By IANS
New Delhi : Poet and lyricist Gulzar, while launching a book on the partition of India, said it was high time people moved on and started talking about life after that period instead of dwelling on the painful memories.
“Enough has been said about the pain, the agonies and the bloodshed. But very little about how life took its own course after that period. How people settled down, started life afresh and made successful careers is hardly mentioned,” Gulzar told a packed auditorium at the American Centre Thursday.
The acclaimed poet launched “Crossing Over” – an anthology of short stories (fiction) by writers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which had witnessed mass relocation and killings during partition.
A story penned by Gulzar is also part of the book. Published by the University of Hawaii, the book is a special edition of the university’s journal “Maloa”.
Gulzar, in his starched white kurta-pyjama, regaled the audience with stories of partition, adding that he was “more comfortable speaking in Urdu and Hindi than in English”.
And the audience had no problems with that.
“I remember the horror of World War II in 1945 and the pain of partition in 1947. At that time I used to live near the Subzi Mandi in Roshanara Bagh in Delhi.
“Twenty-twentyfive years later, those memories still haunted me. But what I have seen is that while we got over the horrors of the World War by talking about it and taking it out of our system, partition’s memories have remained simply because we refuse to talk about it and have thus not let the wounds heal,” said Gulzar.
The sub-continent’s partition led to the birth of Pakistan and a truncated India on Aug 14 and 15, 1947 respectively. According to the 1951 census of displaced people, an estimated 7.22 million Muslims went over to Pakistan from India while 7.24 million Hindus and Sikhs crossed to India during and after partition.
Gulzar noted that the Hindi film industry was also for years asked to refrain from touching upon the sensitive issue.
“There were so many connotations. It deals with raw emotions, with politics… it’s just now that we have started talking about it more. The wounds have not healed and this is proved by the fact that whenever Aug 15 approaches, the agonising memories of partition also comes back, even after 60 years,” he said, speaking softly.
He then recited some beautiful stanzas in Urdu, indicating the love that remained even after the borders were drawn, drawing applause from the misty eyed audience.
Gulzar narrated an incident about a man they met in Rajasthan while shooting a film.
“He showed us around the place in the vast desert till the borders. When I asked him how he knew everything so well, he said that years earlier he had to part from his beloved who now lives across the border.
“After partition, he came here, married and settled down. And so did she. But that didn’t stop him from going there to meet her every fortnight. That’s how he knows the routes by heart,” he smiled while narrating the story.
“What I want to say is that love is not lost just because borders are drawn. I visit Pakistan and so many people from there come here to meet their friends, to make movies…”
And the lyricist pointed out that while Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had come from across the border, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had spent his childhood in India.
“Life has come a full circle!” Gulzar remarked.