Excerpt: In The Language of Remembering by Aanchal Malhotra
Hindustan TimesThe Hindi writer Krishna Sobti, born in Gujrat, present-day Pakistan, had once said that Partition was difficult to forget but dangerous to remember. “No matter how nuanced a memory we may collect from another, no matter how close it may feel to us, no matter how deeply it may inform our understanding of the past, it will never truly be ours, for we have not experienced it.” We are taken to a brightly painted room, where a young man gives us some background information about his father, whom we will soon meet. “Watan toh watan hota hai, it’s my birthplace after all.” “What do you remember about it?” “Well, it is in Pakistan now, drowning under the water of the Mangla dam, but when the water level recedes, I have heard that our old city rises to the top.” This is the longest sentence he has spoken, and his arms limply create a bridge, a dam, before us. Over the voices of the others, his son finally says, “Mirpur di koi gall sunao na, tell us something about your home.” He speaks in Pothwari, which has all but disappeared from modern conversation. “Koi takki di gall, kedi takki thi ghar de kol, tell us about a street close to your home,” his son says again.
History of this topic
Interview, Aanchal Malhotra, Author, Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided? - “You learn to take care of the sadness of others”
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