{"id":292,"date":"2006-07-06T01:36:45","date_gmt":"2006-07-06T01:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/06\/an-unseen-future\/"},"modified":"2006-07-06T01:36:45","modified_gmt":"2006-07-06T01:36:45","slug":"an-unseen-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2006\/07\/an-unseen-future\/","title":{"rendered":"An Unseen Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circa 1947<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year was 1947.\u00a0 (I\u2019m not sure if it was before or after India gained independence).\u00a0 There lived a man in Karachi that went by the name of Roopchand.\u00a0 Roopchand was an administrative clerk in the Indian Railways.\u00a0 He had a large family that lived on his government salary without much complaint.\u00a0 Life was quite alright, until the \u201cpartition\u201d happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Considering the climate of the time, his employer offered him a choice – Stay in Karachi or migrate to one of its offices in \u201cHindustan<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 Roopchand jumped at the opportunity!\u00a0 He\u2019d always harboured a desire to see Bombay, but could not afford the travel\u2026 until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was agreed, then.\u00a0 The organization would transfer his records, and Roopchand would join the office in Bombay, soon.\u00a0 But, life had other plans for him.\u00a0 The day of the departure, one of his sons – Girdhari – fell ill.\u00a0 It was typhoid.\u00a0 The journey would have to be postponed.\u00a0 Soon after, another daughter, and then another, would become affected\u2026\u00a0 Three months passed, waiting for the family to recover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, communal riots had gripped the city\u2026 the entire nation, actually.\u00a0 It soon became unsafe to live in your own house.\u00a0 (That is, if you were a Hindu in what was now called \u201cPakistan\u201d, or a Muslim in what would now be known as \u201cIndia\u201d).\u00a0 Roopchand\u2019s resolve to go to Mumbai only became stronger.\u00a0 It helped that a Muslim was one of his closest friends and neighbour.\u00a0 That kind gentleman stayed for several months in Roopchand\u2019s house – to answer the door, should any one come around to enquire if it was a \u201cHindu\u201d house or a \u201cMuslim\u201d one.\u00a0 Roopchand\u2019s family of five daughters, two sons and a wife owe their life<\/em> to the good Muslim.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the day finally came when it was time to bid goodbye to their neighbours, and to the few remaining family members still left on that side of the border.\u00a0 The choice of transport was between Steamer and Rail, and the Indian-Railway-employee chose the steamer only to avoid the spate of murders that many rail-passengers had experienced, en route <\/em>India.\u00a0 After a long and arduous journey that lasted somewhere between 8 and 10 days, Roopchand\u2019s family disembarked on the shores of Bombay – the City of Dreams.<\/p>\n

When he reported to office the next day, he learned that due to the 3-month delay in transfer, the vacancy had already been filled.\u00a0 They were kind enough to offer him an alternative posting in Ajmer or Kota or some other city in glorious India, but Roopchand would not hear of it.\u00a0 After all this, he wasn\u2019t about to leave Bombay before he had a chance to call it his home.\u00a0 \u201cI will live here without pay till you find me an opening\u201d, he told them.\u00a0 And, so he did.<\/p>\n

For the next couple of months, he asked a family member for help – They needed a place to stay.\u00a0 As it turned out, so did many other relatives, all of whom had fled their ancestral homes in Pakistan in search for a safer place to to live.\u00a0 A makeshift two-room apartment in the Central Excise officers\u2019 quarters was home to nearly 24 hungry and tired souls for several months\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, the persistence paid off.\u00a0 Roopchand soon filled a vacancy in the Indian Railways\u2026 his younger children joined school\u2026 his older children were married off in good homes\u2026 And finally, Roopchand retired from his service, and settled down in New Delhi – the capital of India.<\/p>\n

His full name was Roopchand Merani.\u00a0 And, he was my maternal grandfather.<\/p>\n

\n

Circa 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I write this, I cannot help but wonder what Roopchand would\u2019ve said of Bombay, today.<\/p>\n

I am writing this today from home, as I have not been able to get to office for the past few days.\u00a0 Four consecutive days of rain have lashed the city mercilessly, putting its infrastructure and its spirit to test.\u00a0 Yes, many brave citizens did try to make it to work, each day, only to return unsuccessfully or find themselves stranded in waist-high water on some neglected arterial road!\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, the news channels are beaming live pictures all day\u2026 of Kalina, Wadala, Dadar TT, Chembur, Andheri\u2026 Schools have been ordered shut\u2026 Flights stand cancelled, or diverted\u2026 The \u201cShanghai of India\u201d has become the \u201cVenice of the East\u201d, while Bombay\u2019s Municipal Commissioner laments about a 100-year old sewage and drainage system that is allegedly \u201cnot cooperating, inspite of his team\u2019s best efforts\u201d!<\/p>\n

It seems to me, after 26\/7 (last year), the monsoons in Mumbai have lost their magic.\u00a0 In fact, each year that passes, we only lose more in this \u201ccity of dreams\u201d\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, if some unforseen circumstance offers me<\/em> the chance to transfer out, I may just take up the offer.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 Like Roopchand, my future may also lie in a city I have never seen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year was 1947. I’m not sure if it was before or after India gained independence. There lived a man in Karachi that went by the name of Roopchand. Roopchand was an administrative clerk in the Indian Railways. He had a large family that lived on his government salary without much complaint. Life was quite alright, until the “partition” happened…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-india"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}