FREEDOM AMID FEAR

TARAN GUJRAL, 86, Punjabi writer, Chandigarh

Afive-year child was found by a woman during the chaos after the Partition. She took him in her care. When she bathed him, she found something tied to his arm. It was a piece of gold with a note pleading if someone found him, he/ she should take care of him and accept this as a gift.

We too left home in Gujjar Khan, Rawalpindi, with the family gold distributed in pouches and stitched to each member’s waist belt. We three sisters were covered in soiled khadi sheets when we moved out. Our Muslim neighbours assured us that no harm would come to us. But when the marauders started coming from outside, they became helpless and asked us to seek safety.

I was sleeping by my mother’s side in a shop my brother hired for a photo studio far away in Ranchi when the clock struck at midnight. I was awakened by the noise of crackers and feared that the mob had come. My mother put her hand on my head and said, “No dear, freedom is here!”