PARTITION-RELATED
STORIES
*Story of Vinay Kumar Family,
I was
born at my grandfather's house in
For
some reason the desire to go back and see the house I was born in
remained fixed in my mind. So when the Pakistan Association of
Pathologists invited me to address them in
I went
to Okara with my hosts in
My trip
to Okara was not just memorable but more like a fairy tale. To say that it was
a dream come true would not be right since I could not even dream of it.
We found my
grandfather's house almost unchanged. It still has a
paint covered marble plaque with my grandfather's name above the
gate. It reads Dr Uttam Chand 1926 in English and in Urdu.
I was
welcomed in the house (we just showed up) like a long lost relative and then
the most amazing of all things happened inside. Within minutes they
brought a marble plaque taken out of one of the side walls during
later renovations. The plaque about 18" by 24" was my grandfather's
name plate. They had kept it for 60 years and when asked why, the eldest
member (70 yrs old) said in Punjabi (I speak fluent Punjabi) "We
thought some day somebody might come looking for this...."
I
cried.