Relived my childhood by sleeping in my room after 75 years /Rashmi Talwar/ Kashmir Images

Reena Chhibber Varma

Indo-Pak Stories PART- III

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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 William and 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.

Author can be reached at email: rashmitalwarno1@gmail.com/ Mo: +91 6283 79 6363

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EXCLUSIVE: 90Yr ‘Young’ Reema crosses Border to visit Rawalpindi Home / Rashmi Talwar/Kashmir Images

EXCLUSIVE

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EXCLUSIVE

Indo-Pak Stories

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.

Author can be reached at email: rashmitalwarno1@gmail.com/ Mo: +91 6283 79 6363

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