Me: “Kahaan se hai aap?” [Where are you from?] I call out to the group of men working at the Dubai Creek. Their blue salwar kameezes had caught my eye and I was photographing them from across the road.
“Dera.”
Me: “Dera Ishmail Khan?”
“Nahin, Dera Ghazi Khan.” [No, Dera Ghazi Khan.]
Me: “Main bhi.” [Me too.]
For a while I am stunned. Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province, Pakistan, is where my ancestors are from. It is a medieval city, founded in 1530 by Ghazi Khan, a Balochi chieftain, and has its own dialect. From the 16th to 18th Centuries, it was part of Mughal empire’s Multan province. When British India was partitioned in 1947 as part of independence, my family came to the other side of the newly created border as refugees. I have never been able to cross the border back, even briefly, because of political differences between the two nations since then.
I had also never met anyone from my hometown outside my immediate family and Delhi’s refugee community—ever. There are not that many of us, namely, Dera Ghazi Khan Hindus. And here was a group from “back home,” laughing and chatting with me across a glistening tarmac road in Dubai. I wondered if they were distant relatives. Those eyes reminded me of my father’s.
For many years now, I have been travelling to Dubai and via Dubai. From a time it had not yet become a city of glass and steel, and life centred around the Deira instead. I have often been asked what do I like so much about the city. My answer is in the group of young men I met today. Dubai for me will always be the place where two arms of a warring family hug each other in camaraderie, away from the glare of politics back home. Here, their pasts and differences have been put to rest. 🙂
rama toshi arya's blog 
What a nice story Rama. Did you suspect it when you asked them? Is that why you asked? Maggie
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Hello Maggie. Nope, I had no idea at all. I like to talk to people when I am travelling and often ask random questions. Just so I can understand a place and its people better. I was totally taken by surprise. That’s why I decided to dedicate a whole post to it. 🙂
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Lovely story! X
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Thank you, Anna. Travel offers some pretty incredible stories. 🙂
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After reading personal accounts of those who were directly or indirectly affected by the partition, I got the impression that most regular people from both sides of the border actually long for amicable connections between the two. It’s just the governments that are keen to preserve the conflict for their own political agendas. This is a short heart-warming story, Rama!
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Very true, Bama. After all, who in their right minds wants to keep fighting! And also truth be told, and I am speaking for myself here, I have more in common with the folks on the other side in terms of language, food, and clothes, than I have with 95 percent of the Indian states. 🙂 Am glad you enjoyed the post.
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A lovely encounter – what you have in common and the things you share bringing people together – as different as you now are in many ways with them. Sadly all too often its what divides us that takes precedence and conflict ensues. Did you talk to them in your common dialect?
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No, I didn’t. I was too excited to meet someone from ‘back home’ that it slipped my mind. Not that I am very good at the dialect. I understand it, but do not speak it fluently. The dialect has, more or less, died out on the Indian side with my parents’ generation.
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I feel while the downtown area and beyond is what attracts a large number of people especially from this subcontinent to Dubai, the soul of the city is Deira. It was these and the surrounding areas that formed the trading hub. If someone has to explore the old areas in Dubai, which some of the explorers do, this is where one finds its essence. Good to know about your roots, Rama
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