WELL KNOWN WRITER KRISHNA SOBTI REMEBERS CELEBERATIONS OF FIRST INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                                                         

Well known writer Krishna Sobti( Born 1925) remembers celebrations of First Independence Day in the Capital (1947)...

SEPARATION AND BIRTH

"Delhi has never been shorn either Grandeur or Ruination. The Mahabharat was over and the world was out on streets. I am on road watching crowds. A posse of mounted police passes through Cannaught please, Regal Square, Madras Hotel, Marina and other places around.
Flags are sold by dozens at Khadi Bhandar CP. I simply hear " Look ! Look!". Crowds chant..

" Goron apnay Ghar ko lauto
Ab yeh Desh hamaara Hai"

" Up up Hai Gandhi Sacha
Down down Hai Toady( chaaploos) Bachaa"

Some refugees from Punjab also  pass by  singing  in a group . A young boy creates Dhol beats for them. They sing :

" Balle Balle Jawahar Lal
Aapnay Kar diyaa kamaal
Dharti phaad Punjab ki
Hamein de diya Eik Rumaal"

It is possibly an incantatory answer to the question writ on everyone's forehead.

A sea of humanity passes through Dariba .I find myself sprawled. Suddenly a woman is in labor pain. Some women take her to a corner and shield her with curtains. Shrill cries of Newborn. The first free child of free India. I have never seen such crowds . People from every stratum of society , age ,attire, race, kasba ,town, city from near and far .The yoke of slavery was gone.

Street vendors had lined the streets , as though Azadi was meant to be an excuse to gorge on sweets. Ladoos, Motichoor, Kalaakand, Petha, Besan ki tukrriyan, Gulabjamun, Ballushahi, Halwa and Puree.What was it that was not available? Tricolours flew high out of every mound of sweets. Each man was alike a celebrity sweet that day with a flag rising from his heart. 

Who knows what time it was? A day or night ,makes no difference. A la Deepawali like illumination. It is like that all along from the domes of Dais square, Foch square, Havelock Square to the rows of Diyaas in front of houses in Gole Daak-khana ,Gurudwara Raqabganj ,the church and everywhere.

Each person on the street was a free citizen.Pawned for centuries, his self esteem had been redeemed by Gandhi the Mahatma."

And Krishna ji adds:

" I have very few friends. I am never bored of my company. I write at night — the mysterious silence of darkness illuminated by my solitary table lamp… and I suddenly find words revealing themselves to me in new ragas, rhythms, beats and meanings.
Sometimes, I wish I had learnt painting."

"The Partition was a terrible event. It was difficult to bear the tragedy and the enormous hatred it brought, but we lived through it. It confirms the vitality of this nation that it resurrected itself soon"

(Autar Mota )

       
 
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.