LAHORE: An octogenarian’s voice shakes as he talks emotionally about the grave of his father he had to leave behind in India, regretting that he could not get a handful of its soil in life. He used to visit the grave as a child. He clearly remembers a well, called Bawli, near his native home.

He is one of many anonymous people who shared memories of their homes and experiences which left indelible imprints on their minds during the mayhem of the Partition in 1947 in HOME1947, an installation, the first immersive exhibition by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, which is a part of Heritage Now at Alhamra Art Centre. The collection of short films, exploring the stories of those who had to leave their homes and cross borders in 1947, has been titled “In the Words of Survivors”.

A woman remembers how locomotive was dislodged from their train and it was left on its own in the East Punjab. “My father gave a pistol to my brother. It had five bullets. He told my brother that if ‘they’ get close, he should kill his sister (me), mother and paternal aunt.” The locomotive came five days later and we crossed the border.

Partition survivors recall bitter memories during Heritage Now event

A woman reads a letter she had written to her teenage friend, Rabia. She was 17 when she had left her native home but kept writing letters to her friends for years.

“Home is where one gets happiness. The place where one is unhappy is not a home,” an old man defines what’s home to him. He recounts the day of Sept 6, 1947 which he is unable to forget.

He can see his mother clad in white kurta and gharara when ‘the goons’ killed her. He can hear the cry of his sister, telling him about the arrival of ‘the goons’.

An old lady remembers a canal near her home and peacocks. She remembers, as a five-year-old, seeing her mother being killed before her as she hid herself under a bed. The attackers ran away on hearing that army had arrived.

Besides the migrants’ stories, there are others sections of installations, including a collection of objects and heirlooms, taken with the refugees when crossing borders and Safarnama, a journey of sound and light symoblising the unfamiliar paths taken by the migrants.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2017