Chronicling inherited memories of the Partition
Remnants of a Separation. Malhotra, a descendant of ‘Partition refugees’ herself, reiterates that the event's memory does not end with those who lived it, but passes down through generations in many “incarnations." "The house of the past may not even exist anymore, it is entirely conjured up from memory," she adds. “There is a place somewhere that does not belong to us, but we belong to it, and I always wonder, is it waiting for us?" Also read: Partition food memories that travelled Chaitanya Seth, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, recalls many conversations with his beloved grandfather. “With every story, he travelled back to Lyallpur, a place which was his entire childhood," he says.
His grandfather had migrated from Lyallpur in present-day Faisalabad to Ludhiana, Punjab, after the Partition. While 21-year-old Seth, based out of Ludhiana, is living with a repository of stories, some others are overwhelmed by the entire event that their families had to live through. 23-year-old N.M., another third-generation descendant based out of Delhi, would feel disturbed when the topic of Partition would come up in class.
The emotional toll that the events of 1947 took on families could never be conveyed through a school lesson. The event is now a part of her identity. “When I heard stories from my grandparents, I could visualise their world and feel a part of it.
To imagine the entire sequence of events was very painful even though I had not experienced it first-hand," she says. These stories, however, continue to connect N.M. with her grandparents even after their passing.
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