India is the land they connect their lives to. And their luck seemed to shine when they found a safe shelter so miraculously. The Superintendent of Central Excise and Customs at Delhi airport, Nahar has turned out to be a genie out of the bottle for hundreds of Sindhi refugees who’ve been crossing the border in recent years. In November, 2011, Singh says, he first came across a group of 145 Sindhi refugees who were then living in a makeshift camp in North Delhi. He had his two-storey building, rented out that time for Rs. 70,000 a month, vacated to make room for them.
For as long as they are confined within those walls, they believe they are in safe haven. There is no going back to Pakistan. “I will prefer dying here in Hindustan than living in Pakistan,” says 38 year old Seeta Ram, who is here with 17 members of his extended family. “For us, there is no dignified life in Pakistan. We live at the mercy of Muslims. We cannot openly celebrate our festivals. We cannot cheer for the Indian cricket team”. In case of a clash between two communities, Ram says, he doesn’t expect fair trial. “Their police, their courts,” he says.
