So on the Sunday morning of June 3, 1984, Harvinder packed up 2-3 cooked vegetables including Karelas, Paneer, lots of fruits and Mattar Pulao in the Cooker itself and headed for Interstate Bus Terminal at Kashmire Gate in an auto stuffed with suitcases and many other eatables.
There was a bus connection at 9.30 am which would directly take us to my village Badbar from Delhi to Bathinda Route via Rohtak, Jind, Patran, by passing Sangrur and through Langowal. That was a newly created route by Haryana Roadways and took about 8 hrs to reach our village, the fastest so far. This bus made our life so much easier. On my return journey, my helpers would load the produce on the roof of Bus in Badbar, when in Delhi the conductor will unload my stuff, I would take an auto on the spot to reach home along with my stuff.
But today as we reached the Bus Terminal, we found the terminal half deserted as no bus was leaving for Punjab. Nobody knew why? There was definitely some serious activity there.
So after feeling helpless with cooked food with us, Harvinder decided to go to her Harjinder Mama Ji's house instead. He had similar age kids in Ritu, Shelly, and Monu who would be fantastic company for Shivi.
So we hired another auto to go to Mama Ji's appartment on Lawrence Road without letting them know. There were no cellphones or emails or text. The regular phone connectivity was pretty bad. It hardly fit into our mind to inform them ahead of time. What would happen if they were not available or were busy with other guests?
But we were lucky to find them all at home and pleased with our surprise arrival. Harjinder Mama Ji as jovial as he is and his equally friendly wife Sudarshan Mami Ji were overjoyed to welcome us with open arms. Shivi, Ritu and Shelly were overexcited as they got impromptu opportunity to have glorious and full of fun vacations. Monu being the youngest followed his older pears supportively.
We came to know later that Punjab was isolated from the rest of the country the Government of India owing to Operation Bluestar in Amritsar. No body including the Media was allowed to enter or leave Punjab. At this stage the reports on Government owned TV Doordarshan was only camflauging the news about the Operation Blue Star. However one of my friends working as a Colonel in the Indian Army told me desecretly that with effect from June 1st, the army and para military forces have been heavily deployed arround the golden and were having orders to challenge Bhindrawalle and decimate him. So rest is the history.
Today Shelly has grown too, married to handsome professional Vinod Juneja and has a young 7 years old son Yash. Shelly and her family is visiting her parrents and Monu who are also settled here in Bay Area. Today we are expecting her family to be with us for lunch.
How much world has changed in these 30 years?
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