Reena Chibber Verma speaking to media persons outside 'her' Rawalpindi house on Wednesday
New Delhi
Finally on Wednesday evening, the Pune nonagenarian Reena Chibber Verma visited 'her' Rawalpindi home o a rousing reception by the locals with traditional drum beating, dancing, and showering of rose petals.
Reena Chibber Verma, the wife of an IAF officer, danced to the drum beats, shed tears of joy, sang her favourite number from the balcony of ‘her’ home, and asked the young people of India and Pakistan to be friends and speak good of each other.
The videos of an elegant Reena Chibber Verma dancing with the local youth to the drum beats in the lane of 'her' house called “Prem Niwas” has been posted on social media by Pakistani journalists.
Ghulam Abbas Shah of Bole News posted this video on Twitter:
Reena Chibber was 15 when the British divided India and created Pakistan as a country of Muslims. She was on a trekking expedition in Shimla on that day and was oblivious of the tumult that was to come in her life.
Like millions, her family comprising her parents and three more siblings fled to India where her father could never own a house thereafter. Reena and her sister were in Shimla at that time.
She told her Pakistani companions that nothing had changed since she had left the place. “I would stand here and sing," said Reena Chibber Verma, with her moist eyes.
Reena Chibber Verma with her moist eyes at her home in Rawalpindi (Images Courtesy: Urdu N
The locals were overjoyed to receive her. As she danced to the beats of drums, overwhelmed onlookers lifted the petite woman and kissed her affectionately.
On Wednesday evening as Reena stood on the balcony of ‘her home’. She broke down and told her Pakistani hosts these are ‘tears of joy.’
A Pakistani journalist Shiraj Abbas posted this video of Twitter:
Reena’s family had to face difficulties in trying to resettle in India. She told the media person that her father could never raise enough money to build another house though the government had allotted him a piece of land in Delhi in place of the property he had left in Pakistan.
Her family was among an estimated 15 million people – Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims – who were forced to swap countries. About one million were killed in the violence.
Reena Chibber Verma with a Pakistani child in her Rawalpindi home
Reena says while her parents died remembering their life and pinning to see their home, she considers herself lucky that she could visit it.
“I always tell people I am from Rawalpindi,” she told Pakistani journalists who have given wide coverage to Reena Chibber’s visit. On Wednesday, Reena spent many hours inside 'her house' speaking with the owners and remembering her childhood.
Pakistan media reported that Reena had a hearty laugh when she found it difficult to climb the staircase without support. “I once flew over it like a bird several times a day," she told the house owners
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