Partition victim Reena returns to India; brings happy memories from her home in Pakistan
Relived my childhood by sleeping in my room after 75 years
Sleeps, in her childhood room in Rawalpindi
Rashmi Talwar
Wagah Attari Border (AMRITSAR) -25 July 2022–
Getting a chance to have a sound sleep in your childhood bedroom after 75 years, that too when the house housing the bedroom is in another country is a feeling that can’t be expressed in words. Yes! Reena Chhibber Varma lived this moment as she visited her home in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Partition Victim 90-years Reena Chhibber (born in 1932) today walked across the Radcliff Line, the International Border of India-Pakistan, back to India wearing a pink Kurta matching with black Salwar and dupatta, it was as if the nonagenarian had brought back a dazzling colour pink considered ‘shagnaa wala rang’ (auspicious bridal color pink) from her original home in Rawalpindi on the Pakistani side. When Reena crossed over to Pakistan on 16th July she was wearing a black and white salwar suit.
Talking to the author in Amritsar, Reena said- “Let children of partition visit without a visa, let them be freely moving across on both sides afterall both countries are their homes. Give them a chance to visit in their twilight years”, Reena called out the governments of both countries.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better or more exalted gift on my milestone Birthday year, as when I crossed the border into Pakistan homeward bound to my Rawalpindi, after 75 long years. It was a dream gift to revisit my childhood home, walk in the city of my teen years, relive my childhood days, in the home of my family, in the house that my father built, in the place I was born. No! there was nothing of ours in that house that I could bring back,” she answered. She added- “Don’t ever give up your dreams, it may take time but eventually you will get it!”’
“It fulfilled me completely as I stayed one night in my own room of my own home in Rawalpindi which I left in May 1947, where once my entire family of six children, parents, and a paternal aunt lived together.” The owner Dr Muzamil gifted Reena a solid name plaque with the words –“Reena’s House” Dedicated by Dr. Muzamil Hussain s/o Dr Mumtaz Hussain”, that night.
Reena’s homecoming to Pindi house –20th july 2022
Amidst Dhol, Reena entered the lane of her Pindi home, and the 90-year lady Reena, magically turned into her teenage years of ‘Toshi Chhibber’, lovingly called so, by her family and friends in her Pindi home, pre Partition. She uninhibitedly danced to the beat of the dhol along with fellow Pakistanis from Pindi and Lahore and amidst rose petal showers, entered her ancestral home. Reena Chhibber Varma’s homecoming by members of India Pakistan Heritage Club was nothing less than a Baraat, with typical Pindi Dhol beats as a loving welcome to a daughter of the city in all manner of festivity. Wearing a Kesri-coloured suit with a matching green phulkari dupatta, thinkers saw her outfit as a decision by a mature, intelligent, and peace-loving Reena made a symbolic point with her choice of having the colors of the Indian flag and Pakistani flag within her outfit that day as a unifying factor and adding a green phulkari dupatta as a symbol of Punjabi’s rich culture of yore, of the times she belongs to.
Despite the noise and multitude of people around to glimpse an Indian and morseo one of their Pindi girls, Toshi stood on her own and enjoyed every moment of her entry and memories in her ancestral home. She uninhibitedly sang a song from the balcony railing; reliving her private moments, in the crowd around her. She in her parental home sang like the teenager Toshi, and stood exactly where she used to stand and sang exactly the same way and the same song- “Barsaat Ki Rut, Chhai Ghataa, Thandi Hawaain, Phir Tum Hii Kaho Kese Peeya Yaad Na Aye….” And then broke into copious tears, crying out to her lost family.
The home and four other homes in the lane named after her father as ‘Prem gali’ were intact while most of the other structures had changed beyond recognition. ‘Toshi’s address, remembered as ‘Prem Niwas ,1935’ located in lane ‘Prem Gali’ named after her father Bhai Prem Chand Chhibber on the DAV college road, Pindi, had changed a bit in words, much as the pre-partition impressive three-storeyed facade and interiors of the house remained quite familiar and unchanged. Renamed, now “Kashane Imtiaz” or home of Imtiaz, the lane rechristened as “Gali Ghulam Fareed”, but just as remarkable in structure as was left 75 years back in 1947.
Reena was delighted to meet Iqbal Sahni a relative of both brothers Balraj Sahni famed Hindi Cinema actor famous for noteworthy films like ‘Kaabuliwala’, ‘Waqt’; and writer Bhisham Sahni who created the story of ‘Tamas’ a critically acclaimed Tele-serial by Govind Nihlani. The Sahnis were family friends of Chhibbers.
