New Delhi: What could have Partition meant to a 12-year-old girl who had a Hindu father and a Muslim mother? Her letters to her mother in her diary journal give a poignant insight to what went through her mind during the troubled times.
On the eve of her 12th birthday, Nisha receives a journal to record the thoughts she can never seem to say aloud as she starts to see the world through older eyes. But it’s not just Nisha who is changing. She doesn’t even recognise her country anymore.
It’s 1947, and India, newly freed from British rule, was divided. Many people are killed crossing borders as tensions among Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others flare. Nisha doesn’t know which side she’s supposed to be on or why she has to choose.
After losing her mother, who dies giving birth, she can’t imagine losing her homeland, too. Her mother was Muslim, but now she’s gone. Her father is Hindu, and says it’s no longer safe for them to stay in Pakistan. And so Nisha and her family become refuges and embark on a dangerous journey by train and by foot to reach their new home on the other side of the border.
Told through the letters Nisha writes to her mother in her journal, The Night Diary, published by Penguin, is the story of one of the most dramatic moments in history and of one girl’s search for home, her own identity, and a hopeful future.
In her letter of August 15, 1947, Nisha writes, “So as of today, the ground I’m standing on is not India anymore… We’re aupposed to leave and find a new home.”
According to author Veera Hiranandani, “The fictional family depicted in this novel and their experiences are loosely based on my father’s side of the family.” Hiranandani’s father, with his parents and siblings, had to travel across the border from Mirpur Khas to Jodhpur just like the main character, Nisha, does in the book.
“My father’s family made the journey safely, but lost their home, many belongings, and had to start over in an unfamiliar place as refugees. I wanted to understand more about what my relatives went through which is a big reason why I wrote this book,” she says.
Nisha and her family embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
Hiranandani, who teaches creative writing at New York’s Sarah Lawrence College’s Writing Institute, says “Nisha and her family’s journey was harder than some, including my father’s, and easier than others. This story is a combination of known history and imagined scenarios to create one possible story that could have taken place at this time.” (PTI)
