Transcript in English

Question: When did your family finally take the decision to leave East-Pakistan? Did any specific event trigger the decision?
Answer: Yes. At that time a huge riot took place. There was widespread violence in the city of Dhaka during the year 1946. Though, this is what I have heard from my family members, since I myself was born in the year 1945. As a result, my relatives who had sensed danger, fled beforehand. The people there had assured my second eldest paternal uncle saying “ Meijo kotta, amra asi” (we are there for you).

He stayed, and decided to give a portion of the house on rent. He had only one daughter. The person who took the house on rent was named Saral, as far as I know.

One day, Saral went to shop for groceries and he returned with a gourd (lau). Saral’s wife enquired, “Why did you not bring shrimps (chingri) along?” (So that she could cook the dish “lau-chingri”). Saral immediately headed towards the bazaar to buy shrimp. After he (Saral) did not return for a while, my family inquired and learnt he had been murdered in front of the bazaar. This was another incident of communal riots. My uncle told my father to leave the place since he had so many girls in his family” Maku, don’t stay here any longer, you have so many girls. You must go into hiding”.

Back then, it was usual for the boys to come around chanting “allah hu akbar” . The ones who died during the Hindu-Muslim riots- the government cares least about them. There was no infrastructure developed in order to prevent the riots from happening. It was only when the “ vande mataram” group members could be heard chanting, the Hindus felt a sigh of relief. Especially, those with young women in their families used to chat in whisper so that their voice did not escape the four walls of the house. In our house we had a room called durchira, which looked somewhat like a prisoner’s cell, where my aunt and cousin sister were asked to hide by my uncle. And my uncle used to fight them by himself. Along with some of our servants- Bhola, Sahish and some others. They were scared to show themselves in front of my uncle. And my father got a job elsewhere, where we went along. Nevertheless, we still did not imagine leaving our roots altogether- we would always hope to return. That we would never return again did not cross our minds back then.

Question: Which year did they leave everything behind then?
Answer: Before the Partition, my father got a job at a tea estate near Kachhar, as a doctor.

Question: Where is Kachhar?
Answer: Kachhar is now in our India.
Later, my father secured a better job and resettled in Assam, with the post of a Chief Medical Officer.

Question: So, when your family came, the Partition had not yet been declared?
Answer: No, it had not been declared yet. There was still hope that everything will fall into place, maybe things will not remain as they were. So, my uncle, aunt and my cousin sister- they stayed back.

Question: What route did they take?
Answer: They took the route along Kachhar. It is in Bangladesh now.

Question: Did they know back then, that they would never return?
Answer: No, they had not thought of not returning. We had a huge house, which was situated in a very posh neighbourhood. Also, there was the cinema hall which we owned- now all of this is old Dhaka.

Question: Who all went with your father?
Answer: Out of all the children, two of my eldest sisters got married before Partition. My eldest sister got married in Bihar’s Chhapra district, where my brother-in-law was an engineer. My other brother-in-law was a civil engineer and had five houses. My husband was a mechanical engineer. When my father took us to Assam, after receiving brilliant offers one after another, my uncle and my father thought that something had to be done with the house. Such a big house could not be kept just like that. But they were unwilling to make a deal with a Muslim. They took extreme pride in their caste and religion. Meanwhile, there was a consensus among the Muslims that the Hindus would soon leave the land- thus they would be able to acquire the properties at a much lower price or maybe just for free.

Amidst all these, my uncle died of pox and double pneumonia. At that time my aunt was asked to stay with us, by my father. But she said they would not settle in a place which the Pandavas had discarded (Assam). Therefore, she landed in Belgachia, at her brother’s place.

Question: And what happened to your house?
Answer: When my aunt came here, she had left the house on rent to a Muslim family. She had made her passport and had travelled from this side to that in order to secure the rent. She was an extremely intelligent, smart and brave lady. But when she could not go anymore (my sister’s school started), at that time, I have heard, they paid the rent at the rent control. A few days later, Bilin Ray asked my aunt to get permission from Chotobabu (my father) to sell the house and that he would help in the process. As soon as my aunt informed me, my father gave permission. She then gave all the property related papers to Bilin Ray for the sale of the house. After some days it became known that all the papers related to our house had been lost, hence we lost our entire property. 15th August, 1947 had brought one obstacle already, and the final nail was pinned around 1995-96- when the house was finally usurped by the Muslims.

Question: When your family came here, who were the ones who came along?
Answer: My parents and the eight of us brothers and sisters. Two sisters had been married earlier.

Question: Where did your family go from there?
Answer: For quite a few days after that, we had to roam around Assam. The first job my father got was at a tea garden. It belonged to an Englishman. The place was nice, I’ve heard. But the British were all leaving India at that time- so, the gentleman sold his garden and left. The tea garden was near Mukum junction- but now I don’t find its name in geography books. After that my father came to work in a Marwari gentleman’s tea garden, where he worked as a Chief Medical Officer. The gentleman was named Nishing Suresh Mal Muralidhar Jalan.