BASANTA MAAMI - Person responsible for bringing Dad from Pakistan after Partition

Basanta Maami - She came on Sunday (Feb. 4) for dad's Akhand Path bhog and I asked her the details....


One of the Muslim students from Bangalore - that I had met 3-4 years back and who had ended up at my school - his father invited us to dinner when mom/dad visited me in Bangalore. When I gave dad the father's name to enter in the cell phone, he said 'oh my god' and I asked, 'what?' Dad said, 'Ali Mohammed was the name given to me when I was in Pakistan.' He surely remembered his time there but never ever shared that with us. This was the first instance that he had ever mentioned about the life past. Incidently, Pappa never mentions Pakistan that much either and has no desire to visit, whereas I would love to visit Muzaffarabad/Naluchi - so would other cousins.

Basanta Maami (BM) started with, 'Mainu pathar marda see - mai nahi janda eh koon hai' (he used to throw stones at me and denied knowing her). Dad had been adopted by a landlord who did not have kids and was living a comfortable life - BM said that he may have been in 6-7 grade, that puts him older than 65. She was able to contact the right people and was able to 'rescue' dad, along with others, and brought them to India.

I cannot imagine a life changed twice - once left back, then adopted and accepted, and then thrown back to the old life. Then again, I cannot imagine the life of a brother who gets everyone together, raises them, just to see them all leave him in the end....

BM was upset but did talk, and fondly, about the past. She was more upset at seeing Pawanjeet Maamaji's sons not keeping hair! 'Pachaana nahi jaande, kon haen ei?' I asked honey to come over and introduce himself, me the ignorant one, and BM gave him her piece of her mind. She had saved 2-3 scores of years back, just to loose these to the modernity.

I promised Pappa that I am planning to come back in March and will spend 2-3 days with - I want to talk to him about the past. He did tell me a story about our great grandfather who fought along side the British and was honored for that....