Writer Mod Date & Time PARTITION: Tape 19 255MODEM 255MODEM Oct 29 13:17 TAPE 19 KULDIP NAYAR interviewed at his home in Delhi, 29/10/96 [for biographical note and earlier interview, see tape 16; for later interview see tape ] Side A Q: SIALKOT - DO YOU REMEMBER IT WITH NOSTALGIA? Yes, cos after all I spent my 22 years of life there. I was in Lahore and S. LI studied, but S which I recall is there used to be in our property a grave of a pir ... and all of us ... and every Thurs we wd go and offer gulab jamun, jalebi ... and my mother, whenver she was v morose or lonely, she wd go there for solace, so it was part of our family. And I recall when i went back to S in 1972 after 25 yrs, my mother instructed me, you must go and visit this pir khabbar ... and put a white sheet on it, which I did. (35) TELL ME WHAT YOUR ADDRESS WAS IN S AND WHAT TYPE OF HOUSE IT WAS We changed lots of houses, but the house where we lived in when partition took place was our own flat o/looking a road, that was called Trunk Bazaar. And my fathe who was a doctor, his shop was there also. ... (45) WERE YOU FOND OF THE FLAT? Well, the flat was alright. But we used to have a v big house. ... But when I went back, I did see the house from outside, I did not go in ... in fact the building still has 'Nayar Building' written there, cos the whole building was ours. ... (65) BEFORE 47, WHAT WERE COMMUNITY RELATIONS LIKE IN SIALKOT? Well, it was 90% Ms and 10% Hs. It was a v well knit city in the sense that we used to celebrate together Eid, Diwali, Ms and Hs ... I had all my friends were Ms, so it was a v close kind of community. And even after part'n it rem'd so cos there was no killing there. There was communal riots in L or R'pindi, but nothing there. ... When we left we just left. (78) ARE THERE ANY OF YR OLD SCHOOL FRIENDS IN S WHO MIGHT REMEMBER YOU? Yes, I think if you go to Cantonment ... there was a kind of store ... Ghulam Qaddar (?) ... one of his sons went to school with me, used to play very good hockey. He may be living. I don't know. He got in touch. I have a friend in L who used to be with me in S and I do whenever I go to L visit him, but that's all. (94) HOW DO YOU FELL ABOUT BEING WRENCHED AWAY, ALMOST LITERALLY WRENCHED AWAY, FROM YOU HOME TOWN?