Revisited - India at 75: A special "Partition Story" with Shukla Lal, author of Rano and Phulo

Summary

True Fiction Project – Episode Summary

Podcast: True Fiction Project
Host: Reenita Hora
Episode: Revisited - India at 75: A Special "Partition Story" with Shukla Lal, Author of Rano and Phulo
Guest: Shukla Lal, Delhi-based author
Date: August 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this special episode commemorating 75 years of Indian independence, host Reenita Hora sits down with author Shukla Lal to discuss her personal experiences of Partition, the inspiration behind her novel Rano and Phulo, and the evolution of the Indian identity post-Partition. The episode begins with a deeply personal oral history and shifts into literary discussion, reflecting the True Fiction Project’s signature blend of real-life stories and their fictional echoes. The latter half features a dramatic reading from Lal’s book by her daughter, Sonia Kohlar, providing listeners with an immersive taste of fiction rooted in history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shukla Lal’s Family Story and the Partition Journey

• Introduction and Background

  • Shukla clarifies her origins: “By the way, I come from Lahore.” (02:45)
  • She describes her family’s presence in Lahore before Partition and the unexpected dimension of their escape.

• The Escape to Shimla

  • The family initially left Lahore for a holiday in Shimla because Lal’s mother was expecting (06:15).
  • Lal’s aunt urged them to leave, foreseeing violence as refugees streamed in and the city became unstable (06:15).
  • “No one believed that they will not go back to their homes... Everyone thought that they would go back. They never thought there would be this kind of a division.” – Shukla Lal (05:13)

• Father’s Ordeal Returning to Shimla

  • Shukla’s father, separated from the family, faced grave dangers trying to reunite, escaping a near-deadly attack and stowing away under a tarpaulin in a Maharani's military caravan:
    • “The Maharani… used to whip in case there’s a stowaway. And my father has borne those pain of the whip on his back.” (08:13, 00:30 repeated story in more detail)
    • His ordeal included crossing a pontoon bridge and narrowly evading a pursuing mob.

2. Inspiration for Rano and Phulo

• The Book’s Genesis

  • Inspired by the 70th anniversary of independence, Lal began writing at age 80, motivated by a flood of memories and generational transitions:
    “I suddenly had this feeling… I should write of the India in which we were brought up after partition… the transition taking place.” (03:06)
  • Rano and Phulo features two heroines: Rano, from a wealthy Amritsar family, and Phulo, a rural villager—representing both urban and rural Punjab (03:06).

• Reflections on Memory and Fiction

  • While not directly inserting her personal escape into fiction, Shukla incorporated everyday scenes and memories, such as tonga rides through agricultural Lahore and the communal lifestyle of Punjabis, into the descriptions and mood of her novel (12:28).
  • “Those pictures that I have, I have put them into the book… the book opens with the sound of the bulls pulling the water…” (12:28)

3. India: Then and Now

• Capturing a Vanished India

  • Lal’s intent was to “freeze” the India of her childhood—a time when, despite religious lines drawn by Partition, there was a sense of integration and national unity:
    “The India that came with Gandhiji as the guru… their whole aim was amity… not based on religion.” (15:20)

• Women and Nation-Building

  • Shukla highlights the extraordinary resilience and entrepreneurship of women post-Partition:
    “With Gandhiji’s supporting mission, the way the women came out… there was a national feeling. There was not a Hindu Muslim feeling. There was just one India.” (15:20)

• Shifts in National Identity

  • Reflects on India’s post-Partition global standing, referencing the Panchsheel (peaceful coexistence) principle and how India became internationally recognized:
    “India became a globally recognized nation and a self-respecting nation. Though poor, but not as poor as it was soon after partition...” (19:42)

• India’s Future

  • Candidly considers the cyclical nature of history and shifting ideals:
    • “History tells you that… whatever has risen as a golden power… has had a downfall... We are at the cusp of a transition of a very different kind.” (21:52)
    • “The ideal India… today we have a different kind of a team who's making a different idea. So let us see where we are going.” (21:52)

4. On Writing and Literary Legacy

• Debut at 80 and Beyond

  • Shukla describes becoming a debut author at 80, publishing Rano and Phulo, Floating Logs, and volumes of poetry and short stories:
    • “I wrote two books. One was Rano Pullo and the other was Floating Logs… then I wrote about a book on Nazams Hindustani.” (23:58)

