His sons are married to women from other refugee colonies in Pilibhit. The journey from Bangladesh to Kolkata and then Neoria, where they got a home, is a blurred memory, he said. In broken Hindi mixed with Bengali, he told us that he had spent his entire life in Neoria. Nearly five decades later, he is a grandfather to three kids.
Our first stop there was a shop owned by a Bangladeshi refugee, Sushil Baoli, who came to India in 1971, when erstwhile East Pakistan gained liberation. On our first day in Pilibhit, we went to Neoria, a small colony 19 kilometres from the main city. They are now growing old there too - all the while trying to hold onto their Bengali identity, their traditions and roots, in the heart of the Hindi heartland. Hundreds among the first wave of refugees grew up there and went on to raise their own families there.
0 kommentar(er)
