A Husband’s Independence Day Letter
I found this letter written by my grandather to my grandmother on the eve of India’s Independence in 1947. It was posted from Muzaffarnagar to Deoband.
Morkha, Taqsim, Aziz – Dates, Division, and Dearness found in A Family Archive
This is my great-grandfather’s journal. He wrote in it over six decades, from the 1920s to the 1970s, and the book reflects that history. He wrote these entries “for remembrance, a brief description of how we live our lives”.
From the Musi River to the Bay of Bengal: the lasting ink of a wedding invitation card
There is a ruqqa, a wedding card tucked into the folds of a family album. It announces the union of my maternal grandparents – Ahmed Uddin and Rafi Unissa Begum, better known in our family as Pasha and Nafees, and dates back to February 12, 1961
My grandfather’s letter from 1949: A 76 year old piece of history
The postcard is about 5.5″ x 3.5″ in dimensions. There’s a round black seal beside the stamp which reads “26 Mar 49 , 8 AM , Comilla”. That means it was posted at 08:00 am, 26th March, 1949, from the post office in Comilla.
The ink of memory: My grandfather’s journal entries
This is an excerpt from a journal entry written by my paternal grandfather, Tilak Raj Malhotra. The entries span from December 1949 to December 1982. Reading these feels like an intrusion to me, given their deeply personal nature and my lack of explicit permission. Yet, years ago, I resolved to document them on this Archive