Reena Chabravarma Pooja, known as Toshi Aunty, is an 89-year-old resident of India. 74 years after the partition, still misses her home in Pakistan and wishes to celebrate her 90th birthday there.
India and Pakistan are now two independent countries. There are millions of families who are still feeling the pain of partition.
Going through the last days of their lives, there are many people from the pre partition era who want to visit their ancestral homes for the last time on both sides of the border.
Reena Chabar Verma alias Toshi Aunty is also one of the people whose family migrated to India in May 1947, a month before the partition.
Aunt Toshi, 89, wants to celebrate her 90th birthday at her ancestral home in Rawalpindi.
Reena Verma was born in January 1932 in Rawalpindi to an educated and liberal family.
Her father was an officer in the British government. Reina completed her primary education at Modern School.
Indian woman wants to celebrate her 90th birthday in Pakistan Recalling her golden past.
Reena says that Pindi was a city of peace loving people, there was no enmity between them.
Yes, there were differences in some places because some Hindu and Muslim families avoid eating together but still they always respect each other.
Toshi Aunty said that I still remember my elder sister’s friend Ghulam Fatima and brother’s friend Shabir, we were like a family.
Recalling the bitter and painful memories of the partition of 74 years ago. She said that riots broke out in Rawalpindi in February-March 1947. In the event of an attack by miscreants, a large space was made in a house for shelter.
Families with daughters were scared as a precaution, an army Major took me and the other girls in the area to a military camp.
We returned to our homes a few days later when things returned to normal.
She said that after a few days my mother went to the market and got stuck in a tense situation.
A tailor named Shafi had hidden my mother in his shop and later he left my mother safely at home. Reena also said that our family used to spend summer vacations in Murree every year.
In 1947 our parents sent us to Shimla and two months later they too came to visit us. During this partition took places and we never thought that we will not be able to return home ever.
The dividing line has failed to erase Pindi’s love from Reena Verma’s heart.
Despite many attempts, she could not come to Rawalpindi.
This was in 1954 when a cricket match between Pakistan and India gave her the opportunity to come to Pakistan without visa.
She visited Lahore but still remembers the city where she was born.
Recently, Reena Verma shared a special post on her Facebook account in the name of Pakistanis. In which she said that I am sending this message with great frustration. I was not given a visa to go to my hometown Rawalpindi. Pakistan I have come from Pune to Delhi to apply for a visa.
Indian woman wants to celebrate her 90th birthday in Pakistan.
Reena Verma said that she got sponsorship from a relative along with all the required documents and then applied.
I am almost 90 years old and in the last days of my life I miss my ancestral home in Rawalpindi.
“My house is still there and thanks to the current owners who kept it and I really don’t know why I’m not getting visa,” she said.
The Indian woman appealed, “Let me go to my house. I have spent 15 years of my life there.”