Bannu

Pradeep Kumar Banga was born in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh, where his father worked in the Government’s Public Works Department after leaving Bannu for India.

Pradeep did his Mechanical Engineering from Maulana Azad College of Technology (now NIT), Bhopal in 1977, and joined Steel Authority of India Limited in May 1978. He retired from the Bhilai Steel Plant in Dec 2015.

Author’s note: I was born in India after Independence. Hence, all the information I have about Bannu, which went to Pakistan, is through what I have heard from my elders.

My grandparents’ generation

My grandfather, Dr. Partool Chand Banga, practiced medicine in Bannu. He got his LMP (Licensed Medical Practitioner) degree from Agra in 1922.

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

For the last 70 years, I have been trying to reconstruct what happened to our lives in 1947.

I was ten years old in 1947, and I remember the details of 1945-1947 very well. Like attending my uncle Lachman Chachaji's (uncle) wedding in Bannu, and sitting behind him on a horse in the summer of 1945. There were Pathans on dhol, and dancing in their Bannuwal style. Looked like if they had a drink. Then attending my sister's wedding in 1946 in Bannu during the summer vacations. The bridegroom had come from Karachi, but hailed from Dera-Ismail Khan.

Bannu was our ancestral home. Here we had a house built by my father Ram Narain Mullick, who was born in 1906.

Ram Narain Mullick. My father. 1906-1956.

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

Dr. Manohar Lal Kapur lives in Virginia, USA. He grew up in Bannu, which became part of Pakistan in August 1947. He was 11 years old in April 1948 when he flew from Bannu in a small plane, operated by the Indian government with help from the Pakistan government, to Ambala in India.  His parents followed him later. Manohar's father was a gold jeweler in Bannu. His business was getting affected as Hindus and-Sikhs started to leave due to uncertainty about what the rulers of Pakistan would do.  His family liked Bannu but realized that their business in Bannu will decline drastically as their customers will not be there for too long.  They had to leave behind their gold jewelry assets as the Government planes did not allow them much to carry much.

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Manohar has told me that he saw no violence or heard about violence in Bannu when he lived there. I trust his memory. He has given me a lot of details about Bannu. He even revisited Bannu all by himself in 1991 for three days. On that visit, Manohar did not see people he knew except one.

I was born in Bannu, NWFP to Mr. Hira Nand Batra and Mrs. Subhashvati (aka Mukandi Bai Banga). I studied at IIT Madras (B Tech Chem E 1964 1^st Batch); IIT BHU (M Tech 1966), Taught at IIT BHU and IIT Delhi before going to University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1968. Got my PhD in 1973 and moved to USA. I served at PEDCO-Engineering Firm and Procter & Gamble in various Business Units. Retired in 2000 as Associate Director R&D from Health Care, P&G.

I was only 5 years of age at the time of partition. What I remember are the stories and tales from the family elders. I got input from my elder brother, Dr. Subhash K Batra, Distinguished Professor, Non-Wovens Technology, North Carolina State University, NC.

Subhash K Batra (Extreme Left), Balraam Chacha Ji (Extreme Right) Circa 1941/1942

I was born in Bannu (NWFP) in a Batra family - my Mom came from a Banga family in Bannu.

Senior members of the Banga family. Mum Baba, Pam Baba (seated), Nutty Baba in Bannu
Pam Baba holding Picture of Khushal Chand Banga (Nana Ji)