Author’s note When my father was due to retire he was worried about the hours of free time looming in front of him. I suggested he write a diary, a simple archive of his life that my children, aged ten and eleven could enjoy. Papa is a man of few words and apart from a few sketchy details, even I do not know much about his life. He sent the first pages across, but I knew that my children would not enjoy them. This is my attempt to turn his jotted memories into a narrative that my children will cherish forever. Like most children, I grew up with stories, but not fairy tales or fables, but stories told by my grandparents on their open terrace over haloed gas lanterns. They told me about the Lahore they had to run away from, the new world they came to and the life they built there. Their stories made me laugh and cry, rendered even more magical by the fact that they were true. My grandparents are not around, but my parents are, and there are many stories which need to be passed on before they are lost. Author Bruce Feiler has discovered after years of experience and research that “The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.� It is these stories that bind us; the past and the future interwoven into the fabric of family, for every life is a compelling story: there is a story in you and a story in me.
The Chronicles of Nahna Sandy Kundra Verma Illustrated by Katherine Loosley
astoryinme.co.uk
Who is this? This is me.
This is Papa. This is Grandpa.
GRANDPA!
“You may find it hard to believe,” Grandpa says, “but I was young once too. A long time ago.” “A long LONG time ago,” the children say. “Not that long ago.” “But how long ago?” “Well, I was born in 1946.” “That is VERY long ago.” Grandpa grins.
So, how long ago? “Well, I was born in 1946, but I do not know the date. My school certificate said January the 20th, my father the 12th of July.�
“Oh my!” the children cry, “Two birthdays? Ooooh twice the cake and presents and --” “But we never had birthday parties.” GASP! The children stare at Grandpa in HORROR. “But that means,” say the children when they finally recover, “you are double your age.” “I suppose so,” Grandpa concedes. “But that would make you really old. Like, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY old.” “But you look so young,” Mum grins.
This is where I was born
Pakistan
India
“I was born at home, not in a hospital. There wasn’t even a doctor present, imagine that?” Grandpa chuckles. The children cannot imagine that, “But you said you’re from India.” “And I am.” “But that is not India.” “It was before the partition.” “What is ‘partition’?” “Well,” Grandpa says, “imagine you have a cake.” “Oooh…CHOCOLATE cake?” “Of course. But one piece wants to separate from the rest of the cake. It wants to be its own cake. That piece was where I was born. It became its own cake -- country I mean -- Pakistan. But my parents came to India and that is my country now.” “Mum!” the children yell, “Is there any chocolate cake?”
This is your home
“But Grandpa, where is your PS4?” “I did not have a PS4.” “Your iPad?” “I did not have an iPad. No ‘i-anything.’’
This is my home. It is in Rahon, Punjab
“A TV?” “A thingie…that box thing that played songs.” “A walkman? No.” “Then Grandpa, what did you do?”
Watching steam engines Watched steam engines with my brother
I Played! Pithu in the park -my favourite!
Eating Dates Football in school
Sucking mangoes
Gully cricket
Sucked mangoes in the summer
Gorged on dates in winter
What is Pithu?
According to Wikipedia, Pithu is a game generally played between two teams. A member of one team (the seekers) throws a tennis ball at a pile of stones to knock them over. The seekers then try to restore the pile of stones while the opposing team (the hitters) throws the ball at them. If the ball touches a seeker, he is out and his team continues without him. A seeker can safeguard himself by touching an opposite team member before the ball hits him.
Sometimes I wish I had a time machine… “But Grandpa, you did not even have a TV.” “I did not need one. Life was simpler then. A cinema ticket was only thirty paisa, it’s two hundred and fifty rupees now. My hostel lunch cost only fifty paise. A flight was only one hundred and forty rupees, now it’s five thousand rupees.” “So you must have been rich then.” “But salaries were not as high as they are now. If only we had a time machine,” Grandpa’s eyes gleam, “we could earn in 2018 and spend it in 1958!” “And we could bring along our own TV!”
