During the fateful times of partition of India my parents, Mr. Afzaal H. Siddiqui and Mrs. Ghausia Abbasi, were in Delhi living at my Nana’s place, who was the principal of Tibbiya College, Delhi. The country was facing a very serious law and order situation, and everybody was on his own. Muslims were to move to territorial boundaries of Pakistan, and we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Shooting, looting and arson was the daily routine. The sounds of this disturbance were frightening and very disturbing to everyone in the house.

My mother was in labour, and the situation, due to what was happening outside, was not very encouraging. The childbirth therefore was being managed by members of the family without professional

support. I was also not in a hurry to see the real world, and the birth was pretty much delayed. I was born in the early hours of the morning. Both my mother and I were healthy, and therefore all attending the childbirth took a sigh of relief and as all were very tired went off to sleep. In the meantime, when everyone was settled, someone hurled a firebomb in the house, and a fire started. As my mother was still in pains and had not gone off to sleep, she tried to shout and wake up other members of the family to extinguish the fire, which was fast spreading. Unfortunately, everyone was very tired, and no one responded. It was getting bad, and the Almighty took over the situation and rain started pouring down, which extinguished the fire. It was September 19, 1947.

In late 1949, we moved out of India and reached Lahore, which was our first stop in the Land of Pure. My father could not get a job in Lahore, so we moved to Sukkar, where he was posted in PWD. We got a house, 64-C in Barrage colony, which was just a one-bedroom house. My sister and elder brother were left in Lahore to continue their studies, as they both were in senior classes. 64-C was just about good enough for a small family. Considering our education and other expenses, we were a shade short, and it was difficult to make ends meet. It is therefore that my mother established a small shop in the house to cater for the basic needs of the neighbourhood, which would earn us an additional require funds.

We moved back to Lahore in 1960.