This momentous occasion was the culmination of two years of efforts. All emotions were underlined with moments of extreme joy, singing, dancing, and tears, and remembrances that followed the nearly two hours of stay in the home, said India Pakistan Heritage Club, members Imran Williamand Zahir Mahmood , along with Sajjad Haider. And when the ardent singer Reena , was requested to sing a song by the Pak media, she enthusiastically obliged by singing an innovative version of –“Ye gallian ye choobara, Yahan aana na doobara …” from film -‘Prem Rog’ and instead sang –“Ye gaalian ye choobara , yahan “aana hai doobara” ,… bringing laughter to all and a sea of collective beautiful smiles of the fragrance of this daughter of Rawalpindi.
Reena and most of her family were saddled to far off Solan near Simla in May 1947, by her father, watchful of the impending doom that lay in riots that became frequent and wilder and wilder by the day. She left Pindi as a 15-year-old when the bloody partition tore apart all humane fabric to give birth to two new geographical nations.
Sajjad Haider. Haider, a Rawalpindi local, Law correspondent with Capital TV covering the Supreme Court of Pakistan, had tracked the ancestral home of Reena in Pindi and sent photos and videos to Reena via the internet.
Earlier enroute to Rawalpindi, Reena visited Katasraj Hindu shrines in Chakwal district of Pakistan, organized by Faraz Abbas Secretary of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) of Pakistan, she was welcomed by Ravinder Kumar Chhibber, one of the seven lineages of Mohyal Brahmins a martial clan, the head of the lone Hindu family of Chakwal. Incidentally, Reena too belongs to the Chhibber clan of Mohyal Brahmins. A prayer service in the form of a short pooja was performed in the Shiv Temple of Katasraj and two Hindu Pandits were especially transported there by ETPB, informed Abbas from Lahore to the author.
In Lahore she visited the Forman Christian college where her husband studied and which had such luminaries as IK Gujral the Indian PM Pak President Pervez Musharaff and Kuldip Nayyar the famed journalist as their alumni; the Lahore college for women university (LCWU), where her favorite elder sister studied and completed her graduation while staying in a hostel.
90-Year ‘Young’ Reema crosses border to visit Rawalpindi Home in Pakistan
Rashmi Talwar
Wagah Attari Border (AMRITSAR) 16 July 2022– Reena Chhibber Varma’s milestone 90th Birthday year (born in 1932) was a dream come true after 75 years, as she walked today across the Radcliff Line International Border between India-Pakistan, to fulfill her ardent desire to see her birthplace and childhood home in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, again.
Reena expressed herself on this momentous moment in her life -“I urge governments of both countries to ease visa restrictions to restart people-to-people contact between both countries, I ask both countrymen of my mine to “walk the present road to progress from the past of pain hand in hand”.
For Reena, it was her fourth try for a visa, that made this journey a reality. Reena who was in Amritsar for two days earlier, where she had stayed to complete her graduation in Modern College, post-partition, said “Amritsar too, is my home albeit for two years”.
From May to July of 1947, she and her family moved to India, when she was 15 years old. Communal riots started in February-March onwards in 1947. In the last 75 years of separation from her home in Pakistan, Reena says –“I couldn’t erase the memory of my ancestral home, my neighborhood, and my Pindi streets. It remained a constant tug to my heartstrings”.
The 90-year-old turned to social media in covid times and expressed her desire to visit her ancestral home in Pindi, Pakistan, on social networking sites. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar noticed her pleas as friends from networking sites tagged her urging the minister to intervene and grant visa to the nonagenarian. The Pakistan minister lost no time in issuing a 90-day multi-city visa to the former denizen of Rawalpindi.
Today while driving to the International border, a mere 30 minutes drive, Reena, carried mixed feelings, that oscillated every second, bringing sudden spurt of excitement of the present, then deep melancholy with her mind constantly wavering between the past and present in a range of 75 years of geographical birth of two nations India and Pakistan. Reena waxed and waned by turns, reliving the moment when she was 15 years old. She felt saddened to remember her journey to Solan (India) never dreaming that there would be gates that would close behind her or it would take 75 years for her to cross over manmade lines, to go back to their loving home. Her maternal home, made by and named after her father Bhai Prem Chand Chhibber -‘Prem Niwas, 1935’ in the ‘Prem Gali’ a lane named after her father, located on the ‘DAV College Road’ of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
The former citizen of Rawalpindi reminisced about a composite cultural community thriving in Pindi before the partition. “My father was not only a progressive but a liberal-minded person. Often friends from varied communities, including Muslims visited home, it was the most natural, normal, and joyous occurrence in the home, which was quite frequent,” she said, remembering “Our house-help were also a diverse mix of people”.
