The partition of India is always looked back upon as a traumatic event. And it really was. People on both sides of the newly established border went crazy. Thousands were thoughtlessy massacred. However, there were some persons lucky enough to survive this carnage. And one of them was my nanaji.. This is a story that he often told us. I have lost count of how many times he's narrated this to us. So, here it is...
He was around 20 (i'll be 20 this year) when India became independent and Hindus and Muslims on the so-called "wrong" sides of the border began to migrate to the other side. My nanaji's elder brother was already in Bombay. So nanaji caught the train for Bombay from Lahore, which was one of the worst struck areas.
The train was packed. It was so crowded that people were sitting on the roof as well. How difficult it must be to suddenly leave your homeland and move to another place with your family...probably never to return...how difficult to let go...
Well, things were moving fine when the train began to slow down at a place it was not supposed to. So some of the passengers thought something was wrong. They went up to the driver and questioned him. He was nervous and finally the truth came out. It had been planned that the train would stop there, a mob would be waiting and would enter it and kill all the passengers. Fortunately, the driver had stopped the train a kilometre past the place decided upon. So well, he was forced to move the train. It did not stop till it reached the next station.
There the situation was even worse... People were being dragged out of the train and slaughtered on the platform and their bodies were thrown back in the train. Nanaji saw so many being killed ruthlessly. The passengers were being questioned. Soon it was nanaji's turn..
Someone asked him for his ticket. He took it out and handed it over.
"So, your name is B.A. Chanda?"
"No," he replied, "That's a misprint on the ticket. My name is B.A.Chand - Bashir Ahmed Chand. I'm from Lahore."
"Oh really? Then why are you going across the border?"
"I'm not going across the border. I am going to get down at the next station to receive relatives who are arriving by train from the other side."
So he was let off. He went and hid in the luggage carriage when the train began to move, and finally reached Bombay, without any further violence
However, inspite of all this, nanaji never had any hatred or ill-feelings towards any community. He said that everyone, regardless of their religion, went crazy at the time. He said that a mob doesn't belong to any religion. A mob's only religion is violence.
The first time he told me about this, i was quite small and all i said was, "Nanaji, you lied!" Now, however, when I think about it, I sure am glad that he lied! I mean, if he hadn't lied, I wouldn't have been blogging here, would I? 
And I hope with all my heart that people never go crazy like that again. It is so horrible to see people killing each other in the name of religion. I'd like to know what the big fuss is about. I mean, all religions basically teach us the same thing. No religion teaches us to lie, steal or kill, does it? It is just a few persons who twist religion and change its meaning to suit their means. What do you think??
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