Voices: Ravi Chopra

Moved from Sialkot to Firozpur

"I  was eight when Partition took place. Nobody imagined that such a halocaust would take place... We had to catch the mail train to take us to India. On the way what we saw was heartbreaking. You could see young girls jumping into the well to save their honour because people would catch them and rape them. The houses were on fire. People were running, killing each other, even on the railway track. You could see bodies, hands cut, legs cut. And then the train came. There was firing... There were bullets flying around and one hit me on my left leg... There was no bandage, nothing to sterilise it. My grandmother was in tears. She didn’t know what to do. She tore off the only dhoti she was wearing. But how to sterilise it? She soaked it in her urine, cleaned the wound and put a bandage."