The border dispute

14 by kaghzan

Thanks for the praise, However you are mistaken. I am not Dost Miter.

#15 by nazarhayatkhan.

Your appreciation over whelms me. `Kithe Munshi Prem Chand te kithe maiN`. Just starting to try my hands at writing.

I tell you one thing though; this has been an exhilarating experience for me. I remember reading some author claiming the characters take on their own life and the narration just follows them. Somewhat similar has been my experience. These half-forgotten stories just flow out when I start typing them.

Thanks a lot again.

#16 by dullabhatti

I am glad you liked the stories. When I started writing them I wasn`t even sure if they would be worth publishing.

Jagmohan bhai, very good story. I liked both the stories very much. Very simple and straight to the point. It is only 20 years ago that I had seen my uncles and their cousins fighting over these petty issues waTT-banna, paani di vaari, danger kannak ujaaRh gaye etc. Numerous times kirpans were drawn, nezas (spears) were waved, do-naali rifles were test fired but luckily never anyone was hurt. The issues eventually came down to women folks bycotting each other for few months or till the next birth of a boy or wedding of a daughter came up when with few extra invitations and kind words they would forget all. Think of it now I have a feeling that deep down they knew it was stupid to go to full blown war with a cousin over paani di waari so they let the steam go out through bluffing. Of course once in a while things wil go too far.

As some genious observed correctly that India lives in many centuries at the same time, there are people in India(and Pakistan) who are living the life someone`s else`s grandfathers lived 2 centuries ago.

Chadha

I had to again come back to you. Your writing is hauntingly nostalgic. It is like sitting alone in a room and watching an old black and white movie.

Another quality in your writing is your ability to use English in a way that it seems that it is a story from Munshi Prem Chand in Punjabi.

You have something very intrinsicly sensitive in you as a writer.

Dear Mittr

Good account....pind dee yadaan tazze hoo gyeea ney...

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Hi, all.

Ansari, Ras, Septran, temporal and Gomak

Thanks for the words of appreciation, I really cherish them. To the people, who have asked me to share more of these stories, I will try.

Nazarhayatkhan:

I am glad you liked it.

Life has its good points and stresses, wherever you live. The only thing is that when we see things from a distance they always look rosy. The people in village’s envy the life people have in cities, while the city folks want to spent time in the natural environment of the villages.

Since my family migrated from west Punjab, we lost our connection to the ancestral village. Growing up in school and college, I had friends who hailed from villages and often talked about going to their villages and the things that happened. I always envied them and wished we had a connection to the village. May be this is one reason I am so nostalgic about these stories.

Dost-miter ji,

Thanks for appreciation. You are right about disputes over land. The zimidars were very possessive of the land and would not part even an inch of it for any price.

As for as the time line it was at best a guess. You may have a better idea. However, I think there were substantial number of JCOs in the twenties in the British Indian army. Most of the Goras were officers. In fact, a large number of Indians had attained the ranks unto the major and there were a few colonels, here and there by the time the forties came round. If you read the first story, you will know that one of my dad`s cousins was a major before the Second World War.

Yes, my family hails from the Rawalpindi area. The village was about twenty miles to the south west of pindi.

Moulabux,

I have no first hand knowledge of how the land holdings were in the area where my family hails from, but I get the impression that although there were some large land holding, there were plenty of zamidars who owned their own land. From what I have read on the Chowk, Sindh is where waderas and such own most of the land.

Saminasha,

If you think it was good, than I must be doing some thing right. Thanks for the positive feed back.

A good write-up.

Reminded me of village life. Though, never had the chance to partake in such petty squabbles there, as thousands of acres were owned by a single family, thanks to the shrewd proxy ownership method. The laws of the land of the pure are easy to circumvent.

A good write-up.

Reminded me of village life. Though, never had the chance to partake in such petty squabbles there, as thousands of acres were owned by a single family, thanks to the shrewd proxy ownership method. The laws of the land of the pure are easy to circumvent.

Cheers.

Jagmohan:

keep churning out these yarns:)

...t

good story! well g`pa was smart! or ur pops wont have told ya the story ...

Very interesting. Also well written. More, please.

unbelieveble tolerance?intresting,recalled and tell some more

Interesting story with a taste of the past.

Ras

Thank you for sharing this.

Jagmohan:
You have nice memories. Please do share more of them with us. Feuds over lands were/are quite common all over India-Pakistan. Allahditta , Mollahbaksh and grandpa could even be cousins or brothers fighting over their divided lands. These petty quarrels sometimes turned nasty and led to intergeneration feuds and killings.
I think that the events probably took place during the late thirties or forties; there were very few Indian subedars or subedar-majors in the twenties and they came from the families where the Abba would not plough his own field.
BTW were your grandparents from Jhelum/Rawalpindi?