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Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Partition




It was early morning in the month of August 1947, I was playing in the backyard when I heard my dad shouting at my mom to stop what she was doing, grab me and run. I thought maybe they were fighting, and didn't realize what was actually going on. I left my toys and started running towards the bedroom but my father grabbed me and we hurriedly boarded the cab waiting outside our home.

It took us 12 hours to reach Lahore but when we got there, people were being massacred, they were killed brutally. I am not sure if they were Hindus or Muslims or paid rioters but people were dying. I still remember, my friend Rehan was killed in front of my eyes just because he was Muslim. Our driver was a Hindu but he refused to go further until we were certain it was safe, you see, I belonged to a Hindu family and my father did not choose to stay in India after partition but we had no other choice.

We could see the railway station, it was about a hundred meters away, but the driver wouldn't move any closer. We didn’t know what to do. Then some soldiers took us to a refugee camp. But my dad was a strong and a brave man. He fought with the soldiers and took the risk of going to the station on his own, I remember I was on his shoulders, still confused and horrified by what I was seeing. It felt as if it took forever but, finally we reached the train destined for Amritsar.

The train driver was a Muslim and he refused to leave for Amritsar without a police escort. We never thought we would ever leave Lahore, I still remember leaving all my toys just as they were when my dad came home shouting and then we left for the station a few minutes later. It all happened so fast.

After we boarded the train I managed to get some sleep. When I woke up the slaughter had already started and I realized I was on someone's shoulders. He was running, running terribly fast and I started crying. "Shut up or else you will be killed....." was the reply from the man carrying me. I realized he was my uncle. I could see bodies strewn everywhere. People were running in all directions. Nobody was interested in picking up the dead bodies, everyone was running for their lives.

"...where are my parents..." I asked. "They have been killed...and if you dont keep quiet you will also be..." I could see the wet trail of a tear that had just rolled down my uncle's cheek. I was shocked and could not speak. I just rested my face on his head as he kept running.

This post is part of the contest A picture can say a thousand words.. on WriteUpCafe.com

43 comments:

  1. beautifully written, very touching :)

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    1. @Crystal
      Thanks a lot for ur wonderful words.
      well in both the countries people have grown up facing all this.

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  3. Very powerful imagery through the eyes and out of the mouths of our children... well done and best of luck with the competition.

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    1. @Helen : Thanks a lot for your contribution towards this story !
      Thanks a lot for your words !

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  4. touching ... i shudder to think what the children must have gone thro... beautifully written and you have done full justice to the emotions of a child ...

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  5. Very touching and moving post. Really its worth thinking about the mindset of the kids who survived the watched the massacre. Good Luck

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    1. @vikas
      Good luck with the contest and thanks for visiting by!

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  6. Very touching -----and yes so near the truth

    great read

    regards
    rajni

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  7. It is so touching to read this Rahul. It brought before my eyes the pain and trauma we had caused to our fellow human beings....

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  8. So grounded in reality

    Great work!!!

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  9. Very touching post . God how could a nation that unitedly fought against the British go into such a merciless rampage ! Superb post !

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  10. It's very touching. And I truely admire you for what you came up with and how you portraied you words on one picture.

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    1. Thanks a tom medha
      Thanks for visiting the blog

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  11. Stunning picture & matching narration--you are a superb story teller.

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  12. That's really sad. I must say that your posts have a great storyline. :)

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  13. reminded shivering dayz of partition...very well written enrty.
    all the best Rahul!

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  14. This was a reality for some who were there in that tiem.. when man became a DEVIL and lost all mankind

    Bikram's

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  15. Heartbreakingly sad to think of the thousands of lives lost. In a way, the ones that died did escape spending the rest of their lives reliving moments of those terror-filled times, every single day.

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    1. its a true fact which is now embedded in the hearts of the countrymen of both the sister countries !!!

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  16. Sensitive write, made me shudder :)

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  17. awesome...u wrote as if u really put urself in the shoes of the child in the picture....the story did full justice to the picture.. all the best for the contest :-)

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  18. Hello.
    WoW! You made me feel like I was right there in the middle of all the horrifying action. Profound piece of writing from you Rahul. Thanks for sharing.

    Love's Zinfandel

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  19. That was so close to reality! Fantastic narration..Incidentally, I also wrote something on those lines...Do take a look when you have time, please.
    Thanks Rahul...

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