65 years on, an unimagined homecoming for Noorma

KARACHI:

Eighty-year-old Noorma, a Malaysian by birth, reached Kuala Lumpur airport with her son Zahoor Khan on Sunday morning, where her family members were eagerly waiting to receive them. 

This was no ordinary homecoming. Noorma waited for this day for 65 years, after spending most of her life, unwillingly, in Karachi and Torghar (a newly created district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), where she came with her husband a year before Partition. Talking to The Express Tribune via telephone, her son Zahoor Khan said that his mother was very happy when she reached Kuala Lumpur. “I can’t understand their language but my mother can communicate with them to some extent,” said Khan.

Norazah Sahud who went to receive them at the airport told The Express Tribune that her aunty Noorma and cousin are staying at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur and a residence will be made available next month. “I will try my best to get him (Zahoor) a job so that he can send money to his family and pay his debts.”

Before she left Pakistan, The Express Tribune met with Noorma who sat on her wrought-iron bed, clutching the envelope containing the air tickets and other travel documents. She was surrounded by her grandchildren in her home in the Pirabad neighbourhood of Karachi’s Orangi Town.

Filled with child-like glee, she displayed the tickets in her hand and showed the new clothes she bought in Banaras specifically for her family reunion. “At first, I did not believe that my family has been found and that I’ll actually be able to see them in my lifetime,” she said.



Noorma’s heartbreaking story spans a lifetime and goes back more than six decades. She was forced to travel to Pakistan a year before Partition as a young bride of 13. At an uncle’s instruction, she married Asghar, a young Pashtun from Torghar, who tore up her documents once the couple set foot on his native land.

It did not take her long to realise that her husband’s earlier promise that they would return to Malaysia in a few months was nothing but a cheap lie. She spent 42 years of her life in Torghar collecting wood and grass from the mountains and patiently bearing trial after trial – of her six children, only one survived; she was a guest at her own husband’s second wedding, and she was never at the receiving end of any affection from Asghar. Finally, after Asghar’s death, she moved to Karachi with her only son, Zahoor Khan, in 1988. Unfortunately, Karachi, with all its chaos and violence and disorder, was also been unable to give Noorma the peace that she deserves.

Then, on June 11, something wonderful happened that proved just how unpredictable life can be. The Express Tribune published an article about Noorma with her photograph, setting into motion an entire chain of events that would ultimately grant Noorma her most ardent wish. In a surprising twist, a vernacular newspaper in Malaysia, Harian Metro, picked up the article. Out of nowhere, Noraini Sahud and Norazah Sahud contacted The Express Tribune after reading her story.  The two sisters had also been searching for their maternal aunt who had traveled to Pakistan six odd decades ago and the resemblance between Noorma and their deceased mother was striking. After an exchange of photographs and telephone calls, Noraini and Norazah became certain that Noorma is their aunt.

Zahoor said he gladly borrowed more money to arrange the tickets and passports because he was desperate to honour his mother’s last wish.

Noorma seemed content and hopeful for the first time in years. “I will never come back and will call my grandchildren to come after me when we reach there. I didn’t get anything here except miseries and pain. That country (Malaysia) is prosperous, there is no fear of being killed,” she tells me.

Conversations between nieces and aunt revealed that Noorma’s parents and siblings have all passed away. Some members of the family still live in Kampung Sungai Tua Baharu, Batu Caves, Selangor, where Noorma’s story has been told countless times.

Her parents, sisters and brothers were not at the airport to greet her on Sunday, but Noorma’s family members were there.

And what will she do after settling down in Malaysia? “Nothing,” she says, smiling. “I will do nothing but narrate the story of my life to my family. I have done enough work.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2012.