Earth (1998)

Shabana Azmi: Older Lenny

Quotes 

• Older Lenny : I was eight years old, living in Lahore in March of 1947, when the British Empire in lndia started to collapse. Along with talks of lndia's independence from Britain came rumblings about its division into two countries, Pakistan and lndia. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs who had lived together as one entity for centuries. suddenly started to clamor for pieces of lndia for themselves. The arbitrary line of division the British would draw to carve up lndia in August of 1947 would scar the Subcontinent forever.

• Older Lenny : Two hundred and fifty years of the British Empire ended in 1947, but what's there to show for it, except a country divided? The massacres and kidnapping, vendettas and more violence, was it all worth it? Fifty years have gone by since I betrayed my Ayah. Some say she married lce Candy Wallah. Some say they saw her in a brothel in Lahore, others that they saw her in Amritsar. But I never set eyes on her again. And that day in 1947 when I lost Ayah, I lost a large part of myself.