Born Ram Lal Bhatia in the town of Taunsa Sharif, in Baloch province, Fikr Taunsvi left for the cosmopolitan city of Lahore in the 1930s. Here he worked with various newspapers, wrote poetry and articles, and became a part of the intellectual circle. But when independence was

announced, Fikr was faced with a new reality—of being a Hindu in his beloved city, now in Pakistan.

The Sixth River is the journal Fikr wrote from August to November 1947 as Lahore disintegrated around him. Fikr is angry at the shortsightedness and ineptness of Radcliffe, Nehru

Gandhi and Jinnah. In the company of likeminded friends such as Sahir Ludhianvi, he mourns the loss of the art and culture of Lahore in the bloodlust and deluded euphoria of freedom; and derides the newly converted, who adopted stereotypical religious symbols. He is bewildered

when old friends suddenly turn staunch nationalists and advise him to either convert or leave the country. And the deep, unspeakable trauma millions faced during Partition reaches Fikr’s doorstep when his neighbour murders his daughter, and when he is eventually forced to

migrate to Amritsar in India.

Powerful, ironic and deeply harrowing, The Sixth River is an invaluable account of the Partition.

He wrote many books, and the daily column Pyaz ke Chhilke in Urdu Milap for about 27 years. His journal written during the partition of India

Chhata Darya (published in Lahore in 1948), has been translated into English by Dr Maaz Bin Bilal as The Sixth River: A Journal from the Partition of India.

Ram Lal Bhatia or #FikrTaunsvi as called passed away on this day in 1987.