Uncertainty drove my kin to start from scratch

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 12

The seven decades after Partition of the country are not enough to heal the wounds of people who went through those troubled times.

Jagdish Singh Ghai (78), a city resident, narrates his experience of the times before and after independence.

Ghai said he, along with his parents, was living at Sadasinghwala village in Moga at that time.

His two sisters were married and were living at Chauharkana village in Shekhupura district of Pakistan.

He claimed that every day, they listened to the news of tension between two countries.

Ghai said as the tough time started on August 10 in Lahore and Shekhpura districts, which were near Amritsar, his sisters, along with other relatives, left behind their belongings and embarked on their journey to India.

He remembers that his sister Kailash Kaur’s husband had a huge transport business in Pakistan, which got over within no time. He had to start again from a scratch here.

He said later, Kailash was allotted a house at Dakoha village in Jalandhar.

His second sister Iqbal Kaur was allotted a house at Talwandi Bhai village in Ferozepur by the government but no financial or work assistance was provided.

He recounts that after his sisters and their families reached here, everyone was in fear as nobody knew what was happening.

People were too uncertain about the future and life almost came to a standstill, he added.

He said he had visited Pakistan many times as his elder sister was living at Seikhpura.

Later he visited the neighbouring country to visit other relatives who kept staying there.

He said one thing which he still remembered was visiting Gurdwara Sacha Sauda, 37 miles from Lahore.