My parents borrowed rifle for protection, says Bal Krishna
Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, August 16
He was born with the nation on August 15, 1947 in Sialkot , Pakistan. “I was merely seven days old when we reached Jalandhar. Imagine, I was a part of the ‘kafila’ that moved here,” the 77-year-old Bal Krishna Shoor, a former handtool manufacturer, says.
Shoor remembers each detail that his parents shared with him when he was growing up in independent India.
His parents had borrowed a rifle from someone to protect themselves and an infant Shoor while they were on their way to find a shelter. “My parents saw people getting murdered as they held me tight. It must have been so tough for them,” said Shoor as he took long pause thinking about his parents.
His father then started life afresh in the city when he opened a handtool unit in 1948. Shoor says he joined his father’s business in 1970. Two years ago, he stopped manufacturing handtools and his son took over.
“One thing hasn’t changed all these years. Har cheez vich politics ohdo vi si, te politics hun vi hai (Whatever is happening around us is politics),” he said.
Shoor raised another concern about rising superstition among people which has made them ‘dependent’. “An independent mind without any superstition is very important,” he says signing off.
