World War 2 and Uncle Bashir
1. So dad, tell me about uncle Bashir, your brother who went to fight in World War 2?
2. He was my oldest brother.
1. Was this before partition?
2. Yes.
1. Where did he fight?
2. I can’t remember if he engaged in combat but he talked about Singapore a lot.
[Indeed, I learned after about the Battle of Singapore]
1. Was it the British Army?
2. Yes it was India at that time. He enlisted in the army and they wrote some numbers on his chest.
1. Some numbers?
2. Yes, like in charcoal. That first day he came back home with some soldiers, my mom started crying. She didn’t want him to go away and fight.
1. Oh yeah. So he survived and all eventually?
2. Yes he came back. His first daughter died young. He died in 2000. He had two wives. The first one died. He was married in between for a few months again and that didn’t work out. Then he re-married a third time.
1. What was his full name?
2. Shaikh Bashir Ahmad.