets ready, and chinar (a beautiful, majestic deciduous tree) gets all …
24. The lullaby and the tryst with destiny
July had almost ended, and the month of August was about to begin, and Usha and Murti were having a long relaxed holiday with Usha’s parents, in their house in Srinagar. Usha had come back to Srinagar for the first time after getting married to Murti. She had lived in Punjab during this time and …
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No. 23. The miraj
At the end of June in 1947, Murti and Usha came to Srinagar, to spend a few weeks at Usha’s parents’ house. Murti had summer vacation at his college for a couple of months. So after a short visit to Pind Munawa, Murti’s ancestral village in Punjab, where his parents, Bibbee and Babaji and brothers …
No. 22. The news
That day, in early June, when Murti had been late in coming home from his college, Usha had shared her worry with her kind landlords at whose door she had knocked for help. However, while she was speaking to the older woman and her husband, the thought about Murti’s history of leaving home and disappearing …
No. 21. The awakening
It was 1947, and there had been a buoyancy in the atmosphere as the year was slowly moving towards the promised day, the day of India’s expected independence in the middle of that year, August 1947. But there was also a rising discomfort and uncertainty about the possibility of the partition of the country. The …
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