Daughters of Partition

16-year-old Taji Kaur is living a blissful life – after a grand and lavish wedding ceremony she has her first baby and is expecting the second in August of 1947. In the backdrop, the British Raj in India is coming to an end and a line of partition is being proposed between India and Pakistan. Taji and her husband, Indian Sikhs, find themselves on the wrong side of the border. Amidst the ravages of riots and bloodshed, they make a desperate attempt to cross a mountainous region to reach India; but the journey is far from straightforward. This is a heart-wrenching, real-life story of borders, civil unrest, loss, migration, religion and incredible bravery, told through the eyes of one woman who lived through these tragedies.

Fozia Raja is an author, creative writer, and corporate Human Resources professional working for a multi-national company. She was born and brought up in Manchester, UK, where she has fond memories of pursuing her passion for reading - carrying a heavy backpack to the local library each Saturday to pick out her next seven books for the week ahead. She was brought up in a close family with four siblings and she pursued her fascination with her family's history. This included vivid childhood memories of the stories shared by her grandmother about her surviving the partition of India. For hours, Fozia would listen to these historical narratives in rapt attention - motivating her later in life to pursue a master's degree in Creative Writing. The manuscript Fozia wrote as part of her master's thesis had been gathering dust for more than a decade, while Fozia's career in Human Resources was taking off. That all changed during a recent work trip to India, where Fozia met with her grandmother's siblings for the first time, and she was inspired and motivated to revisit the manuscript and share her incredible family story. Her grandmother's wish that Fozia "write the story of my life" came to its fruition with this publishing. Fozia is an avid reader, foodie and gym-goer; and when she's not travelling, London is home.