She especially remembered her father and mother and said a little prayer for all her lost ancestors who shared every joy and sadness in that Pindi home and faced every challenge post partition together. –“I am lucky; I, represent all of my family today. At least I am that one person from the Chhibber family who could see the Pindi home that my father built with all his toil and life’s savings”. And adds – “My Mother couldn’t come to terms with the fact that we shall never go back to Pindi, she was continuously in a state of denial till her last breath. My father came with nothing to India even his ‘potli’ was stolen or snatched or left somewhere, he doesn’t remember as he crossed over in a daze thankful to be just alive; knowing that all the comforts he made for his family over years of planning were snatched in one moment, and everything changed overnight.”
In a mixed mood throughout the 25 Kms we covered from Amritsar city to the Attari-Wagah border, Reena would take a second to register any questions asked on the way and was at once excited and suddenly sad, remembering having lost all eight members of the family, who passed away, pining for this home in Pindi.
“Yet my father never blamed anyone, not the politicians or the people nor the communities, and remained neutral throughout. I remember my father having a beautiful soul, a true human with humanity as his religion, and I take after my father,” she said.
In a moment of elation, Reena thanked her Facebook friends, especially in Pakistan who brought her dreams to fruition and spread so much love crossing all boundaries; that men unthinkingly and egoistically, draw.
Remembering those times of post-partition – “ It was a very hard struggle again in India, especially for my father who could never build another house for his family again given his meager means, spending the rest of his life staying in rented accommodation. And shifts the topic instantly – “I have no fear, apprehensions whatsoever, I always harbored a feeling of love and positivity, at least now the souls of my ancestors will rest in Peace with my visit to our Pindi home” she adds.
As Reena waved her frail hand — she waved in both directions as if it was goodbye for one and wave-out to her homecoming to the other, in opposite directions. and declared -“I am a ‘young 90-year-old girl’, and today I feel just like my 15 years old self when I first crossed the border to India, never to return to my home!” she raised her hands in a Balle-Balle, Punjabi style born as she is -a Punjabi in West Punjab.
Finally headed home to Rawalpindi, Reena was garlanded and welcomed at the Wagah side of Pakistan by members of the India Pakistan Heritage Club on the Pak side- Imran William and Zahid, and others. She will stay three days in Lahore where as a teenager she used to shop in Anarkali Bazaar as an annual shopping trip in winter, while her summer vacations were spent in Muree –a hill station near Pindi in Pakistan for the first 14 years of her life. She is being hosted by the Government College University, Lahore Pakistan.
On 19th July 2022, Reena will head to her actual home address in Rawalpindi Pakistan.
In Amritsar
Earlier, Reena paid obeisance at the Golden Temple and the Partition Museum Amritsar. She felt overwhelmed and moved to tears, at the museum, looking at articles from homes in Pakistan, donated to the museum by survivors and hearing the oral histories of those affected by the bloody Indo-Pak Partition. Among those who witnessed the partition on the Indian side include former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who had also settled in Amritsar post-partition and later rose to head India as its PM for two terms, Deputy PM LK Advani, famous lyricist Gulzar, Hamida Habibullah a former MLA and Rajya Sabha member, famed journalist Kuldip Nayyar, Milkha Singh a celebrated athlete, Satish Gujral eminent painter, sculptor and muralist, ace lawyer Ram Jethmalani among others.
Why couldn’t Indian 90 yr old, Reena travel visa-less to her hometown in Pakistan?
In the year 2013, Delhi and Islamabad announced that senior citizens aged over 65 would be issued visas on arrival at the Attari-Wagah land border crossing from mid-January, 2013 under a landmark liberalized visa agreement signed by the two countries in the year 2012. That same year when this provision became operational, a senior Indian journalist availed visa-less travel for the first time on the invitation of ‘South Asian Free Media Association’ (SAFMA) a SAARC body meeting of journalists from eight countries held in Lahore, Pakistan.
