Pub by: Bloomsbury India
‘Farewell Karachi – A Partition Memoir’ by Bhawana Somaaya is a poignant account of a family’s displacement during the partition and then re-rooting oneself in newer regions, facing hardships all the way. But what peeps out in the book is the sheer resilience of the parents and the gentle, easy, breezy adjustments by all the children to establish their home, abode, and heaven.
Disclaimer: This book is a personal journey for me. The author is my maternal aunt, and the story is about my mother, her parents and siblings. So, objectivity is a little hard here.
“When you have too much to do, there is little time to feel fear.”
This maxim of Madhavji Mulji Somaaya, the author’s father and my maternal grandfather, navigated the family through their tough times even after the partition and their settlement through Bhuj in Mumbai. A family of 2 parents and 8 siblings seem a daunting and horrendous task today, but I believe the big family was their greatest strength in wading through the rough waters.
In Treasure Box, Bhawana Somaaya writes, “My older siblings have no recollection of their duress. My parents did not transmit their fears to their children.”
This sets the tone of the book. The hardships are easily communicated, but the agony and anguish of the partition/personal are not expressed melodramatically. The book is to be savoured gently, page after page, like the perfect Indian masala chai.
Chapter 10 is where my tears flow freely, unabashed, reading about my grandfather, the physical and emotional adversities he endured on his journey to India from Pakistan … and my heart ached for Ba, who somehow just pulled through with great difficulty, a family to feed by selling off her jewellery. Also, Bapuji’s passing away had been an agonising time for the family.
Chapter 8 has so much history for a reader of this generation to learn from… World War II, independence, colonialism… and yet it is surprisingly a smooth, easy read for so much information cramped in. The book is cleverly crafted to incorporate politics and history and manages to portray the socio-political landscapes of changing times. Each chapter reflects the milieu of that time.
The book spans many years and flows easily without it being heavy. Emotions abound on every page … especially the desolation in the family after Bapuji’s demise, which is stark and hard-hitting. Also, it is strange and right of Bhawana Somaaya to point out that while the families around were expanding with time, theirs was shrinking, adding to the gloom. The transition from a big family to a nuclear family must have been a wearing-down experience, for sure.
Reading about me in Chapter 17 felt strange. I was unaware of my “exuberant” presence in their lives… living with Ba and Bhawana Masi was a great life-learning experience, along with academic progress.
The author’s honesty in penning down is most evident on page 153, where she describes her insecurity after leaving ‘Screen’ in 2007 and her foray onto the radio in the Hindi language, especially when she is being assessed for her diction and language…for someone so senior, it must have been very difficult and requires a strong inner self-esteem to document so.
This book is personal to me, and I have my blinkers on. However, putting all my biases aside, I strongly recommend this 161-page, power-packed book. Firstly, it is a great emotional family story set in the country’s momentous historical era. And also, it speaks a lot about so many decades in a condensed form. It is stories such as these that inspire us to remain steadfast and committed to one’s responsibilities without fear and bask in relationships, which we are born with to be our greatest pillar of strength.
Preeta Chag 