How The Subcontinent's Social Media Helped Reena Take The Road Back Home

Reena Varma, 90, left her home in Rawalpindi on a summer break. She could never return as Partition divided India and Pakistan. Here's the story of how she finally went back home. 75 years later.

“When I was standing there, all I could see were my parents and sisters. My family. All I could see and think of was, I am here now. At least one of us made it back home.”

In May 1947, Reena Varma, then a 15-year-old, left home in Prem Gali, DAV College Road, Rawalpindi, to go on her annual summer holiday. In June 1947, the Partition of India and Pakistan was announced by Lord Mountbatten. Varma and her family could never return. All along, Varma ached to see the home she had left as a teenager. She finally returned there in July 2022, 75 years later.

  Sitting in the small sun-splashed study of her Pune home, Varma, 90, shares the torrent of feelings that opened up when she finally entered her house. "The Bari Baithak (large living room) of our house had patterned floor tiles and a small fireplace and mantelpiece that my father had designed. My entire family would gather there on winter evenings. It had remained the same. I could 'see' my family everywhere. It's hard to explain."  

  Varma's is a dream come true story where social media played a huge role, bringing people together and helping amplify her dream. But the most important element was Varma’s resolve and fervent wish to see the home she had left behind one day.

A Home Left Behind

Varma's family traveled to Murree (now in Pakistan) each year to spend the summer months as her father’s office shifted base there. It remains a much-loved destination in her memory. In May 1947, amidst a somewhat uncertain and sometimes volatile situation, as the family readied for a summer break, Varma’s father was advised to choose a destination other than Murree as there were hints of trouble and violence. They went to Solan, near Shimla, instead. “We carried some of our useful items along, but even then, we never realized that we would never be able to return! I was a 15-year-old and didn’t understand much, but my mother couldn’t accept this fact until she died. Imagine packing to stay elsewhere for some months and never being able to return to your own home!”

Varma’s family eventually settled in Delhi after stints in Pune, Dehradun, and Amritsar. She got a B.Ed degree before marrying Inder Prakash Varma, an engineer with HAL. They stayed in Bangalore, and Varma got busy raising her two children, taking care of her in-laws, and running small ventures from home once in a while.

Throughout all these, one wish remained constant for Varma. To see her home in “Pindi”, as she fondly calls Rawalpindi, just once.

Of Short Visits and Missed Chances

Varma did visit Pakistan once after the Partition. In 1954, Indians got temporary entry visas for a test match between Pakistan and England. “We traveled to and fro between Amritsar and Lahore for three days with my brother-in-law to see the match,” Varma remembers. She was in college then and couldn’t help but wish that she had been able to visit Rawalpindi too. 

Varma’s chance came when a Sikh friend and her family organized a visit to Panja Sahib Gurdwara, 48 kilometers from Rawalpindi, and invited her to travel with them. “I got a passport made at short notice and was all set when my friend’s plan fell through.” The next chance came sometime in the 70s when a family friend in the Indian Foreign Service was posted in Islamabad. “It would have been an ideal chance, but my children were very small then, and it didn’t materialize.” But Varma didn’t lose sight of her dream. Like music, a lifelong passion, visiting her childhood home was also becoming one, just tucked away for later. 

Social Media To The Rescue

  Varma, called Toshi by loved ones, tells me how she took to technology and found groups that promoted cross-border history and unity. Her daughter Sonali Khullar, who lives in Gurugram, alerted her to a Facebook group promoting Punjabi heritage across the subcontinent. Varma joined the group, which led her to the more active India Pakistan Heritage Club (IPHC). “It became a catalyst in my journey,” she says. Varma posted in the group about her wish to visit Rawalpindi. It was noticed by Beenish Siddiqua, a journalist based in Karachi, who asked her for a video to share her wish wider.   

  “Even after 74 years of partition, her heart is lost in the memories of Rawalpindi,” Siddiqua wrote in August 2021. In the video accompanying it, Varma shared her longing to see the land of her birth.  

The video went viral, taking Varma’s story to many across the subcontinent who may have older loved ones longing to see the home they had to leave but didn’t have Varma’s energy to pursue it. “It also helped that my memory of those days is very clear,” Varma says. “I remember names of my siblings’ friends or the name of the tailor (Shafi) who used to come home to take measurements!”

The memory had earlier helped Varma identify her home. As her story reached wider, Sajjad Haider, a journalist from Rawalpindi, contacted Varma, offering to locate her home. Varma considers him a member of her family now. “My house was surrounded by landmarks, so it wasn’t difficult to locate. I first identified the wrong house but later remembered our home had three doors. It was the only home in that galli with three doors.” Her home found, Haider, and others like Imran Williams, founder of IPHC, encouraged her to apply for a visa and visit Pakistan, though Varma hesitated because of Covid restrictions.

Varma’s first visa application in March 2022 was denied. Not one to lose heart, she decided to apply again, encouraged by her daughter. “I was very disappointed and wrote a post on Facebook about how they could reject a 90-year-old’s visa,” Varma says. Then a miracle happened, only possible in our hyper-connected world of social media and viral videos. Pakistani-American journalist Beena Sarwar saw Varma’s story from the previous year posted by Siddiqua on Twitter and shared it with the country’s then-foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who gave her nod to the visit. In May 2022, Varma had her visa. It was a win for her and everyone who helped amplify her voice and cheer her on.

Visiting Home

Varma found the warm reception that awaited her across the border unimaginable. The IPHC group had helped her organize every part of her almost 10-day visit, from her stay to her companions. Khullar accompanied her mother to the Attari-Wagah border between Amritsar and Lahore. But from there, it was Varma's own journey. The one she had been waiting for.  

Every part of Varma's trip was worth cherishing and even shedding a few tears. “When I reached my old home, I was hesitant, not knowing how the family who lived there were.” She needn’t have worried. “They welcomed me wholeheartedly. I saw every room, the terrace, every corner. And I kept thinking of my family.” The Hussains, who own the house now, invited Varma to stay overnight in her childhood bedroom. They've named their home Reena’s House in her honor and gifted her a plaque.

  The warmth she received from the Hussains, Haider, members of the IPHC group, and the love and welcome everywhere was staggering for this petite and determined nonagenarian. “I hadn’t expected so much!” Varma says candidly that it was hard at times to control her emotions as the reception she got showed how most people do not have hatred in their hearts. If there’s something she could have done without, it was the intense media glare. “I could barely move around on my own or visit places I wanted to see because of it.”

Back in the quiet of her Pune home, with pictures of loved ones on the walls and greenery beyond her window, Varma has the time to relive the experience. She believes many things came together miraculously to create her trip. “It started with technology, the huge help I received from everyone, and my determination. I was stuck on the idea that I wanted to see my home, and I never thought I was too old to pursue that dream.”

While her family may have escaped the horrors of Partition, Varma's parents did face their share of problems, having lost their home, life, and work. But Varma says none of those thoughts has ever dampened her enthusiasm to visit Pakistan because that was the learning she grew up with. A belief in humanity, a gift from her parents.

Life has thrown many curveballs at Varma. She lost her son when he was 48, among several other losses and low phases. Yet, she remains a person with a positive attitude, probably the secret behind her exuberance and zeal. 

When we meet, she has just started a cleaning exercise, taking things out from her cupboard and lining them up on the bed. “Many people asked me how you did the trip alone at 90! But to tell you the truth," she says with a naughty glint in her eye, "I don’t feel 90 at all! When visiting my home in Rawalpindi, I felt as excited and energetic as the 15-year-old girl who had left it!”

Photographs courtesy: Sonali Khullar

Cover Image & Video: Silver Talkies

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