I have one more, our driver in pakistan told me.
When he was working with other family he use to take their car to a workshop.
there was a guy there about 35 year old(must be long time ago).
Now at this point for get about this workshop dude, and listen to other side.
There was a newly wed women/mom who had to move to pakistan in 1947, their convoy was attacked. she was carrying this little(few month old baby)
Scared for the life of her babby she put baby in the fields and ran in opposite direction. She ascaped. I don't know the details, but with out a baby she got remarried to some one in pindi.
That baby was picked up by another muslim family migrating to pakistan.
Baby was brought to faisalabad.
So so far no known connection left between them.
That 35 year old work shop dude in Faisalabad was that guy, all grown up etc.
Here comes the twist.
Once her mother visited faisalabad and kind of close to that road from where he use to work.
At this point we are talkin 35 years after 1947, mother and son being apart for 35 years. To every one her sosn was dead for 35 years.
Well when she was traveling at that road, she had some kind of feeling.
She refuse to go from there.
Like dead stop, she felt like his son was around. I don't know how but she came walking to that service road where 35 year old son was working.
She asks who you mother is?? he told the women who raised him. But she wont agree.
I think the guy who fathered that boy was owner of that work shop, he knew every thing. He asked women/mom question about where abouts and other stuff where she left the kid.
Than he told boy and mom they were mother and son.
Boy still lives in faisalabad(till the time stroy was told to me -15-18years ago)
and he use to vist/tlk to birth mom in pindi.
I hope I told the story in the way every one could understand.:)
My maternal family's town was very near the border and it was a muslim majority area and all had heard that it is included in Pakistan, so people had not migrated. Till few days before 14 Aug 1947, town was atatcked by Sikhs, they all escaped hurriedly towards border, their small convoy consisted of 15-20 men and women and children in the centre. They were attacked by Sikhs and my nana and his brother were killed trying to protect them. Most women and kids and 5 men were able to escape to near by refugee camp.
One of my Nani's cousin had a young brother 3 years old, they had shielded him in their chadar, when the Sikhs atatcked, he became were restless and fought his way out of chadar, and ran towards the muslim men. She says she heard a cry as if he was hit by something. She knew that he has been killed. Few months later someone coming from that area said that he had seen the boy there. She was so happy, she begged my uncle to go look for him and bring him to Pakistan. She even made a small bed for him. So my uncle along with few men went back but he was never found. Many muslim women were captured by Sikhs, some committed suicide, others continued to live the misery for years.
My dad side family is from lahore. My grandpa's brother was killed by his muslim colleagues during riots. he was an engineer in railways. after that my whole family moved from lahore to jalandhar . we left all over property in lahore.
Well in our family village there are still several old former muslim women, now Sikhs. They were abducted by our village men during partition and then married the local men.
My grandmother's brother supposedly killed 8-10 muslims including women and children.
My grandfather went and stole the goats and buffalo of the muslims that were migrating to pakistan.
This is Jalandhar district, Punjab about 100km for pakistan border.
Ancestrally most of my family has lived in the northern Punjab area (bordering NWFP). Because of the geographical location I don’t think there was that much rioting and violence compared to the rest of the country; well not within the village at least. However I have heard that in the bigger towns around the area, which had a larger and more mixed population, there were incidents of Muslim violence against the Hindus and Sikhs. Some of the young guys (very very old budday now) from the village used to go and cruise around looking for trouble. Obviously a lot of the hindus and sikhs left in a hurry. Quite a lot of these houses which these people left behind are still around (although occupied) – they have big havelis with two or three storey wooden frames and structures etc, they are beautifully designed. It seems the hindus and Sikhs were probably slightly better off than the general muslim population.
However despite all the violence at that time, I have a partition story that I am proud of. My Nana was an imam and landowner with some influence in the local area. Where other people were busy causing trouble, he was quietly helping people who needed it. Until recently we had letters and other documents exchanged between my grandad and a sikh guy. My granddad had protected the family and eventually helped to arrange for their safe journey. He looked after the family’s property, land etc until they dealt with it, sold it or whatever. He must have looked after it for a while because some of the letters were from the guys sons…years later.
Whatever the ideological basis of partition, I think it was a very bad idea which took a turn for the very worse because of the political bureaucracy involved…No matter how many times your draw and redraw lines of a map, it never takes into account the human cost involved. And that’s the sadness of it all, no matter where it takes place.
However despite all the violence at that time, I have a partition story that I am proud of. My Nana was an imam and landowner with some influence in the local area. Where other people were busy causing trouble, he was quietly helping people who needed it. Until recently we had letters and other documents exchanged between my grandad and a sikh guy. My granddad had protected the family and eventually helped to arrange for their safe journey. He looked after the family’s property, land etc until they dealt with it, sold it or whatever. He must have looked after it for a while because some of the letters were from the guys sons…years later.
that's a sweet story, so does your family still keep in touch with that sikh man?
My Nana and Nani moved from Lahore to Lucknow after the partition. They were very wealthy business owners in Lahore and in the hustle and bustle, they had to leave many of their belongings there. My nani was able to bring her jewelry and in lieu of their property, the government of India gave them a small piece of land that was by no means a fair compensation of what they owned back in Lahore.
However, they did not have many choices. From being wealthy, they were reduced to an average middle class family. The land they got was taken over by someone who cheated them in a business deal. My nani had to sell her jewelry little by little for my nana to establish a small business and a home and put their 7 kids through school and college. They finally settled, but I remember my grandparents always telling me that there heart was always in Lahore, that is partition caused more personal grief than good, that if they had a choice they would have rather remained in their native soil. In spite of always struggling, they were great servers for their community and helped people who were in need. They always told me: "don't be afraid to give because your rewards will be in abundance."
Now they are gone. I was raised in India, but I feel their emotional attachment to Pakistan.
I can relate to that cause my dad moved form jabalpur when he was 14 (in 1947), and till he died in 1995, he fav. topic of discussion was his childhood days in jabalpur,
he told us so many stories about Narbada Naddee and a place on it called Bandar Koodnee, where two cliffs on opposite banks of Narbada were close enough for monkeys to jump form one side of it to the other, hence the place was known as Bandar koodnee (as in Bandar kay koodnay walee jagah)
And I am so much attached to Jabalpur that though I never visited india, I feel like Jabalpur is my second home