Accordingly, the arrival facility was exclusively for border crossings at the Wagah-Attari border falling in Amritsar and Lahore districts respectively on either side of the Radcliff Border Line between the two countries. Accordingly, senior citizens could visit five places of their choice and were issued a 45-day single entry visa and were exempted from police reporting. This became operational with the new bilateral India Pakistan Visa Agreement 2012, at Wagah Attari Joint Check Post JCP.
Visa issuance was to be done daily from 10 am to 4 pm crossing on foot. In India, the Pak citizens were allowed to visit any place other than Jammu Kashmir, Punjab, Kerala, and some other prohibited areas owing to them being sensitive and declared turmoil areas. The visas were non-extendable and non-convertible with a single route entry and exit. Some Identity cards were required to be presented as proof, at the visa counter along with booking details or place of stay at the rate of Rs 100 INR and correspondingly in Pakistan. Children below 12 accompanying adults were also granted this facility. This agreement took place during the congress regime under Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2012 and was implemented in 2013. Incidentally, the former PM Dr. Singh is a Partition victim and understood the pain of separation. However the visa-less travel agreement petered out under the NDA regime of PM Narendra Modi, therefore Reena too couldn’t avail of the facility.
After 75yrs, Pindi Girl to visit her Pindi Home in Pakistan
Crossover from Wagah on 16th July
Rashmi Talwar
As she trekked on that fateful day of 14th August 1947, with two sisters, and three boys- sons of family friends, along with her mother and little brother, all the way from Solan to Simla –A trek of 30-mile (48.28 Kms), little did 15-year old Reena Chhibber know, the forthcoming event spelling utter joy, came at a huge cost. A cost, that would clench her personally, besides family; and families and families and families, on either side, of newly born Nations.
British Barrister Sir Cyril Radcliff took just five weeks, to divide geographical territories between India- Pakistan, unmindful of the minds and hearts he tore alongside. Or that, the gamut of emotions would turn into a tsunami and record the world’s largest migration, displacement, and killing, that ever took place.
Now, after having seen “75-Independence-Day celebrations” in India, Reena born to Bhai Prem Chand Chhibber, is readying to see the first light in her parental home in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, after their forced migration in the bloody Indo-Pak partition of 1947. Perhaps, she may decide to be in Pakistan until- the Day of Independence of both countries, on the cusp of Mid-August. (14th of August is Pakistan’s Independence Day, while August 15th is India’s Day of Freedom), who knows? Her Pakistan visa gives her a 90-day stay in the country. She remembers it as a long struggle for a visa to visit her loving home –‘Prem Niwas’ named after her father in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Recalling that historic 14th August 1947, in Simla, Reena says- “I knew not what was happening faraway more than 400 Kms in my home in Rawalpindi, I happily matched foot by foot with others as we trekked. My younger brother got tired after 10 miles and was put on a train along with my mother. They reached Simla in no time from Kalka ji rail station where they boarded a train to Simla. On reaching, they waited for us at the home of the famous -“Baljees”- best and oldest known confectioners of Simla, and for decades afterward, who were our family friends.”
“Our trekking team reached at 11.30 at night in the darkness; with the light of some lanterns we reached the ‘Baljees family Home’ assisted by someone from the post office; to the utter relief of mother, as all her three daughters were together. Exhausted but excited to have completed the trek, the new dawn of freedom energized and infused us with patriotism”.
The First Flag of Freedom of India
Reena describes the moment -“At 7 am sharp, we reached the Ridge on the historic day of August 15, 1947; I remember the drizzle as monsoon was contiguous in August. Entire Simla’s Ridge looked dainty surrounded by hazy-grey silvery clouds dotted with colorful umbrellas, like flowers in a landscape. Hordes collected, to witness the momentous occasion of buoyancy, a festive mood, and spectacular, in every way. Finally, India’s first Flag was hoisted amidst a thunderous clap and unfolded rose petals shower. I was of short height but somewhat watched the spectacle from a higher ledge. Each one of us clapped for long. Then ‘Vande Mataram…’, ‘Raghupati Raghav….’ And other patriotic songs reverberated throughout the snow peaks of Simla.”
“Incidentally, I came to know recently that the celebrated writer Ruskin Bond too was there in Simla when the first Independent Day of free India was celebrated. He writes in one of his memoirs to have been 13 years old when he witnessed the event and describes it similarly”. Ruskin Bond became India’s most loved children’s writer with over 500 short stories, novels, and Sahitya academy and Padam Bhushan awards to his credit.
