The Hindu : New Delhi News : Longing for his Banaras in Karachi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 29, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Longing for his Banaras in Karachi

Staff Reporter

`A few wasted wars couldn't take away centuries old bond'

NEW DELHI: The title of Asif Siddiqi's book, "Mani and I: Memoirs of a Banarasi Karachiite", which was released here on Friday perhaps says it all. A story of Partition from the other side, while there has been much written about nostalgia about leaving the broad streets of Lahore, this one is about the same feeling of longing for "home" but with a difference.

"I have a dream. The dream is that borders may exist in paper, but in reality I should be able to come and go to Ghazipur and Banaras at will. My wife Mani, who's family comes from Kapurthala, can walk across the Wagah border, hail a taxi and tell the `Sardarji' driver to take her to Kapurthala. My publisher, who is born in a province in Sindh, can go and see his ancestral house. I have a feeling that my dream may become reality sooner than later," said the author at the book release function.

Born a year after Partition in Ghazipur, a small town near Varanasi, the author's family moved to Hyderabad (Sind) in 1949. The book talks about growing up, his life as a Non-Resident Indian/ Pakistani, Lata, Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, love and of dreams coming true.

His wife Mani, whose grandfather was part of the Cabinet of the Maharaja, also grew up with the stories of Kapurthala, sitting in another country. Her grandfather left Kapurthala after Partition, promising to return home soon.

"In September 1997, I had gone to a workshop in Dublin and in the evening I attended a function in which I was to wear my national dress. There two Indian delegates flanked me, one was from Kapurthala and the other Kolkata, and we talked for a while. They then introduced me to the Indian Ambassador," said Mani.

"After a while when I went to mingle with the others, a European delegate asked me, `How is it that you get along with the Indian delegates, I thought you were at loggerheads?' My first resort was that you wouldn't understand. How could I tell them that a few wasted wars couldn't take away centuries old bond? It was then, I realised that I carry my grandfather's dreams," she said.

The book has been inspired by former diplomat Pran Nevile's "Lahore, A Sentimental Journey". The chief guest at the book launch, Mr. Nevile said: "I never realised that I would inspire a bright young man like Asif. My book is not a memoir; it is a social history of those times. I visited Lahore after 50 years. I deliberately avoided going there, because I wanted to preserve the images of childhood, boyhood and write. When I went there it was a homecoming of sorts," he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi

News Update

Stories in this Section