We could be like superheroes: B
I had slightly diffe My Superman
My grandfather was a famous doctor. Like Superman he saved scores of lives. He was a man of science, but once an astrologer asked for his keys and squeezed out milk from them. He predicted that my grandfather would die in a year, and he did!
My Yoda
My uncle was the soothsayer of the family.
Batman! Spiderman! Ironman!
erent superheroes
He saved our lives when he told us to move from Pakistan to India before the partition. After that, we always turned to him for advice.
My Ironman
My teacher was my mentor. He said I was going to be very successful since I was always punctual. He trained me for declamation and when I got the first prize, I became much more confident.
Life was different then In my days marriages were ‘arranged’, often by placing ads in a newspaper like this:
When my sister was of marriageable age my uncle suggested a ‘good boy’ for her. My parents liked him and agreed to the marriage. But a few days later my uncle blurted out that my sister knew the boy and they were in love. That was a scandal in those days! My parents were upset and only agreed to the marriage after a lot of persuasion.
This was my first big achievement
This was my first big achievement
“My cousin said I was a genius,” Grandpa says. “She was not very good at studies herself, you see.” “Did you get a medal, Grandpa?” “I got a full scholarship for college. I just had to pay for my stay and food.” ‘And a medal too, right?’
Living on a student budget in college “A movie ticket cost only one rupee and twenty-five paisa, but I did not even have that much money.” “So did you watch Netflix instead…oh wait, there was no TV.” “No,” Grandpa smiles. “But we devised a system. Two boys would buy one movie ticket. One would go watch half the movie, come out and tell the second boy the story till the intermission.”
Then the second boy would go in, see the rest of the movie and tell the remaining story to the first boy. That way two people could see the movie with one ticket!” “Were you ever caught?” “Wasn’t technically wrong now, was it?” Grandpa winks. “Yes, it was!” Mum cries from the kitchen.
This is my engineering college: Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India (BHU)
Famous People from BHU: Dr Radhakrishnan: Former President of India Krishan Kant: Former Vice President of India T.V. Ramakrishnan: Theoretical Physicist and Padma Shri Award Winner R.D. Banerji: Historian and Discoverer of Mohenjodaro And Me: Current Grandfather and Most Awesome Grandparent Award Winner.
Things were going great...until they weren’t “Do engineering,” people said, “the country wants engineers nowadays.” So I did engineering. Everyone did engineering. Then there were too many engineers and no jobs for them. And you know what people said then? “What?” “‘Who asked you to do engineering?’”
I took a job in Delhi Development Authority. It was boring but there weren’t many options.
A breakthrough In times of trouble, my family would consult an astrologer. The astrologer told me that I will roam around the world but I didn’t believe him for I didn’t even have a good job.
But then the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) called me to join them. At first I refused; my parents did not want to send me to the sea. But after a year of struggling, I called SCI and asked them if the job was still available. They said it was and told me to join a ship in Goa. I was going to be a sailor!!
First voyage My first voyage was from India to Japan.
I was excited because I had never been abroad. But the work was tough, I was new and didn’t know anything, not even how to use a knife and fork! That was a very important skill then. Our Chief Engineer was very strict.
After many months at sea, I felt so bad that I pretended to get stomach aches, hoping that I would be let off. My plan worked and the ship dropped me off at Singapore. But a doctor examined me and decided to do an appendicitis operation, even though he could not find anything wrong with me! I learnt my lesson and never made an excuse to get out of work again.
My sailor days Soon I began to enjoy the sea. What adventures we had! Dubai used to be a barren desert in those days. A man from Pakistan would come to the shore to sell samosas in a basket and we would buy dozens because the ship did not have any Indian food. The Russians loved chewing gum and scarves which they did not get in their own country then, so we would buy them cheap from Africa and sell them for a handsome profit in Russia.
They loved Indian shoes too; once a man asked if he could buy the shoes I was wearing and bought them off my feet! In the ship everyone lived like a big family. We would gather in the club room at night where there would be cards and games. Russia, Australia, Japan‌the astrologer was right, I did roam the entire world!
