“Get up and look at your Punjab in pain,
Someone has poisoned the five rivers”
-Aaj akhan Waris Shah nu
Amrita Pritam
Malavika Rajkotia’s ‘Unpartitioned Time’ is a compelling exploration of her family’s history and lineage. She introduces the nuances of Punjabi life and how her family continues as they deal with a fractured identity after one of India’s deadliest carnage- the partition. Through masterful storytelling, greatly helped by the inclusion of Punjabi dialogues, Rajkotia offers readers an intimate glimpse into Sikh life as she seamlessly integrates regional Punjabi prayers and Persian poetry, allowing readers to understand the profound impact of partition on her family and community.
Rajkotia pays tribute to her father, lovingly called Jindoo, who moved from Pakistan to India and had to start his life all over, as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. He spends his twilight years reclining on his sofa, accomplishing little, a Bartleby-esque sort of protest against the forces that uprooted him from his motherland. Through Jindoo's experiences, Rajkotia offers readers a profound understanding of the collective trauma and resilience of an entire generation.
Rajkotia details the lives of three generations – life in Karnal during her grandparents’ time and her parent’s childhood, their fleeing from Karnal by train, and how she and her sister dealt with their parents and their unresolved traumas. How as a parent the process of passing down culture became an issue of give and take, and her children would lack the experiences of living as Sikhs in their hometown, Malavika seeks to rectify that through this book.
She also mentions the Sikh riots after Indira Gandhi’s death, written with a chilling effect in this memoir, Malavika mentions how friends turned against her by clubbing her with Sikh extremists and asking her father to cut his hair and beard to avoid being suspected, and lastly, the large scale migration of Sikhs abroad on account of the constant fear of social exclusion, harassment and risk of a painful death.
In just a few pages, Rajkotia brings alive the horrors and genocides which are now a blurring memory in the contemporary context. The author's meticulous attention to detail brings the characters to life, allowing readers to share in their joys, sorrows, and triumphs. By the end, we feel as though we have become integral members of the Rajkotia family, deeply connected to their history and heritage.
