Click to play videoJammu: It has been just two days since Dina Nath Gupta lit up his home for Diwali. Now in the quiet of his puja room, he lights a lamp again.
This time the lamp burns for Eid, for his brother and two sisters across the border.
Gupta has not met his siblings for the last 59 years because at the time of Partition, his siblings converted to Islam.
They have been living in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir ever since. Now, every festival is a celebration of memories for the family.
“Half of our family celebrates Diwali here and the other half celebrates Eid in PoK,” says Gupta.
Gupta's sisters Kaneez Akhtar and Fatima had sent letters greeting him on Diwali and Gupta sent a telegram greeting them on Eid.
His brother Abdul Rashid has not been able to visit India after the country's division.
“We want to celebrate the festivals together but the time and the situation did not permit us. We celebrate the festivals in our own way and they do too. My family in PoK also wants and hopes to be together again for celebrations,” says Gupta.
This household where two religions co-exist, is one out of over 250 such divided homes in the Valley.
The Poonch-Rawalkote bus service has helped many of them reunite with their loved ones across the border. But the void of the last 60 years cannot be filled up very easily.
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