Ferry to Pak, on a memory trip
Friday October 24 2003 09:51 IST
MUMBAI: They knew the sea that connected Karachi and Mumbai. After all, during the Partition, it was she that brought them to safety. Then she disappeared. Like the land they had left behind.
Now a proposal to start a Mumbai-Karachi ferry service has not only brought back memories of a time when steam ships regularly cruised between the two ports, but also provides a cheaper route for thousands of people who left behind relatives in another land.
Karachi to Mumbai is just 506 nautical miles and a ferry, doing some 20 knots per hour, could cover the distance in a little over 24 hours.
Says Lilo Shivdasani (79), once a zamindar in Saddar, Karachi, who made his last steamer journey in 1948: ‘‘It was easier then. Today I spend Rs 19,000 to fly from Karachi to Dubai and from there to Mumbai to visit my married daughters.’’
‘‘This was the only route which saw no blood,’’ says Ramkrishna Advani (80), secretary, Press Guild of India, as he recalls the sea journey he made to Mumbai from Karachi. The steamer deck was packed with refugees, all huddled together and sharing a sense of oneness.
‘‘Until then, the steamers mainly ferried students from Karachi who came down to Bombay to enroll in Wilson College. Bombay was the place to be for higher education.’’
Shyam Bathija (64), a lawyer, vaguely remembers strolling up and down a deck full of with refugees. But for Anant Rane (84), born and brought up in Karachi — pre-Independence, it had a population of 25,000 Maharashtrians, even two Marathi-medium high schools — steamers to Mumbai meant a journey to his parents’ native land in Devgad, Maharashtra.
From Kemari Dock to Princess Dock, the three-day journey brought breathless scenes of sunrise and sunsets as SS Vasna, the double-decker steamer ship — the other was SS Varela — cruised through the vast blue stretches.
‘‘Families travelled with beddings, tiffins, water pots, packets of pista and badam halwa brought from Karachi’s famous Chandu Halwai and bundles of Sindhi papads. During daytime, people strolled on the decks, played cards or chatted with total strangers. It was better than the long arduous train journey from Karachi to Uttar Sind and then down to Bombay via Rajasthan,’’ he recalls.
Tickets would be booked a day in advance and for those who didn’t bring packed food, there was always the roti-sabzi/mutton-dal-chawal fare cooked in the steamer’s kitchen.
The only signs of life came when the steamer neared Dwarka port and Bhuj port. ‘‘Boats with fishermen bobbed all around the steamer and passengers alighted mid-sea as the steamers never closed into the ports. A sharp metallic gurgle pierced the silence as the anchor fell, announcing the arrival,’’ Rane says.
The only troubled period came during Partition when refugees lined up at the port two-three days in advance for the only bloodless trip.
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