• Availability

  • Her books are available on Amazon and Kindle, usually under “Author at 80” or published by Notional Press (23:33).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Refugee Camps and Optimism:
  “We were never made to feel as refugees. It was such a taken for granted thing. We are Indians, finished.” – Shukla Lal (15:20)

• On Women’s Strength:
  “The way the women came out, the entrepreneurship that the women did… they were actually business women.” – Shukla Lal (15:20)

• On Partition’s Psychic Wounds:
  “My father has borne those pain of the whip on his back… though the tarpaulin was on him, oh my gosh, he couldn't catch my father, could not even make a sound.” – Shukla Lal (08:13)

• On Historical Perspective:
  “Today we have a different kind of a team who’s making a different kind of an idea. So let us see where we are going…” – Shukla Lal (21:52)

• Inspiration at 80:
  “It is on Amazon and on Kindle and it is under the heading of author at 80. Because I was a debutant.” – Shukla Lal (23:33)

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Fiction Segment: Reading from Rano and Phulo

(Read by Sonia Kohlar, starting at 25:57)

• Excerpt Summary:
  • The passage details the terror and horror in Dera Ambavali as Partition violence erupts in July 1947. Families, once neighbors, are torn asunder by communal mistrust and violence.
  • Particularly chilling is the episode where, facing an unstoppable mob and no escape, men tragically decide to kill their own women to spare them from assault—a grim, but historically documented facet of Partition atrocities.
    • “The only solution is to kill all of them with our own swords. Then we fight the attackers and die fighting… Their lack of time was the saviour for the family. It left no margin for emotions.” (25:57–33:18)
    • “Dadi and Fufiji led by jumping into the well… Each man beheaded his own wife, one after another…”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Opening and Partition Family Story: 00:30 – 08:13
• On Inspiration for Writing and Book Setting: 03:06 – 05:13
• Personal Escape/Partition Ordeal in Detail: 06:13 – 12:13
• Discussion on Memory and Fictionalization: 12:13 – 15:20
• India’s Changing Identity and Role of Women: 15:20 – 19:42
• India’s International Recognition and Future: 19:42 – 21:52
• Book Availability and Shukla’s Writing Journey: 23:33 – 23:58
• Fiction Reading by Sonia Kohlar: 25:57 – 33:18

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Tone and Style

• The conversation is candid, nostalgic, and at times harrowing, capturing both the pain and resilience of Partition survivors.
• Lal speaks with warmth, pride, and a historian’s precision, offering listeners not just stories, but living memory.
• The fiction excerpt is haunting, immersive, and true to the historical record, highlighting the immense human cost of Partition.

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For further reading and links to Shukla Lal’s books, check the show notes as directed by host Reenita Hora (24:51).

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is the story of the Watt. As a maintenance engineer, he hears things differently. To the untrained ear, everything on his shop floor might sound fine, but he can hear gears grinding or a belt slipping. So he steps in to fix the problem at hand before it gets out of hand. And he knows Grainger's got the right product. He needs to get the job done, which is music to his ears. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[Shukla Lal]

Rest of my article is explaining how my father made his journey from Amritsar to Shimla. So he got onto a caravan of a Rani and who had a military escort. So the guard of one of the trucks. He took pity on my father when he came to know that his wife is expecting and the family is in Shimla and he's here. So he tucked him into the back of the truck with the tarpaulin on him where the luggage was, so he just about had enough place to crouch. Now, the Maharani, she used to at certain intervals, ride on. She had a horse and a whip. And on that, on the trucks, she used to whip in case there's a stowaway. And my father has borne those pain of the whip on his back.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Welcome to the True Fiction Project, a podcast series that explores the origins of fiction. Every week we begin with an interview nonfiction followed by a creative piece, fiction inspired by something from the interview. The idea is to demonstrate, of course, that fiction is born out of our life experiences. Now here's your host, storyteller, author, public speaker, health and wellness expert, Renita Hora.

[Renita Hora]

Welcome back to the True Fiction Project. I am your host, Rinita Ahora. Today we have a very special show because we are celebrating 75 years of independent India. India's independence is on August 15. And I have with me today as a guest, Shukla Lal, who is based in New Delhi. She is a writer and she has some amazing stories to share about her own journey in Punjab. The part of Punjab which is now in Pakistan to India. So without further ado, let's welcome Shuklal. Welcome to the True Fiction Project. It's so great to have you on the show.

[Shukla Lal]

Thank you so much for inviting me. And by the way, I come from Lahore. Lahore.

