Coda: leaving ancient lands behind

Of the millions of families displaced, mine was one. Sensing that the situation was rapidly deteriorating, and with my father’s life increasingly at risk, by 1985 my parents were preparing to take their final footsteps on their ancient homelands. They applied for travel papers into Pakistan under the guise of attending the wedding of a relative who lived across the border in Peshawar. At a time when movement was strictly inhibited and monitored, official papers were obtained by paying the right people. They placed the date of the imaginary wedding on the eighth of the month.