My older six siblings were all born in British India and in different ways recipients of the pain of the partition.

SeemaThakkar, my seventh sibling is my parents’ first independent India child and has all the character traits of a first born.

Fiercely independent and accustomed to having her way, she was super popular in school, college and later life.
Her marriage with IIT engineer #PradipThakkar is a fairy tale of sorts.
The proposal was recommended by common relatives and the outcome was positive in the very first meeting.
Seema’s marital home was not far from our home, which was a boon because we got to see her often.
Daughter #Piya or #Chiki as we call her, arrived two years later and seven years later arrived son #Aditya.
Today, Pradip is no more with us but his presence lingers in Aditya ‘s two children, #Aanya and #Vihaan.

Prafulla or Bala as the family called her didn’t have to go seeking love because love came
seeking her.
My brother-in-law Jayant Barai, also a chemical engineer and an extremely good looking
man, was introduced to my sixth and the last of the British India siblings, via a common
friend.

Gitaben suggested that since both heralded from the same community, Lohanas, it was a
proposal worth exploring but like all good matches made in heaven, there were
complications.
Jayantbhai belonged to an affluent family settled in South Bombay and took a while to
convince his family of his choice but all’s well that ended well and soon Bala was part of the
Barai family.
In the coming years came Manish and then Rima and some decades later arrived Manish-
Mamta’s daughter Parisa.
To be continued…

.#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog —————-

 To be continued

  SCRajani & Family

In the sixties if a girl was not married by the age of 25 it was a cause of alarm for the parents
and a topic of discussion for the extended relatives.
That she was educated, empowered and economically independent did not spare her from
constant barbs on her single status.

My parents were determined to find an educated groom for their special child and there was
no deserving candidate in sight.

And then suddenly, Chandu Rajani, an electronic engineer settled in Germany arrived in India
with the sole purpose of getting married.
Common contacts of their and our families arranged a meeting between the candidates and
the celestial stars collided, so a wedding was formalized in three days.
My parents’ nest was slowly and gradually getting empty …
They had to still recover from Jiji shifting to Ahmedabad permanently and now they were
preparing for Sarla to sail across the shores.
It was not easy both for my parents and for Sarla but she courageously survived the extreme
climate, the shift in culture, mastered a new language and adapted to a new lifestyle.
Months rolled into years and when the children arrived, first Sona and then Ritesh, life turned
around for both the parents.
Decades went by and soon Sona found love with Pete and Ritesh is still waiting for his
soulmate.

#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog —————-

To be continued

PLThakkar & Family

Jiji was the brightest, the prettiest and the most compassionate of all the children. She was always sensitive to the hardships of the family and when my father chose advocate Lakhamsi Thakkar for her, she submitted to the decision without opposition. She was the first in her group of friends to be engaged, the first in our family to settle outside Bombay and the first to live in a nuclear family because Lakhamsi was ostracized by his side of the family.

It was not easy to live away from the maiden family, to be all alone at home when my brother-in-law left for the court but gradually Jiji got used to it and Ahmedabad became a home after two deliveries, Aseem and Preeta.

In time to come Aseem married a lawyer Bindu and Preeta married a cardiologist, Milan Chag and both have two daughters each Niralee, Manini, Aenasha and Tanisha.

Niralee is the family’s first great granddaughter and her two sons Valiben and Madhavji Somaya’s great, great grandsons.

#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog —————-

To be continued

Raj Somaya & Family

Sibling number three #Mahendra or #Rajabhai as the family called him left home at a very young age to chase his dreams.

When it was time to settle down, he relied on our parents to find him the right partner in India.
The family priest brought us many proposals and my parents chose #RamaLakhani for #Rajabhai.
The celestial stars did not synchronise and so #Rajabhai left India and returned to his job.
For a year or more the marriage plan was on hold. When #Rajabhai returned home again, the priest brought the same proposal and this time, destiny smiled and the prospective bride and the groom said, “Yes”.

Rajabhai’s daughters #Priti and #Shilpi were born and grew up in #Toronto.

When it was time for marriage for them, like their parents they preferred an arranged match.
So, it was #VikasDesai, a dentist from Toronto for #DrPriti and #AnandGowda, an investment banker for the younger #Author Shilpi. Years later, Priti and Vikas had two boys #Bhram and Nikhil and Shilpi and Anand had two girls, #Mira and #Bela.
Cheers to 2 turned 8 and counting family tree.

#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog —————-

To be continued

CR Manek & Family

So Motiben is younger than Baubhai but in the olden days girls were preferably married off before their older brothers. There is no specific explanation for this age-old tradition but I suspect it was more to avoid conflict and to create space for a new couple. Motiben married her best friend’s brother but it was an arranged match by the families. In the coming years Motiben had two children son Harshad and daughter Rupa and in decades to follow, Harshad had a daughter Giya, a rather compact family tree.

#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog —————-

To be continued

DMSomaya & Family

My mother was 18 when she got married and 20 when she became a mother. Bablo/ Baubhai/ Dalsukh was the first born of the Somaya family. My mother says he was always an obedient child but hyper active and difficult to hold back.

He needed to be occupied all the time and it was a task for my parents to keep him engaged. He mellowed down considerably once he started attending school and was his own person when he started working.

Baubhai got married in 1954 and is the only Somaya sibling to have four children- Jeevan, Rekha, Atul and Jogi and together the DM Somaya family has expanded to eight, have a look….

#FarewellKarachi can be ordered on https://amzn.in/d/e0qlfop and  for more stories visit my blog

—————-

To be continued

The more I thought of writing the book, the more overwhelmed I became. My parents have a
rich legacy, both came from extremely large families and together, they created another large
family.
While I was acquainted with the immediate family tree and also the extended relatives on
both sides of my parents there were too many layers and the sub plots were shrouded in
mystery. 
There were too many characters, locations, vocations and too many
jigsaw puzzle pieces missing before I could embark on my creative journey.
And then my sibling number five Sarla, a long-time resident of Berlin, Germany died!  
Within a year, Sarla’s husband, my brother-in-law, expired too and the responsibility of
folding up the house and all belongings fell on my young nephew Rityesh Rajani.
That is the time Ritesh discovered handwritten exercise sheets beneath his mother’s mattress.
I had asked Sarla to write descriptions of our Karachi and Bhuj home and she had promised
to share the same when she was ready.
My nephew remembered our conversations and on his next trip to India carried these precious
sheets for me. 
I wept reading those passages and that was the beginning of Farewell Karachi for me.