[Renita Hora]

I see.

[Shukla Lal]

We lived in Lahore.

[Renita Hora]

Okay, so tell us the name of your book and what inspired you to write this.

[Shukla Lal]

Well, the name of my book is Rano and Pulo. Now this is about two girls. So Ranu is from the rich family of Amritsar. In those days, Every Sardar family had a Ranu. And in the villages of Punjab there has to be a Pulo. And so my two heroines are one from Amritsar and the other one is from a village outside Amritsar. So Ranu and Pulo. And what inspired me was that when it was the 70th anniversary independence of India and I was at that time 80 years old and suddenly I had a flash of the years gone by and of the India that we were entering into because when it was 70 years old, a sort of transformation was bubbling up. So I suddenly had this feeling that though I was only 10 years old, but I had heard a lot from my elders and all that. And those people who had gone through a partition, we were the fortunate family which escaped all that because we had gone to Shimla for a holiday. So that is what inspired me, that I should write of the India in which we were brought up after partition and it is a 70th anniversary and there's a transition taking place. So I should please that India in which I have been brought up and my children have been brought up and even up to an extent, my grandchildren.

[Renita Hora]

So there is so much to dig into here. You've got this dual settings, right? Village, city. That's one thing. You and your own family have escaped to Shimla. Escaped in the sense you went on a hol at the time, realized that it was an escape.

[Shukla Lal]

No, no, no one. No one believed that they will not go back to their homes. Those who were on holiday and those who even when they came back, when there was a mayhem and when there were refugee camps on either side for the Muslims and those who escaped to Amritsar and the borderline cities. I'm talking more of Amritsar because I have that experience of seeing those refugee camps three years later in 1950, and they were still existing, but not at that large scale. But when we went to Shimla, we thought we were coming back. And so, like our family, there were. Everyone thought that they would go back. They never thought there would be this kind of a division.

[Renita Hora]

So what happened?

[Shukla Lal]

Tell us what happened with me personally?

[Renita Hora]

Yes.

[Shukla Lal]

See, my mother was expecting and my aunt, who was the district inspectress of schools in Amritsar, she had already started with the team of the political executive committees so set up refugee camps and refugees had already started trickling. So she sent a very hurried kind of a phone call to my father that what are you doing? That there is a serious situation and your wife is expecting, so you have to go to Shimla. Why don't you go now? So my mother was in her fifth month. So we went there for my mother to have her baby in Shimla. And we would have come back. And so it was a four month kind of an excursion that we went for. So we left everything behind. Only enough for four months that we had taken. And so that is how we people escaped. And then I've written in my article about my father went back, he dropped us in Shimla and he went back to work. Even though there was that much of attrition between the two religions.

[Renita Hora]

So Shimla was chosen for what reason? Did you have family there?

[Shukla Lal]

No, no. See, practically every Punjabi family who lived in Amritsar and Lahore always went to Shimla for summer vacations. We used to go for two months. So this time we went for four months.

[Renita Hora]

I see, I see. So when things began to emerge. So you wrote an article which was recently published in the Chandigarh Tribune. And in it you explained those circumstances about how your father dropped you off. He went back. But then what happened?

[Shukla Lal]

What happened was that by that time, while we were still hadn't gone to Shimla, our landlady requested us. She was a Muslim lady and we were three Hindu tenants of hers. Two of us, my uncle, my younger, my Chacha and us were on one side. And the other side was a Sadar family. She said, all of you please vacate, otherwise there is a plan going on that they are going to burn my house because I've got Hindus as tenants. So overnight we people went and we were in Model Town in Lahore. But from Model Town we went to Shimla. But it seems that things got so bad that my father had to even leave Model Town. And he went to Mall. On the mall he took a flat which we never saw. And his chairman, because he was with a British company, his chairman helped him to go there. Now. So he was so loyal and a person that even with all those circumstances, he was still working knowing that his wife is going to deliver four months later. Then it was his friend, best friend from Ambala, who just said that I'm coming with my car and I'm bundling you into the car because you don't realize what the situation is. So that's how my father and he, they escaped. And they escaped so much on the nick of time that 2km away a whole gang was after with torches and swords to kill and burn the house in which my father was. So they escaped and they reached just in time to the Waga border and the car had caught fire by that time. They escaped from that and then they parted company from there. And so now the rest of my article is explaining how my father made his journey from Amritsar to Shimla. So he got onto a caravan of a Rani and who had a military escort. So the guard of one of the trucks, he took pity on my father when he came to know that his wife is expecting and the family is in Shimla and he's here. So he tucked him into the back of the truck with the tarpaulin on him where the luggage was. So he was just about had enough place to crouch. Now the Maharani, she used to at certain intervals ride on. She had a horse and, and a whip. And on that, on the trucks she used to whip in case there's a stowaway. And my father has borne those pain of the whip on his back. Then later on they went over a pontoon bridge because she had the army escort and they went over the pontoon bridge. And my father said that was the worst torture he's ever gone through. It was so painful. And then after that they somehow reached Karnal or somewhere and then he just escaped from the truck without the Rani seeing him. And then he reached Shimla and then all was happiness and security for us. And four months later my mother gave birth and so she was making sure. So. So I only heard that my father bore the whip lash also on his back. But though the tarpaulin was on him, oh my gosh, she couldn't catch my father, could not even make a sound. So. Oh dear. I can only say that because I.

