At times, the seemingly endless lock-down in Delhi on account of the Corona virus gets infuriating, making one explore avenues to beat the ennui and boredom. It was during one such phase, while dabbling with the television remote that I came across a Doordarshan channel. Just as I was about to skip to the next channel – expecting something uninteresting and outdated on the good old DD- I realized that it was Buniyaad, a serial about which I had all but forgotten, which was being telecast,. Immediately, my mind went into a fast rewind, to the period when the serial was first broadcast-1986 to be precise- and had managed to make a place for itself on my list of personal favorites.

Penned by Manohar Shyam Joshi and directed by the redoubtable Ramesh Sippy (who already had the gargantuan Sholay, besides several other super hit films under his belt), Buniyaad was a landmark in terms of television entertainment in India at that point in time. No wonder, it managed to catch the imagination of an entire generation of television audience, particularly those who had suffered the harrowing atrocities of partition, and were rendered destitute in the only place they had known as home, that too due to forces over which they had no control.

By the time the serial was first aired, life, as is its wont, had moved on from the horrors of 1947- the scars of the traumatic upheaval had healed considerably, and had given way to nostalgia, a fond remembrance for a life left behind. In 1986, as a college going teenager, I felt the excitement and warmth which the promos of the series generated, suitably enhanced by the soulful title song, rendered brilliantly by an upcoming ghazal singer, Anup Jalota. As the ditty pulled the strings of my heart, I waited in anticipation for the inaugural episode, which brought a large section of the television viewing populace, particularly in Punjabi dominated Delhi, to a grinding halt.

As the story moved along, multitude of people, propelled by winds of nostalgia, were transported to their erstwhile homes in places like Lahore and Rawalpindi. The hard work of the production team clearly came forth. Names of streets and houses, art direction, the fashion design, the diction, the language, the social milieu- were all crafted to generate an ambience of authenticity. The serial had career defining roles for a host of actors, especially Alok Nath, who, in subsequent years was to do a plethora of characters in Bollywood films, after being typecast as ‘sanskaari babuji’ at the young age of 30 years.

Indeed, the first twenty episodes of Buniyaad were remarkable in all aspects, before, like most serials, it too drifted into mediocrity as it meandered interminably.

In 1986, the serial, for the first time, exposed me to the passion and yearning which people on this side of the border have for a life left behind. It was corroborated by what my father often reminisced about- after all, he had spent the first few years of his life there. The observation of human behavior gave shape to my nascent understanding of the world, as it aroused a feeling for peace, for brotherhood, for co-existence. Like countless others, I too was beset with a desire to visit my roots- from where my family hailed, a town , ‘Saiyad Kasran’ in district Rawalpindi. Even now, the desire simmers in my heart, and I am determined to keep it in my bosom, hoping for fulfillment, provided our perpetually belligerent and blatantly hostile neighbor sees reason, gives up its nefarious designs, evil machinations and falls in line.

Maybe, one day!

That day, I will light a candle in memory of those who perished in the holocaust of biblical proportions, and those who have attained martyrdom in line of duty over the years.  And pray that history is not forgotten by anyone, because as George Santayana, the Spanish-born American author once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.