Upendra was born in 1929 to a Hindu family living in Amritsar. He grew up wanting to go into the foreign service. But his experiences during the Partition of India changed the course of his life.
Upendra was born in Amritsar in 1929 to a Hindu family. By 1947 he was 17 and at college in Lahore. His ambition was to work for the foreign service because he wanted to travel.
The end of British Imperial rule and the planned Partition of India led to great unrest amongst the people. Upendra volunteered to help people who were being forced out of their homes by working for the Punjab Relief Committee. In August 1947 he was working at a refugee camp in Rawalpindi when it was cut off by an outbreak of violent fighting between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. While trapped in the camp he met a doctor who changed the course of his life.
Eventually it was safe enough to leave the camp to travel back to Amritsar. At first, Upendra and the refugees travelled by train. It stopped near a village where he got off to collect more refugees for the journey. But when he returned the train had already left. He had to walk the 150 miles to Amritsar on foot, which took several days. He walked into the office of a family friend; ‘He got up, put his arms around me, I remembered he cried and he said…”we thought you were dead”.’
The train had been attacked and 200 to 300 people killed. Upendra’s family thought he was dead.
‘My mother came, and you know she smacked me! That was her first reaction.’
After his experiences Upendra decided to train as a doctor. He has lived all over the world, doing charity and medical work. He married a woman from Salford.
‘I give all the credit to my wife… she is now living in her 23rd house since we got married.’
‘I started to get very impressed with doctors, that’s one way you can really serve.’
Their children and grandchildren have a mixture of English and Hindu names. Upendra views himself as ‘an Indian’ and ‘a Brahmin Hindu Christian’. His wife sees herself as a ‘Christian Hindu.’
Upendra is close to his family, and they visit him every Friday.
‘That way I remain a very Indian father, grandfather…we always have a big family meal on a Friday, so some of my Jewish friends call me Indian Jew, Hindu Jew, because of Friday.’
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