August 1947 was a year of a big event. It swung between mountains of happiness and depths of despair. A new country was formed, an old one liberated from the yoke of almost three centuries of imperial domination. It was paradoxical, too; the resultant loss of life and innocence and the cost of grief seemed too high a price to pay for this freedom. This freedom witnessed the Partition, the largest-ever movement of people from one place to another. They walked and passed familiar places only to know that they could never return home. Carrying bundles of memories of the sights, sounds, friends, and lives left behind, they allowed the trauma of separation to propel them forward, seeking refuge. This overnight loss of identity led them to create new safe spaces to live in. In these places, which society termed Refugee Resettlement Colonies, they collectively survived, participating in each other’s rituals of grief and joy. From the ecological memories they carried with them, they shaped their future and their sense of belonging. This paper recounts life in Lajpat Nagar, a post-Partition refugee colony of Delhi in the 1960s, and captures the scaffolding support of the community, and the formation of individual dreams, some loud and others silent, that allowed the scars to heal. It hovers over the question of boundaries and individual dignities, at times denied to the refugees and their aspirations. Above all, it provides a glimpse into how living in and reflecting on memories of struggle and resilience changed the life of its residents in complex ways.