[Renita Hora]

Only overheard all of these circumstances of his true story, your family's true story. How much of this factors into your fiction book, Ranu and Pulu?

[Shukla Lal]

Well, the thing is that what I have not added at all about a personal escape or anything, not that, but because we lived in Lahore and we were going to Sardangaram school and our house was near the boastal jail in Ichira. So we used to go in the tonga and in that ride to the school through the fields, I saw all the agricultural side of Lahore because we were city people and we would go. It all depended upon the mood of the tongawala. Sometimes he would take us from the boastrel side, sometimes he would take us from another shortcut. And so those pictures that I have, I have put them into the book, those fields. The book opens with the sound of the bulls pulling the water and the buckets going Round and the water is being filled and so then the water starts flowing and then the householders around, they come and there's a big stone and they start washing the clothes and they chat, the women are chatting and these two boys, one is a Hindu boy and one is a Muslim boy. They are Sardar boy. They are great. Their farmers and their children. Muslim family and Hindus. It was common for everybody to live together. And the third person whom I've added is the Zamidar's daughter, a Sardar family. Now that story of hers and her looks are what I have heard from my elders of personally knowing that particular family in an. After partition we didn't know them in Lahore or anything. It's just after partition they seem to have heard these stories and these stories of the kind of descriptive gory scene that I have given and how she escaped is in the public domain. It's nothing that I'm taking personal liberty on anybody's privacy.

[Renita Hora]

My goodness. Now you mentioned at the opening that in your book you are trying to capture an India frozen in that particular time, right? You were trying to freeze the moment and give us a story of that India. What do you mean by that India and how is it different from this India, today's India?

[Shukla Lal]

See, the flash that I had at the. At the 70th anniversary was exactly that, that I had a strong feeling that the India which got developed after partition, that though it was the partition took place on religious grounds. But the India that came with Gandhiji as the guru, as the teacher, as the politician, as the spirit behind and the team which got formed around him, their whole aim was Amity, that is that we are going to bring an India which is well integrated, that it's an India not based on religion. So that is India. So that is why we. It so happened that when we never went back to Lahore, so we stayed for a year in Shimla. In Shimla also the riots took place, but that's a different story. After that we were transferred from one place to another and we traveled all over India, went to down south and then came and settled in Calcutta. So I have got a. By that time I was 12 when we were in Madras and I was 14 when we had to my parents, they decided that my sister and I, we should stay back in Amritsar because we had very good English and my aunt was a district inspectress of schools and she said these girls have lost so many years, they will be so old before they are ready for college. So you leave them here, they'll get triple promotion. So we got triple promotion because of our English. So that is the time when I was able to. My sister stayed for a year. I stayed for two years in Amritsar. So I was very close to my aunt. And both of us, my sister and I used to help her in giving gifts. And that would come from a first aid from the United nations. And we would go and distribute them to these people in the refugee camps. So all that has come into it now. The India that we people eventually lived in and were brought up in, really speaking, our bringing up was in Calcutta at the age of 16. My sister was 18. And we all over India, wherever we felt, we were never made to feel as refugees. It was such a taken for granted thing. We are Indians, finished. Even if we did not know the language in the south. And so that is what I have brought out throughout my book. The story is that India, the well integrated India. And another thing is that in my books I've written two. Third one is in the editor's basket that the way the women came out, it is after partition, with Gandhiji's supporting Gandhiji's mission where Sarojini Naidu and so many other people. Kamala Chattupadhya was our principal in Saragangaram School. So with all that there was a national feeling. There was not a Hindu Muslim feeling. There was just one India, one. You know, the patriotism that is what I have brought up. A and B, that the women, the way the women came, the entrepreneurship that the women did, not only that they were school teachers, but they were actually business women. They turned away.