Why after 75 years?
“Why to apply for a visa after 75 years, was it some trauma during the partition, that affected you?” I queried Reena on the video call from Amritsar to Pune–
It went like this -“Post partition, from Solan, to Ambala, to Pune, and then we settled in Delhi, where we met a number of refugee families. Discussions about highs and lows in modern Pakistan were the only topics at that time, these discussions stirred a deep longing in me, to see our house in Pakistan, and I tried many times.
The first time, while working in Central Cottage Industries, I had a friend who applied for Sikh Jatha to Pakistan, I too applied with her. It was 1965, the year of the Indo-Pak War. Those days passports were made only to travel to Pakistan. I too made my passport and still have it. At the last moment, my friend and her family couldn’t go and I too had to drop out.
The second time, when a close family friend in the foreign services was posted in Islamabad, Pakistan, he invited me but my children were very young and my husband expressed his unhappiness about my going, leaving the adolescents with him, so I missed this chance too.
My third chance came in 1964, Pakistan hosted a cricket match played between Pakistan and England. A temporary entry visa was issued to Indians. For three mornings we travelled in a car, watched the match in Lahore, and came back to Amritsar every evening. Imagine Pindi was just 360 Kms ! and I couldn’t touch base with my home.
BOX 1
How nonagenarian Reena got the visa?
Covid may have caused havoc in other households, but pandemic times, spurred Reena to learn more on the computer. Amazingly, sitting at home this energetic grandma traced her home in Rawalpindi.
During the pandemic, she posted about her childhood memories of her house and her desire to see it on her wall and shared it with an India Pakistan Heritage group. The story of this sprightly grandma from Pune caught the attention of a Sajjad Haider from Rawalpindi who tracked down her house and even sent her pictures and a video. Her daughter Sonali helped her apply for a visa in 2021, but her application was turned down. She shared her rejection on the FB group. At the suggestion of a Pakistani journalist Beenish Siddiqua of Karachi, Reena made a video of an appeal for the visa. It was tagged to Hina Rabbani Khar, the minister of state for foreign affairs in Pakistan, who noticed, wrote, and assured Reena’s visit to her Rawalpindi home, and Reena was promptly granted a 90-day, multicity visa. “The Pak High Commissioner Mr. Aftab Hasan Khan himself met me warmly, and mom was given a 90-day visa in April. As for mom — she’s finally Going Home!”- Reena’s daughter twinkled as she shared the Hina tweet with the words ‘The Universe does conspire’. Added to that is ..’ to fulfill an ardent heart’s desire…’
Remembering Pindi home
Reena’s memories of her address ‘Prem Niwas, 1935’ (written on her home) ‘Prem Gali’, named after her father Bhai Prem Chand Chhibber; ‘DAV College Road’, Rawalpindi; are etched in her heart. Recalling those times with fondness Reena says-“Our house remained open to friends and family; Muslim friends frequented our home, some didn’t eat cooked food in our home, but it was gracefully accepted, as a religious taboo. We celebrated almost all festivals including Diwali, Holi, Eid, and Gurpurav, together. Even the environment then was so congenial. I particularly remember Abida, my friend.
There was fear and chaos during the months preceding Partition as riots had started in Feburary-March 1947. Major Harnam Singh of our lane took along young girls including us,-three sisters, to an army camp for nearly a week, where we were sheltered for safety.
In one of the daily episodes of rioting, Reena recalls – “I still remember Shafi, our family tailor who sheltered my mother when riots broke suddenly on the streets, she was shopping close by and hid in his shop for six hours!” and adds-“I also recall Khemka’s Pindi ‘juttiwala’ and am keen to see the shop and its owners. Nearby our place was the home of famous film cinematic star Balraj Sahni, who went to Bombay. His brother Bishan Saini considered an intellectual, was my sister’s prof in DAV College, Rawalpindi. I met Balraj Saini years later in Bombay (Mumbai) and was so shy to say that we were your neighbors in Pindi”, Reena reminiscences.
