I have told you before that when I was working in Hindustan Aircraft Factory in Bangalore, we were having a joint family and I was sharing the house expenses with my father. Everything appeared to be in its place and all of us were very happy, more so as quite a number of relatives visited us as Bangalore happened to be an attractive commercial city. This continued until that memorable day 27th Oct. 1947 when I left Bangalore for Karachi. What was supposed to be my free joy flight to have a glimpse of the new country Pakistan turned out to be instrumental in changing the destiny of so many families. I dragged Dr. Sab who was in a Government job about 100 miles from Bangalore without realizing what I was doing.
The joint family disintegrated gradually and my father I am sure got his first shock when he found that his family was disjointed as four of his sons, Dr. Sab, myself, Sirdar and Sarwar had left him for a distant country. All that happened suddenly without any plan and without any ceremonial farewells.
Although he never expressed, one could imagine what he lost in one stroke, four senior children and some grand children. He loved Aslam and Akram very much and he used to spend lot of time with them whenever he happened to be in Bangalore. Although the whole family was in one place (Bangalore) he used to spend two to three days in a week in Bangarapet in connection with business affairs.
After we settled down in Karachi I was the first to take a trip back to Bangalore and Bangarapet with my family. The trip was primarily to see the aftereffects of our migration and of course to see our parents, other relatives and friends. Although my father did not speak out, I could read his face which probably wanted to say Do you realize what you have done to me? In one and a half year I could see a big change in him. He had grown older and appeared to be slower in his movements. On the other hand my mother seemed to be firm and happy to see her grand children. Aslam and Akram had very rarely left her lap ever since they were born and upto the time they left with us for Pakistan. Khurshid had very little to do or care about them. My mother was of the type who would never allow any concern to be noticed by others.
Our trip to Bangalore was by boat upto Bombay and by train from there. Our return journey from Bombay to Karachi was hectic and noteworthy. We were traveling by deck and all of us were sleeping sound when during the second night a big tide from the ocean splashed making us completely drenched in sea water. We got up and worked hard to dry our selves and the children. We had to open our suitcases which were by our side and change the clothes. We remembered that night's incident for a long time. Incidentally in 1949 there were no visa restrictions between India and Pakistan. Train and boat fare was very cheap.
Our visit to Bangalore in 1949 could be considered very useful as our parents realized that we had not left them forever and gave them hope that we could visit them again.
True to my promise I visited Bangalore and Bangarapet again after two years, this time by air upto Bombay and train from there. The children enjoyed the visit and they were very happy to be with the grand parents and other relatives.
Everything was going on well after that. Our jobs were steady, the mail between the two countries was prompt until one of the greatest tragedies of our family occurred in 1955, which changed the lives of many of our relatives. This was the result of the sad demise of our brother in law Janab Rashid Khan.
[Here the scanned copy of the book ends.]