How I met your grandmother “Once upon a time, there was a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by Prince Charming.” “Damsel in distress?” the children say. “Why was she in distress?” “Well, she was locked in a place far far away. Every day she would wait for a knight in shining armour to come and whisk her off.” “Really,” Mum grins. “Shall we call Grandma, children?”
How I really met your grandmother Do you remember the newspaper advertisement for an arranged marriage that I had shown you before?
Well that was the sort of advert my family put in the papers. Your grandmother’s family replied to it, and I went to meet her. She was modern, educated and I knew at once that she would be a perfect sailor’s wife. In two months, we were married.
“Grandpa, WHAT are you wearing?” “That is Punjabi wedding attire.” “Oh of course,” the children say. “In those days, there weren’t any normal clothes.”
Our first home
Our first house was a small one bedroom apartment in Thane, near Mumbai, which was called Bombay then. The flat cost us forty-five thousand rupees which was a lot of money then. Bombay was such a big city: the city of seas, the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps. It was given in dowry by the Portuguese Queen, Catherine of Braganza to King Charles II — an entire city with millions of people in it today, was given away in a wedding — imagine that? I was happy that Bombay was my home.
When your mother was born “We were sailing somewhere near Canada, when your grandmother gave me the good news that we were going to have a baby! She spent many months of her pregnancy on the ship before coming home to her parents to have the baby.” “Ooooh… does that mean that Mum could have been born at sea?” “Yes, imagine that?” Grandpa laughs. “We were not that worried about regular doctor visits and such unimportant things in those days.” “So,” the children’s eyes are shining, “we could have been the kids of a MERMAID?”
Missing family
Six months after your mother was born, I had to go back to sea. In those days technology was so bad that I could only talk to my family once we reached a port.
I had to go to the post office to book a trunk call and wait for hours. We did not have a phone at home, so I had to call a neighbour’s house who would run and call your grandmother. Even after I got through, the line was so bad that I could not hear anything. “Wow,” the children say, “poor you Grandpa.” Grandpa smiles, “I had had a tough childhood; we had no money to enjoy.
I wanted to give my daughter everything I did not have; I wanted her to enjoy her life.” “And I did, Papa,” Mum smiles.
Hanging up my boots “My last voyage was in 1992. I was a Chief Engineer and I enjoyed the work, but my daughter was growing up and she needed me.�
“Ahem,” Mum clears her throat. Grandpa grins, “I was getting older too: forty-six years old. So I hung up my boots and haven’t sailed since.” “Do you miss it, Grandpa?” Grandpa smiles, “Not anymore.”
Tick the correct answer: Your Grandpa is: A) A Sailor B) A Manager C) A Teacher D) An Awesome Grandpa E) All of the Above
It seems astounding now, but I was a sailor for twenty years, a manager for fourteen years and a teacher for thirteen years, and I have been successful at all of these. Which is why I believe that you can do whatever you want to if you put in the effort. With hard work and persistence, one can even drill a hole in a stone. “Hear that, children?” Mum calls. “We cannot hear you Mum!” the children giggle. “And it is bad manners to interrupt when your father is speaking.”
Becoming a grandfather “When I became a father, I thought I would burst with happiness. But then I became a grandfather, twice, and my happiness quadrupled. I like nothing more now than to play with you and tell you long stories about how it was then and how it is now.” “Long long stories,” Mum grins. “But we LOVE your stories, Grandpa” the children say.
To find out more about Partition: Visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_India Read: A Bend in the Ganges, Manohar Malgonkar A Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh To find out more about Pithu: Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-SJFpho55Y To find out more about BHU: Visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaras_Hindu_University Watch the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=1fKa7wr3Vbo To find out more about the merchant navy: Read an interview with a captain: https://www.theguardian.com/ money/2011/jan/15/ -- working-life-ships-captain Read: Merchant Navy, What a Life, Bob Jackman To see an artist’s impressions of Bombay in the 70s: Visit: https://www.mid-day.com/articles/that-70s-bombay/15820188 To find out more about life before the internet: Search: #beforetheinternetexisted