Gazing at Neighbours Quotes

“When I walked out of the temple to reclaim my leather chappals, I found they had been polished. I couldn’t help but marvel at Sikhism: the most practical, pragmatic, and progressive of religions, built on selfless service and sacrifice. And yet, being a Sikh has never been easy.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India

“for five long years from the time of Partition, Indians and Pakistanis could freely walk into each other’s countries—something so difficult to believe today. When I mentioned this to Damanbir, he said: ‘The atmosphere was pretty relaxed even after 1952. Things really changed only after the 1965 war. Until then army officers from Pakistan would cycle across the border to watch Hindi films.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India

“Report by the Railway Board on Indian Railways for 1938-39. It contained, among other things, photographs to show how efficient Indian Railways was. A set of two pictures, reproduced side by side, caught my eye: both pictures were of the Lucknow railway station—one showed the Mohammedan Refreshment Room and the other, the Hindu Refreshment Room. Patrons in both the refreshment rooms could be seen dining happily, served by liveried waiters.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India

“Seven decades on, the subject of Partition is like a well that was once filled with blood. The blood has long dried up, but the well remains, like a gaping hole on the chest of the Indian subcontinent. Those who used to stop by it and kneel against its wall to shed a tear or two have passed on. Their children and grandchildren have moved on: the well no longer falls in their path.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India

“Pakistanis had destroyed the memorial and walked away with the busts of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. It, of course, hadn’t mattered to them that Bhagat Singh was born in Pakistan—in Lyallpur, or Faisalabad—and that he had fought against the British as a citizen of undivided India. For them, an Indian icon was an enemy of Pakistan.”
― Bishwanath Ghosh, Gazing at Neighbours: Travels Along the Line That Partitioned India