Amritsar

Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

Ed. Note: This is closely linked to the author's My brother: handsome, witty, generous, tragic

I woke up and looked at the once familiar playgrounds that lay before my ancestral home in Amritsar. These grounds separated the street for a long stretch from densely situated houses around the Durgiana Temple. Instead of following the circular road around the main grounds, most people cut diagonally across to reach our street. I was nostalgic about the long past childhood, and my dead parents.

A lot of the trees around cricket grounds had been cut down as also the trees just outside the house. I had climbed many of them in my childhood.  From the open roof of the second floor, I saw a group of women in the distance. The four of them appeared to be involved in an animated conversation. They seemed to be laughing at some shared intimacy. They were wearing the white cotton saris, which were right for the late summer season.

Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

There was something quite intriguing about the two widows who lived on our street in Amritsar. No one symbolized it better than Channo's maan (mother). She was the mother of a girl, Channo, and four boys. I have little remembrance of Channo. In my childhood the ‘boys' were actually grown up men. I have dim recollection of them in 1947 when my father patronized a retinue of toughs to guard our house from attacks by marauding Muslims.

Born in 1941, Vinod was brought up and educated in Amritsar. He attended Government Medical College, and subsequently trained as a surgeon at PGI, Chandigarh. He left for USA in 1969, and retired in 2003 as Director of Critical Care Services at a teaching hospital in Michigan. Married with two grown sons, he continues to visit India at least once a year.

That was my mother! Named Sumitra by her parents, her name was changed to Jagat Kumari after her marriage. The custom was not uncommon in India. It is supposed to indicate that the married woman starts a new life after marriage. I still get confused when credit card companies want me to give my mother's maiden name. I waver between her real 'maiden' name and the one she used officially after her marriage.

I have been reluctant to write about her. For years I have thought that in life, she was not appreciated. My conviction has only strengthened as I have grown older. And I have felt guilty about falling in the trap of adolescent perceptions and callousness in thinking of her as inconsequential.

She was the youngest of the four sisters. She also had three brothers who were older than her. She had one brother, Hari mama (uncle), younger than her and the one she seemed to love more than others. Their bond was due to their being younger than all the older siblings.

Renu Jalota, born in 1942 in Lahore, grew up in Tatanagar and Benares with two brothers and three sisters. Father was a Professor of Psychology.
At age 16, I trained in 80-meter hurdles. Came second in national semi-finals by split second, and narrowly missed representing India in the Asian Olympics. I got my MBBS in 1964 from Government Medical College Amritsar, and then my M.D in Pathology in 1968 from the Post Graduate Institute, Chandigarh. In 1969, I joined the University of Utah as a resident in Pathology. After some job changes, in 1982, I moved to Denver as a family physician. I retired in 2007 to pursue my hobbies, but ran into medical problems.
I am an avid mountain climber and have climbed up to 22,500 ft. without oxygen. I have trekked in both Indian and Nepalese Himalaya. Have also done glacier travel in New Zealand and Tasmania. Never married, I have remained independent and active in social and political circles. I visit India often.

When Banaras Hindu University announced the results of I.Sc. (Intermediate science) in June 1959, I was placed in the first division (more than 60 % marks), in premedical subjects. So the next step was to get admission in to a medical college. Mom's best friend suggested to her to try the medical college in Amritsar, as it was established by the faculty of the Lahore Medical College (before India's Partition). Students were selected on merit basis, and minimum age was 17.

Dr. Prabodh K Gupta attended Government Medical College Amritsar, and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, with additional training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He specialized in Cytopathology. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania, from where retired in 2016. He is recognized internationally as a gifted clinician, educator and investigator. He has received numerous awards, including the highest awards by the American Society of Cytopathology (The George Papanicollou Award) and the International Academy of Cytology (Maurice Goldblatt Gold Medal).

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the author's book My India My America: Success Yatra available on Amazon.

Satish Chopra was born 1942 in Lahore, and his family moved to Delhi in 1947. After his M.A. from Delhi University, he became a banker, and retired from the Central Bank of India in 2001. He has a passion for learning, history, literature, and nostalgic film and light classical music. His book Forgotten Masters of Hindi Cinema was well-received in India and Pakistan.  In 2016, he got a National Film Award from the President of India. He is now working on his autobiography. His email is satishchopra@rediffmail.com.

The rooftop of our house situated at the right side entrance of Rasala Bazaar, Purani Anarkali, Lahore, was from where I saw fire all around the city in August 1947. The fire, which started from Shah Almi Gate, is one of my earliest memories. The Anarkali police station was situated at about two hundred metres from our house, and from our rooftop we could see its entire courtyard. At times, wailings of the detainees could be heard clearly in our home.

My family home in Lahore. at the right side entrance of Rasala Bazar, Purani Anarkali, Lahore. Picture was obtained in 1989 through a common acquaintance. Its authenticity was confirmed by my father, who expired in 1996.