One of the Tragic Stories During the Partition of India
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Narrated by Om Prakash Juneja
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(He is Writer, Thinker, Social Activist, Former Professor of 'MS University of Baroda' and the Former President of 'NRI Parent Association,' Baroda. He is at  present president of' 'The  International \Council for Canadian Study)
Mr. Om Prakash Juneja was born in 1941 in a small village called Midh-Ranjha, associated with the legendary Heer-Ranjha tale of doomed love. Mr. Juneja recalls that his father, who managed a network of irrigation canals, read the newspaper daily and listened to the radio. He was the first to tell the family that trouble may be brewing but Mr. Juneja’s grandmother did not believe him. In July 1947 news arrived that an attack on their village was imminent, and the family decided to leave. Mr. Juneja’s father and one of his stepbrothers were to leave by air for Delhi to make living arrangements for the family. Mr. Juneja’s grandmother collected all the valuables and land papers and had them buried in a wall of the house, believing they were all coming back. The family boarded a local bus service and left for Sargodha city. As they looked back, their village was under attack and houses were in flames. The family spent the next two months in refugee camp in Sargodha. It rained, there were no toilets, and there was inadequate food and water. During this ordeal, Mr. Juneja’s mother gave birth to her youngest son. Mr. Juneja remembers constantly feeling thirsty. One day, a Captain Bakshi, who had made it a personal mission to save refugees caught in partition’s violence, arrived at the camp with five trucks and volunteer soldiers, against the advice of his British commander. Mr. Juneja and his family boarded the trucks. On the way to Amritsar, the trucks were constantly under attack and they had strict orders to never step outside. As conditions in the trucks were terrible, Mr. Juneja’s older brother, who was about eight years old, along with a couple of other boys jumped out to get water and were murdered. The family had to hastily bury the bodies and keep moving. After about a week, they reached the river Ravi across from India. However, with monsoon season in August, the river could not be crossed. They set up camp to wait for the waters to abate. During the next two weeks, Mr. Juneja saw numerous dead bodies float by. During this time, he was living in only his underclothes. Eventually the flood receded and they crossed into India. Mr. Juneja’s family found themselves in the refugee camps in Amritsar, Ambala, and eventually Gurgaon, near Delhi. Unbeknownst to the family, Mr. Juneja’s father and step uncle who had arrived several months earlier by air were in Delhi, penniless, and working as “coolies.” The family was reunited by an announcement over All India Radio. The men decided to buy a couple of small shops in Agra. After nearly two years of waiting for the government to allot them land, the refugees in Agra decided to take matters into their own hands and took over a nearby abandoned mansion with over 200 apartments. In one such apartment of about 300 square feet, Mr. Juneja lived with 20 family members for the next 10 years.

• Later Mr. Juneja was married, applied himself to his studies and eventually became a professor at Baroda University. 

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