“The partition was the saddest and most horrific situation but I feel only love for the place, its people, and what I left behind and cannot understand the hate one sees simmering in some people today.” Queried over her unruffled manner and childlike innocence and attitude, ‘Toshi’ as affectionately called by her family, said her calm and loving nature was a gift from her father -“‘Chhibbers’ actually are “Moyhal Brahmins or the Warrior Brahmins” traditionally a martial community of Brahmins, with a high concentration in the army, police or defense forces. But my father was calm, composed and an intelligent man inclined towards positive thinking, besides being a fair man, he never differentiated between humans owing to their religion. We were quite prosperous and wealthy and my father-called ‘Baoji’ was a progressive thinker who spent more on the education of his six children than on mundane things like acquiring more jewelry. Father became a Dev Samaji from an Arya Samaji, it was a separate sect that didn’t believe in religious dogma, superstitions, and restrictions. Hence he was so liberal, that there was no religion-imposed restriction in our home. We could have friends over and had no taboos about going to friends places or going to bazaars or on festivities or occasions as women.
This was amply clear to all around as -“My eldest sister Prabha Chhibber Puri, with whom I later stayed with, in Amritsar, was considered highly educated in those times, with a graduation degree in the year 1935 from Lahore, where she stayed as a hostler in those days and completed her teacher’s training in 1937. She then, taught in Pindi for a few years and later had a love marriage and settled in Amritsar, breaking all conventions of those times. My sister’s husband too was highly educated and had completed his masters from Dyal Singh Majithia College, Lahore.
Coming back to the home of her childhood, Toshi recalls the taste of the tongue that she never lost – “Of Pindi, -I do remember the prized ‘Guchchi’- Morchella mushroom -made as Rice Guchchi Palao was my favorite and often prepared in our home along with ‘sabzi’ of the same. I adored pine-nuts ‘Chilgoza’ from our summer holidays in Murrie and the ‘Shardaa’ fruit which grew close by in foothills. ‘Shardaa’ arrived much later in Indian markets as an export from Afghanistan. My mother cooked-‘meethi roti of Bajra called ‘Mann’- It felt festive when someone announced “Aaj ‘Mann’ Pakaya Aee !” it was a sweet Roti made of Millet.
My most beloved festival was ‘Janam Ashtami’ or the birth of Lord Krishn. We made mini ‘Jhoolas’ for the birth and arrival of the little god. And stitched tiny clothes and created accessories of other gods and goddesses on this festive occasion when each was dressed in their festive finery and presented a flower-bedecked scene of welcoming the birth of the Lord.
Meantime Reena’s entire family except for her father and other men of the family were left in their homes at Rawalpindi and were advised by others to leave the newly marked territory of Pakistan, owing to grave danger to lives, as communal riots intensified. “We carried the family album to Simla therefore it remains with me even now, along with a few other valuables, as my father somewhat knew that circumstances were rapidly worsening. From our Pindi home, I have a ‘valtohi’ a kind of brass ‘ghaggar’ or pitcher, a ‘martbann’(an urn to store pickles), a China or Japan-made porcelain dry fruit tray, and a Pure Jade precious stone, that father brought from Kashmir.
Life Post-Partition
In July, my father too joined us at Solan where we all were bunched for a prolonged stay of five months, never to go back to our home to Pindi.Ardently missing her father, Toshi says –“My ‘Baoji’ (Father) was such a noble soul, he never criticized or laid the blame of our abject condition at the door of any community or politicians or any of the warring countries ever, despite such a hard struggle and facing so many challenges and losing everything, post-partition. Therefore, I bear no rancor for anyone or any community. We never carried hatred for any community then and not now. My ‘Bayji’ (mother) missed her home so much and ever clung to the hope, to go back soon, she eventually died of heartbreak.
“Awhile later, from Solan, we went to Pune where my brother Capt Subodh Chhibber was posted, then to Delhi. Father lost almost everything; he had planned his retirement and took his superannuation at the age of 39 years, working as a senior officer in the department of accounts under the British. Invested savings in three banks, built up the top floor of our home, and planned to earn rental income from there, plus his retirement benefits and pension, which made us very comfortable. During the horrific times of partition, father crossed over to India with practically nothing other than a ‘Jade Piece’ he bought from Kashmir, and joined us in Solan. Mother had carried a bit of her jewelry and a few favorites like the Phulkari bedspread made by her. Later, I stayed with my sister in Amritsar and she got me educated in Modern College Amritsar, perhaps an extension of our English medium ‘Modern School in Pindi’”.
“As for my parents, Partition hit them the hardest. Mother could never forget her house in Rawalpindi and her father had no savings to build another house on the small plot we got in West Delhi against the claim for the property left behind in Pakistan. We lived on rent in Delhi, throughout.”
