"I was thirteen when India got its Independence
in
August 1947. Although India was divided
into Pakistan and India we never thought that we will have to leave our
birth place and go
away.
First few months things were quite smooth but in spite of that many
families
decided to send their ladies and
girls
away to India. I have one sister who was sent away to go
and stay with grand parents in Bombay. By the end of year 1947 we were
coming across with
incidents
of communal disturbances. Hindus and Muslims were fighting
unnecessarily.
Basically the Muslims who had
come
from India and did not have a place to live or work were
the people who did not want Hindus to be living in Pakistan. Those were
the people who
started
creating problems.
Our family consisted of Father, mother, three brothers and a
sister
living in a good locality
of Karachi Bonder Road extension. Sister had already left for Bombay
soon
after the
Independence.
We also left our home to come and stay with our uncles and aunts at
Mithho Dar in Karachi. My grand
parents
had a very big house consisting of 14 rooms on three
floors. All the ladies had gone away to Bombay and only the uncles were
left behind. My
uncles
insisted on my mother that we go and stay with them until the things
become
quiet.
On 6th January 1948 at about 10-30 or 11-00 Am , my father had gone
away
to his work and we
were
sitting at home doing our studies at home because we were not going to
the school, we heard banging
noises
at our door. We saw from our balcony of the second floor
that a big crowd had gathered outside the house and they were trying to
break the door to
get
in. But since the door was very strong they were not able to break it
so
easily. We also
noticed
that our neighbours were trying to push the crowd away and told them
that this house belongs to a
Muslim
family. For about 20 to 30 minutes the banging was going
on and finally the people went away. The neighbours told us not to look
out side from the
balconies
lest we might be recognized as Hindus and there will be trouble. This
went on for three or four times
groups
of people were coming and trying to break the door and
our neighbours would turn them away.
At 3-30 PM my father came back from work and luckily there were no
people
outside the door.
We
opened the door quickly and let him in. Two of my cousins who were
living
with their mother (My mother's
Sister)
in a different area had also gone to their business. By
the afternoon there were communal riots in the city and they went back
to their home pretending
to be Muslims they started walking with other groups. On the way they
saw
Muslims killing the Hindus
specially
the Sikhs because they could be easily recognized. Ladies
were being molested and they witnessed all kinds of violence going on.
When they reached
home
they did not find their mother at home. They went to the police
to
find out about
their
mother but even the police could not tell them anything. By 7-00
PM they had gone
to all
the hospitals and mortuaries in the city but could not find her.
Finally
they came back and
stayed
with us for the night. Next day the police had imposed a curfew in the
city and no one
was allowed
to go out, but luckily they knew a police officer who helped them
by taking them in his Jeep to a
camp
site set by them last evening for people who could not get
back to their homes. Finally they found their mother there and were
very
happy to see her
unharmed.
They brought her home and she told us that the Muslim crowd burst in her
building so she ran to the
neighbours
house. They were Muslims but having lived next to them
for so many years they gave her shelter by hiding her under the bed.
After
the crowd had gone
away
she came out from under the bed. The family who gave her shelter asked
her to leave at that time since
there
was no body about but asked her to take out all her jewellery
and leave with them. She did so and went away. That is why her sons
could
not find her at
home
and that is how she ended up in a camp. After two days when the curfew
was lifted she went to the Muslim
neighbours
who had kept her jewellery and got everything back
from them. The situation suddenly became so bad that all the Hindus
wanted
to leave Pakistan
and
go to India. All the means of transport were full and it was not
possible
to get the seats.
My
father and uncles some how managed the tickets for a boat going to
Bombay
and all of us left for Bombay the
following
day without taking anything with us except our clothes.
All our furniture and fixtures and the house etc. had to be left behind
thinking that the
things
will become quiet and we shall come back soon. It is over 50 years and
we have not been
back.
It takes about three days to reach Bombay but unfortunately there was a
storm quite sever on the second
day.
The whole boat was rocking and it looked like that it is
going to sink. People started to pray and say that we have come out of
one fire and have jumped
into another. Well the storm lasted for about 3-4 hours and then
everything
was calm.
When we arrived in Bombay we were told by our uncle that living
accommodation
in Bombay was very
expensive
and practically not possible for such a large family because by
this time we became 14 members
including
uncles and aunts so they had rented a place in Navsari
in Gujrat near the city of Surat. It was about 6 hours by train from
Bombay.
We all travelled
to Navsari
by train and arrived the next day. It took us nearly a week to settle
done
there , being a new city and new
environments.
Soon there after we started going to school
but were not there for a long
time
because my father found a job in Bombay so our family shifted
to Bombay and lived in rented accommodation.
In about 6 months all my uncles and aunts also moved to Bombay because
each one of them
found
living accommodation for their family. I started going to the school in
Bombay shortly and
the
life started becoming normal."