LOVE ON A DEATH TRAIN

A shared past, no matter how painful, often becomes a powerful connector. Their tragic history often connects families that survived IndiaPakistan partition. Sudesh Kumar Chhabra and Sumitra Chhabra crossed each other’s path when they took the train from Faisalabad to Delhi during the Partition in 1947. Both were young children, aged 12 and 9 respectively. Little did they know that after 13 years, they will fall in love and will be tied in the bond of marriage. It has been 58 years since then and Sudesh, now 81, and his wife Sumitra, 78, have stayed in love. Sudesh recalls the horrific time when he boarded the train. “It was a miracle that I survived. The memory of watching a sea of dead bodies in the train is still vivid. As fate would have it, my future wife was also on the same train,” he says. “Our families resided in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) in Pakistan, and knew each other. While Sudesh’s family initially settled in a refugee camp in Delhi, my family made Jalandhar, Punjab, their new home,” recalls Sumitra. Destiny reunited them after a decade. “All that refugees talked about was who made it and who didn’t. One day, my family found out that Sudesh’s family had survived, and we decided to meet. We recalled how we had defeated death in the India bound train. We felt naturally drawn to each other, and a special bond was created. We recalled how we had survived death in that train,” says Sumitra. “Love is about the faith that God has made that special someone for you. Love can survive anything. We were destined to meet and live together forever,” says Sudesh.