Ranjit Singh Seble and his grandson Arjun look at old photos. (Express Photo: Oinam Anand)
As the Prime Minister addressed the nation to mark 70 years of Independence, The Indian Express spoke to four families about the first time they set foot in Delhi in 1947.
The Malhotras
A few weeks after Bhag Malhotra reached Delhi following the Partition in 1947, she was back at the railway station with her mother and siblings. “We went there to board a train back to Pakistan… to go back home to Dera Ismail Khan. Delhi didn’t really feel like home,” reminisced the 84-year-old, sitting at her Safdarjung Enclave home on August 15. But they decided against it. Having moved here from the North-West Frontier Province, Malhotra said her first impression of Delhi was of “unparalleled freedom”. “There wasn’t so much openness where I came from… But Delhi was different. Here, I learnt to let go off the dupatta over my head,” she said. Recalling the first time she went to the Red Fort for Independence Day, she said, “I was 15-16 years old, and we couldn’t go inside. So we climbed on top of shops to watch the celebrations… it was exciting.”
The Sebles
In November 1947, six-year-old boy Ranjit Singh Seble found himself in a kashti that ferried his family from Ghaziabad to the Yamuna Bank. Although terrifying, that has remained etched in his mind as his first memory of Delhi. Seated in his Civil Lines house, the 76-year-old said that his family owned cinema halls in Rawalpindi.
“I was so little when the Partition happened that when I was growing up, I realised my home was Delhi… when I visited Pakistan a few years ago, it didn’t feel like home to me,” said Seble. Recalling Independence Day celebrations from days past, he said, “Back then, it was like a picnic… on Independence Day, all the children would stand near Red Fort and eat ice cream or play.”
The Kapahis
For 84-year-old Prem Kumar Kapahi, memory is inextricably linked to heartbreak. Kapahi, who owns Broadway Drycleaners, among the oldest shops in Defence Colony, said, “I have no old photos from Pakistan… it was such a heartbreaking time that my mother probably tore them. My father used to work at the famous Karachi Cloth House in Pakistan… In India, he did many jobs, businesses… I don’t think people who were uprooted from Pakistan, including us, ever truly settled down here,” says Kapahi, sitting at his Defence Colony house.
Prem Kumar Kapahi and his wife Vijay at their Defence Colony home. (Express Photo: Abhinav Saha)
While he reached Delhi with a sibling before August 1947, the rest of his family jumped terraces to get to the station and take a train later. With a tinge of regret, his wife, Vijay, said they don’t watch Independence Day celebrations: “The Partition corrupted the whole system… brotherhood is lost… We don’t associate with people today… or the culture or celebrations. What kind of freedom is this?”
The Bangas
Shakuntala Banga, who was nine when India celebrated its first Independence Day, was in Pakistan at the time. When they eventually reached Delhi after a four-day train journey, the first thing on their mind was food. “People were hungry and we ate a lot as soon as we reached Delhi. This is my first memory of the city,” said Banga. Though it’s been 70 years, Banga remembers the journey like it was yesterday. “I get goosebumps whenever I think about it,” she said, adding that with time, the wounds, too, healed.
