Aanchal Malhotra QUOTES

1 " A transference of memory was occurring as she, the vessel, the source, wrung every small, muffled detail into me, the depository. And once it began, it was difficult to interrupt or stop "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

2 " I have grown up listening to my grandparents’ stories about ‘the other side’ of the border. But, as a child, this other side didn’t quite register as Pakistan, or not-India, but rather as some mythic land devoid of geographic borders, ethnicity and nationality. In fact, through their stories, I imagined it as a land with mango orchards, joint families, village settlements, endless lengths of ancestral fields extending into the horizon, and quaint local bazaars teeming with excitement on festive days. As a result, the history of my grandparents’ early lives in what became Pakistan essentially came across as a very idyllic, somewhat rural, version of happiness. "

― Aanchal Malhotra

3 " Memorialization is not a passive practice but an active conversation. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

4 " We should have realized it sooner, at least my father should have, that there was no coming back. Not in September when the riots died down, not in October when the subcontinent still lay in shock, not even in November as he had hoped and promised us. Lahore was now lost forever "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

5 " Partition memory is particularly pliable. Within it, the act of forgetting, either inevitably or purposefully, seems to play as much a part as remembering itself. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

6 " If I considered the Partition an archeological site, and the many experiences of those who witnessed it as the site’s structural sedimentation, then the deeper I excavated, the more I found, and that too in innumerable renditions. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

7 " Every time the train stopped at a station, we would all hold our breath, making sure not a single sound drifted out of the closed windows. We were hungry and our throats parched. From inside the train we heard voices travelling up and down the platform, saying, “Hindu paani,” and, from the other side, “Muslim paani.” Apart from land and population, even the water had now been divided "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

8 " Migration is often accompanied by a feeling of unavoidable disorientation, and the circumstances of 1947 would have pronounced this feeling. In most cases, it would have created an involuntary distance between where one was born before the Partition and where one moved to after it, stretching out their identity sparsely over the expanse of this distance. As a result, somewhere in between the original city of their birth and the adopted city of residence, would lay their essence – strangely malleable. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

9 " The notion that where one is from can be understood using what remains of that place opens up a highly sensitive and rich terrain that can help unpack belonging, especially if that place has now been rendered inaccessible by national borders. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

10 " Memory dilutes, but the object remains unaltered. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

11 " even trees bear allegiance to their soil, you see. Just like people,’ she told me wisely. ‘It is difficult to uproot them and place them where they don’t belong. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

12 " We all know how unreliable memory can be, how transient reminiscences are, and how inaccessible the past will always remain. Experiences can never be duplicated or revived...by those who took no part in the struggle. Herein lies the beauty and power of conflict-related objects, some of which withstand the ravages of time in a way that memories do not. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

13 " But this silence, though they attempt to conceal it, is at times accompanied by unexpected, intangible mementos married to the memories of Partition. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory

14 " The memory buried within 'things' sometimes is greater than what we are able to recollect as the years pass. "

― Aanchal Malhotra , Remnants of a Separation: A History of the Partition through Material Memory