Today, living in a small flat in the Defence enclave in the Kondwa area of Pune, Reena keeps the precious memorabilia from her hometown. Since her husband Inder Prakash Varma, served in the air force for a while and later worked for Hindustan Aeronautics in Bangalore they were allotted an apartment here. She does every household work herself in the kitchen and clothing besides looking after her plants. She has kept herself updated and knows computer, tablet operations, mobile, Facebook, Google and uses them to learn something new as she hums old songs alongside.
Reena Chhiber Varma’s story gelled beautifully with her status on her watsapp profile a picture of a beautiful lady tending to roses, and her status reads –“KEEP DANCING, with an emoji of a dancing girl with her skirt seeming to fly on one side. ––The status could have seemed mismatched with her 92 years; but when I dialed her number, a twinkling clear voice cleared all my doubts. She indeed was full of life and said she not only danced but sang too.
Readying for her home across a line
Once living happily, ironically in a home called ‘Prem Niwas 1935’ or the ‘Home of Love made in 1935’ in ‘Prem Gali’ or the ‘Love Lane’ of Rawalpindi; Pakistan-born and India’s Pune resident, 92-years Reena is preparing for seeing home, seeming almost seven seas away in Pakistan. Destiny and fortune both have bowed to the will and wish of this petite, gentle, lively lady. Her large family comprising of her father, mother, Buaji (aunt) four sisters and two brothers, each one of them have passed away. Yet she lives on, as the only witness to their lost home, their lost lives, their lost laughter, their lost childhood, and lost fortunes.
“I am finally going home”, she tells me calmly, her excited joy peppered with pain.
Do you feel elated, or emotional? “My feelings are emotional, I am excited but I am in deep pain too as none from my family would accompany me. They all passed away pining for our home”.
Despite the personal tragedy, of losing her 48-year-old son to brain hemorrhage, and seeing her husband suffer paralysis in the last days before he passed away, Reena has the guts and grit to live alone with her building community who she loves, -“They are like family to me”, despite being amply loved and nurtured by her daughter Sonali who lives in Gurugram. At 92, Reena remains contented and does all her work, actively socializing and also super active on social networking sites! Slim. Trim, a light mope of white beautiful coiffured hair, is subduedly effervescent of her forthcoming visit to her home.
Meantime Toshi asks me what she can carry as gifts for people in Pakistan. I guide her to carry Indian handicrafts a sure-shot memento for them. She asks me about weather conditions I tell her to carry a portable umbrella, walking shoes, a shawl in case she goes to the higher reaches. She adds she has packed a portable walking stick too. “I don’t want to carry any eatables, just little mementos”. Our conversation walks deep into many nights, at times unfolding, folding, refolding …then stitching- unstitching words. I wait for her to arrive in Amritsar where I have promised to show her the golden temple and visit all the places of her teenage years in Amritsar which became her dwelling for two years.
“A feeling of great joy, not quite jubilation though”, Reena corrects me. “It is like meeting a lost love crossing a deep gorge of time – there are, apprehensions, a fear of losing a closely clutched image of home, there would be permissions, I don’t know how I would flow, but certainly it would be unconditional love”.
Sajjad Haider, a Law correspondent with Capital TV covering the Supreme Court of Pakistan noticed a post on FB and responded that he was familiar with the oral description that Toshi gave. “Then Reena ji’s daughter contacted me to find out and expressed her mother’s heartfelt desire to see her Pindi Home. I easily found her home and made a short video of the facade of the house and some pictures and sent them to her. She was overjoyed and admitted it was her parental home.”
Sajjad (48) while speaking from Rawalpindi to the author in Amritsar said he had helped to locate the ancestral homes of three other Indians, but Reena ji is the only one coming to see the home that I identified for her.
Sajjad being familiar with legal work didn’t stop at this, overwhelmed with emotion, he sent an application/affidavit as he stood as sponsor host for Reena and claimed full responsibility for her, naming her as his ‘Indian Family member’, alongside giving due assurance for her return to parent country before the expiry of her visa. There is of course a slight mistake in this application a copy of which is with the author, wherein he mentions her as “his’ and ‘him’ as an incorrect gender referral to Reena, which could have been a reason for the unconfirmed status of his application to the visa office.” However, love is overwhelming and overflowing on the other side of the River Ravi .
Rashmi Talwar Saanjh-Togetherness 
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