[Renita Hora]

It's amazing listening to you because it really reminds me of the fact that 75 years ago at the time of partition, India had a certain ideal that she wanted to live up to, right? That she wanted to grow into an identity, a nation state that she wanted to develop into. I wanted to ask you today, 75 years later, do you think India has woken up to this ideal?

[Shukla Lal]

I would like to tell you one thing. India had woken up soon after everything settled and the plans and programs that were being put into action. India was developing at that time. At that time India was considered worldwide as a third nation, as a poor nation. But say about 10, two decades later, say in the 60s or the 70s, I was telling my daughter today when I was reading this last question of yours that I remember that India became a globally recognized nation and a self respecting nation. Though poor, but not as poor as it was soon after partition that the India that came, do you know that the policy of Panchila, Buddha's five principles, was brought out at that particular time from India and it was accepted by internationally. And do you know that at that time, even China, America, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, they all most wonderful leaders, and they all accepted this kind of a piece. So that is the recognition that India had as Panchila. Now India is again being recognized as a reviving, as a word, power. And so the recognition that it is getting today is not new. The recognition was there before on different grounds as a nation of culture, as a nation of ethics.

[Renita Hora]

Absolutely. But 75 years henceforth, or however many years henceforth from today, do you think India has a long way to go? A way to go at all?

[Shukla Lal]

See, to that one, it is my personal thing. And I feel that, you know, history tells you that that whatever has risen as a golden power or as the world power has had a downfall. It has always happened. And so it is happening now. We are at the cusp of a transition of a very different kind of a transition. Some people will say it's good, some people will say it's bad, but I'm not in that. And I've written in my books also that I'm not a politician, though particularly Rano Pullo has a very, very political background. And the political background under which the story runs is based on facts which are in the public domain, which are, if they are debatable. They were debatable then, they're debatable now. Also, who's. What, what is not? I didn't get into that and neither I want to get into this. So. So the ideal India, that today we have a different kind of a team who's making a different kind of an idea. So let us see where we are going. But you can feel the power that India is holding, despite all the challenges.

[Renita Hora]

Absolutely. So we can feel the power. But let's see what happens with the winds of change. Wonderful. So tell us about your book. Where can we find it? Where can we buy it, read it? Is it on Amazon?

[Shukla Lal]

Yes, it is on Amazon and on Kindle and it is under the heading of author at 80. Because I was at Devutant. Yes. Notional Press printed out my book and I was called the devoutant author at 80.

[Renita Hora]

Well, what better age to write a book than at 80? I think that in itself is very, very inspiring.

[Shukla Lal]

And so in that one year, from May 2017 to October 2018, I wrote two books. One was Ranu Pullo and the other one was Floating Logs, which I really got a lot of publicity and then I wrote about a book on Nazams Hindustani, the Hindustani that we were grown up in Patani from where it just burst out. So I've written 29 poems then I've written six, seven short stories. And so the third book is written, finished since 2019 October. It is waiting to wait, edited and printed.

[Renita Hora]

Thank you so much. We are definitely going to list out the links to your books in the show notes below. That is Shukla Lal. She is a writer, she is based in New Delhi and this is her Partition story.

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is the story of the Wad. As a maintenance engineer he hears things differently. To the untrained ear everything on his shop floor might sound fine but. But he can hear gears grinding or a belt slipping so he steps in to fix the problem at hand before it gets out of hand. And he knows Granger's got the right product he needs to get the job done, which is music to his ears. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[Renita Hora]

And now for the fiction portion of the show we switch to Sonia Kohlar who is Shukla's daughter. She's actually going to read us an excerpt from her book Ranu Puller.

