The subject of Sarbjit Singh’s crossing to the Pakistan has rekindled some memories in my mind. I grew up in a village 200 meters away from the border and in an environment that was infested by such talk. At one time more than 70% of adult men of my village were involved in the smuggling in early 80’s. Some of these were my distant uncles, cousins and friends I grew up with. Mostly people who crossed were illiterate paindoos smuggling liquor, afeem and some electronic hardware like tape recorders and VCRs(which they had no idea what to do with).. some bigger ones smuggled gold, silver, drugs and arms. Most of them did so for 200 rupees a trip for other bigger badmashes. I knew..eer..I grew up among both of these types. First category was "paanDis" (ones who transports panDs(bags) of goods for others)..they were the transporters. Second category was ex paaNDis who had grown to smuggle their own goods and then use others to do so for them. There is third category of smugglers who lived in big cities and invested money in this business. We only heard about them and seen them rarely as they won’t risk coming so close to the border. Some of my fellow paindoos(note: not fellow paaNDis:-) ) grew up to be among them and have a flourishing business around the globe..or so do I hear....when they visit NY or London and express a wish to visit me, I tremble in my pants. Accordingly to my mother that is exactly how my grandfather did in the village...his name to fame was that police had never come to his doorsteps to question him or his sons and he does not know which direction the "Thaana" is.

There was no fence on border in 70’s and 80’s. BSF jawans were corrupt as they come. They charged anywhere from 100 rupee to 500 rupee per person. Being so cheap, one typical smuggler will use 10 to 20 people to transport his good from one side to the other during night. In early 80’s (before Bluestar..they got some what strict after that)...there were times a group of 200 people will be led by the BSF jawans to the border in the middle of night. Same number of people will come from the other side of border escorted by Pak rangers. They will exchange their goods on the border. BSF jawans got so involved in it that in early 80’s they started allowing people to exchange their good during the day during their regular trips to the fields that they owned on the border....as a result the farmland facing the border line became a hot commodity. A friend’s uncles used to take their tractor and trolley full of Silver bricks to the border, park it with its rear facing Pakistan side. Their friends from other side would come with their trolley full of Afeem and other goods. Their "kammis" will load and unload the trolleys and they would bring them back to their haveli. There was rumors few times they exchanged the trolleys but that was a bit risky as everyone knew who owns which trolley and tractor in the village...again not a big deal, everyone was involved anyway.

According to my grandfather it all started few months after partition of 1947. The vast land between our villages on the border was a grazing ground and villagers took their cattle there to graze every day. Villagers from Pakistani side did the same as they did before 15 Aug 1947. They would exchange gossip and talk about how their new countries are doing. They soon found out that "sugar" was way too expensive in Pakistan. Prices had sky rocketed after partition...and some fabrics was getting hard to find on Indian side....that was the starting point of this trade. Initially "waaghis"(cow boys) would do a favor to each other and exchange the goods. Soon it turned into a small side business and lo and behold by late 50’s and early 60’s it was a flourishing business of Gold smuggling.

For us border was not something you read about in papers or go to Wagha to see, and have heated discussions about. It was there and we were there. We saw it every morning we came to schools and every afternoon we played in the fields outside the village. BSF guys had guns but they were harmless...merely a 200 rupess was enough to uncover their human side.

There are plenty of stories I heard and saw happening in this environment. Many of the villagers I knew well got killed on the border crossing goods as some BSF jawan will go unfaithful and go back on his word, open fire and kill few to show off his courage and bravery to his superiors. One story stands out is about this guy Deboo - Hardev Singh. He was my class mate during primary school. His family lived about a block away from ours. He would take me to his home once in a while...his home was beautiful... furniture, clothes, kitchen..everything was way better than at ours. His father and uncles were friends of grandfather...Deboo was born from a second marriage of his father. His uncle and father were pioneers in the field of smuggling and had made tones of money in 50’s and 60’s. But that were their glories days by the time were in late 1970’s, they were going down as old men has grown too old and younger ones were too aish-prast. Anyway, Deboo was different. he was brave, stupid, stubborn and quarrelsome...he almost beaten every kid in school except a few. I was one of un-beaten ones. In fact he was always ready to defend me....there were some reasons for it. One my father was a teacher and known for his thrashings he used to give to students like Deboo....and our families had good relations during old days of my grandfather...he must have heard about friendship between my grandpa and his father when they were growing up...consider it an effect of this legacy or my good luck, Deboo never fought with me.

In the year of 1982 or 83, when Deboo was in his late teens and I had gone to college and left village and used to visit only once a month or so, Deboo and other friends were talking around the dhooni(log fire) late night few days before Diwali. One thing led to another and someone challenged him if he can cross border just like that. Deboo got up and started walking towards the border. He had a kameez pajama, a sweater and a kambal or khais di bukkal on him. It was late night about 11pm or so, other guys thought he was kidding and won’t dare but he kept going and safely crossed the border. He was not doing as a spy or smuggler or anything. That was just to win a bet. Early morning on Diwali night, people heard firing of BSF guys and thought some smuggler might be caught. As usual everyone was curious who was it who did not take a day off on Diwali night...but his friends thought it must be Deboo coming back. he was lucky and escaped the firing and arrived home before dawn. BSF jawans took out their dogs and staring following the trail. Dogs led them to the street Deboo’s home was. But it was very hard for BSF guys to pin point which house as half a dozen major smugglers lived on the same street. With clever intervention of some of them, it was declared dogs were mistaken..aithey te koi eho jiha banda nai rehnda....Deboo lived to tell the story...well for another 15 years..until he died as a addicted drugee few years back.
I some times wonder, if he was caught, he would probably be charged as a spy. But in those days BSF jawans and Pak rangers were the folks who knew the difference...who is spy and how is having fun.