Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • NPR

    For India's Oldest Citizens, Independence Day Spurs Memories Of A Painful Partition

    Seventy years later, memories of the 1947 Partition stir deep emotions and some soul-searching among the last generation of Indians to have witnessed it. Here are a few of their stories.
    by Julie McCarthy Aug 15, 2017 5 minutes
    107-year-old Mirza Naseem Changezi (left) sits with his son Khalid Changezi, 60, at their home in the Old City of New Delhi. Changezi is reputed to be the Old City's oldest resident and says there was never any question of leaving India for Pakistan. The Changezis trace their roots back 23 generations.

    Promila Saigal remembers the men in her family tossing her "like a football" from the rooftop of one family home to the next, in a bid to save her from the frenzy that washed over the Indian subcontinent 70 years ago.

    Saigal was just six when the events of India's Partition pressed in around her Hindu family's compound in Lahore.

    "I remember very clearly, outside the main road, a mob had collected at 12 o'clock in the night. And they woke us up," she says.

    In the nights that followed, she and other children were moved from one relative's home to the next. When they finally boarded a train for India, she recalls, "We would be scared because we were hearing stories that they were stopping trains and killing people."

    Her family safely slipped into India. But Saigal, now 76, remembers growing up "terrified of

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from NPR

    NPR3 min readAmerican Government
    A Michigan Grassroots Effort Is Raising Reparations, While The Government Lags
    The year 2020 was a turning point for Lansing, Michigan resident Willye Bryan. Between the racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and the health disparities that hit the African American community during the pandemic, she knew it was t
    NPR2 min readAmerican Government
    Majorie Taylor Greene Is Planning A Vote Next Week To Oust Speaker Johnson
    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., says she will follow through on her threat to hold a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson sometime next week, despite signs that her effort will fail.
    NPR2 min read
    Walmart Says It Will Close Its 51 Health Centers And Virtual Care Service
    The Arkansas-based company said that after managing the clinics it launched in 2019 and expanding its telehealth program, it concluded "there is not a sustainable business model for us to continue."

    Related