Writer Mod Date & Time PARTITION: Tape 29 255MODEM 255MODEM Jan 12 12:28 TAPE 29 Krishna Baldev VAID, writer - interviewed at his home in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, on 12 Jan 1997 - was in a small town in w Punjab in the summer of 1947, hid thro bitter riots there, and then went to a refugee camp and on a refugee train to Amritsar and then Jallandar; his novel 'The Broken Mirror' is largely autobiographical, esp the depiction of charcaters and of the riot (however the well incident, the train journey and the peace rally - tho not the existence of a peace cttee - are all imaginary) - lived for many years in the US where he taught English at university level; wrote 'The Broken Mirror' there - took him many years after partition to set those events down; returned to India in the early 1980s - blurb to books says born in 1927 [brother interviewed -- tape] Side A 13 - born where 'Broken Mirror' and 'Steps in Darkness' based, where father was working as a 'petty' clerk in the revenue dept, Dinga in district Gujarat (tho not natives of dtown); family from village of Dehra Bakshian ? in 'pindi district 29 - D.B. and surr villages affected [by partition] much earlier, ? 46, and family there driven out [village mentioned in both novels]; 'it was a v neat vill, in my memory at least ... cobbled streets' 51 - most of boyhood spent in Gujarat dist; born in Dinga, then family shifted to smaller town of Mongawal ?, high school in Dinga, then college fprst in 'pindi then Lahore 65 - [in Dinga], v ambivalent rel'ship between Hs and Ms; 'in some ways, it wasn't divided at all, for instance my next door neighbour, both in the novel and in real life. ... was a M a family, and the smell of their cooking used to enter our house ... and I used to sneak food out of them ... on the one hand there was segregation as far as eating ... you know, I'll do bus with y9ou but I won't eat with you ... it was one sided segregation from the H side ... on the other hand there was a lot of intermingling and a lot of f'ship' 89 - well incident in novel imagination, 'but I know there were women in that town who wd go and take a bath if they accidentally touched against a M when they were walking in the lane ... ' 100 - 'on the one hand there was this good neigh during eaceful times, on the other there was this u/current of resentment on the part of the Ms, v correct resentment in my childish imagination ... and I was always breaking those barriers in my own little way ... disobeying yr parents and eating with a M, esting in their house ... on the one hand there was his, on the other there was affection also' 124 > 'Broken Mirror' as partition novel - powerful H family