As I got ready to start my new job in an all new city,my mind was filled with a thousand questions and will I be able to make it to the top on my own. Then there came the moment of meeting my grandparents and saying goodbye to them. We have a big joint family who have always been together and this was the first time I was going to be away. When I met my aaji (grandmother) and told her about my fears,whether my boss would be nice, whether my colleagues would be nice, how would I be able to remember to pay all my bills on time, she started laughing loudly and told me that I would do everything nicely as she had done all of that such a long time ago.Then she told me her story.
Well,my grandmother was born in modern day Pakistan,Lahore to be exact. When partition of India happened,her parents decided to move to India along with a lot of other hindu families living in their little colony. Many of their friends and neighbours were Muslims,some of whom helped in getting them safely onboard the trains coming to India but many also turned violent as it was a turbulent time when friends turned foes overnight. One of my grandmother's childhood friends was Muslim and even her family decided to come to India too. These 2 families came to Delhi together,thankfully (as my grandmother says) the train they came in was not looted and they came in safely as this was a big thing back then as many trains were completely looted and all people butchered in them. Well, they all reached Delhi and were herded into refugee camps with nowhere to go. The officials there told them that surely they will find some alternate accommodation,jobs etc. but they will have to be patient as the whole partition process had rendered a lot of loss on both sides and the economies of both the countries were not enough to give a good life to each and every person. So they had to wait. Meanwhile, my grandmother's mom got very ill as she had pneumonia for some time now and it was not possible for her to bear all the stress and those ill-living quarters and stay healthy! My grandmother and her friend then decided to start some work on their own to save some money as they couldn't live in those camps forever. They started to do some stitching work for other refugee ladies and slowly for some residential quarters near the camps in Delhi itself. Soon they branched out in embroidery work as my grandmotheer's friend-Saraa,her name was-really good in embroidery work while my aaji was good at math. Together,these friends saved enough money to start a kind of shop doing such work for many ladies on a permanent basis. Unfortunately my aaji's mother died of pneumonia complications soon after but my aaji and Saraa soon got both families out of desperation. They moved on to own a big shop in Delhi selling all kinds of dress material, sarees, bags, doing embroidery work on the same. This is how my aaji started her life after a tragedy like partition.
After telling me this story,she asked me, how could I not succeed when she had under such difficult conditions?And listening to her made me feel a surge of hope and optimism like nothing else. Today,whenever I feel down or scared,I just remember her words and am able to smile and look forward to future with happiness,just like the feeling one might get as one browses through Housing website.
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