[Sonia Kohlar]

This is Sonia Kuller reading from Rano and A Historical Romance by shukla lal. Chapter 5 Mayhem in Dera Ambavali Schools all over Punjab were closed by July 1947. The word partition was being heard by one and all. But in hushed tones Kavaljeet was in touch with the day to day news near and around the estates of that region. What was alarming him most was was the first hand accounts of treacherous incidents of animosity between farm labourers of the Hindu Muslim and Sikh Zamindars. Though their colonies were five to six acres apart with access to the Havelis at least an hour away from each other by jeeps on Kacha roads or longer by foot. Each of the wealthy families were had also put in place secret plans of leaving their homes in an emergency to shift elsewhere at short notice to safer havens like the cities to relatives there they had already transferred their wealth in gold and cash too. Yet moving out of their home and hearth was totally another unimagined unpleasant nightmare. About the middle of July the most dreaded news came that the Khan's estate had been attacked by the Hindu farm hands further away who had in turn been attacked by some outside Muslims not belonging to these estates. The Khans had to escape with nothing except what they could carry in their jeeps the worst was that their ladies had been attacked too. Their poor labourers homes were burnt down and women and children slaughtered. This had angered the Khans and their Kisans. The Aluwalias realised the worst had happened and that too very close at hand. But what they did not believe was that they would have no time to save their women, children and themselves. Jasbir and Musa had come running through the field fields and warned Kamaljeet that all was not well and that a very militant group of fiery, unfamiliar Muslims were already on their way to attack this Haveli, that they should leave everything and escape. Musa and Jasbir ran back to their huts but by the time they neared their homes they stopped in their tracks. Through the crops they could hear screams and see flames leaping high. They quickly ran towards their favorite thick tree and hid themselves in its branches. From their hideout they could see the Sardar part of the colony being looted. Frightened men, women and children being dragged out and mercilessly killed. Benumbed with utter shock. Jasbir saw his family being killed along with other residents with whom he had grown up. Musa saw his own father and uncles joining the strangers who were leading the attack. Jasbir and he watched the whole drama in horrified silence so as not to attract attention. In the meantime, Kavaljeet hurriedly sat down to confer with his brothers so as to follow form a strategy about how to safeguard the women, children and themselves. They knew they could not get on the bus route to their jeep or tongas as a whole group as those routes were being used by the rioters. So there was no time to escape to Amritsar to their wealthy relatives living in their sprawling bungalow on the Mall road with whom they had kept their cash and gold earlier on. These were city folk and related to Kavaljeet's family. Suddenly he enclosed himself with his brothers in a room after asking his wife to gather all the ladies in the drawing room. While she did that he began to speak in a trembling voice. We have no time to safeguard our ladies from the hands of the marauders. We are far too few. The Haveli will not be able to hide our women to save their honour. The only solution is to kill all of them with our own swords. Then we fight the attackers and die fighting. When this plan was revealed to the ladies, their first reaction was one of utter disbelief. Time was ticking. It was not going to stop for them at long. Last the older women saw wisdom first. The choice was not theirs at all. If they did not die at the hands of their own men folk, then they would die or not die, but their sanctity would be looted without mercy at the hands of their attackers. Stoically, the older ladies agreed and chose the place for their beheading on the stone next to the well where their clothes were washed daily. Their lack of time was the saviour for the family. It left no margin for emotions. The men brought out their swords from the scabbards with grimness writ large on their faces and gleaming swords in hand. All four brothers came out in the open courtyard, led by Kamaljeet, the eldest. Horror struck. The four boys crowded the doorway as the men marched out to the courtyard. The sight of their mothers, aunts and sisters gathered near the well in a trembling, weeping huddle was a heartrending sight. The women had been led to the well by Dadi and Fufiji, followed by the daughters, and was most adamant. Shouting at the top of her voice like a tigress, she warned anyone coming close to her. Her dad shouted back, drowning all sounds. There is no time for fear or protest. It is better to die than be raped. This stunned everyone into an instant shocked silence. The reality of the moment hit all like a bolt from the blue. Dadi and Fufiji led by jumping into the well. Each man beheaded his own wife, one after another in the midst of their blood curdling screams of Hai. Hai. Waheguru. By now the sounds of Allahu Akbar could be heard close by. Quietly, they locked the heavy main door of the Haveli Here at the True.

[Renita Hora]

Fiction Project we are always looking for great stories that make for compelling fiction. So if you have a great story or know somebody who does, or if you are a writer who would like to contribute then please do get in touch with [e-mail] contact.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Thank you for listening to the True Fiction Project with Renita Hora. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to receive more inspiring stories showing how fiction is born from our everyday experiences. For more information visit www.TrueFictionProject. if you work as a manufacturing facilities engineer, installing a new piece of equipment can be as complex as the machinery itself. From prep work to alignment and testing, it's your team's job to put it all together. That's why it's good to have Grainger on your side. With industrial grade products and next day delivery, Grainger helps ensure you have everything you need close at hand through every step of the installation. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.