Lahore to Delhi: Rising from the Ashes : Autobiography of a Refugee from Pakistan'Lahore to Delhi' is written by Mr.Pran Seth. It is an autobiography of an unknown refugee from Pakistan, who after spending 22 years in Pakistan took leave of his beloved Lahore and migrated to India. It is the story of a tumultuous journey and the kaleidoscopic twirl of events thereafter. The story of experiences as a young reporter, through Kashmir, Hyderabad and Delhi in the early post independence years and as the Public Relations Officer of the East Punjab Government who witnessed the challenging task of rehabilitation of five million refugees. The book answers the questions about the genesis of several problems that face the country today including Kashmir in research based but engaging anecdotal way. "I am glad my old friend and colleague Pran Seth has come out with a new book" spanning eight decades -22 years in Lahore, Pakistan where he was born, educated and became a young journalist and the rest in free India. He saw himself growing in the narrow streets of the walled city, which had started bearing the brunt of the first crop of the seeds of communal hatred. In the forties, he was in College and heard the loudest cries of 'Quit India'™ from the workers of the Indian National Congress and "˜Long live Pakistan"™ from the followers of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Pran has tried to portray contemporary scenes honestly. This little book gives an eye witness account of all these and other events. The book will enable readers to know how India won its freedom and how and why Pakistan came into being and also the changing destiny of India after it won its freedom." - KHUSWANT SINGH A most important chapter of history of India was written in the first five decades of twentieth-century and very few people are left today who had a window seat view of that. The social fabric of that time, the fervour of self sacrifice for the country, the holocaust, the independence and the lessons of history learnt and forgotten say a saga of the past century. Goaded by my grandson who was in his late teens and had a great urge to know about our home in Lahore, partition, independence and India™s emergence as a great democracy, I felt the need to share the experiences of these critical historical events of which I was an eye witness. I have written a score of books during my life-timeranging from stories for children, to travelogues, fiction and textbooks, but this book had a different challenge. I wrote a couple of chapters as specimen to get the opinion of my writer friends including Sardar Khushwant Singh. He glanced through these chapters and gave me a nod.-Author Mr.Pran Seth |
