Dramatic search ends with special reunion --By: MARIANNE KELLY
Times Newspapers for Howick, Pakuranga and Botany news
Dramatic search ends with special reunion
A RETIRED mechanical engineer, who spent his early childhood in India, has scant memories of the period, except for a recurring nightmare of a Sikh classmate fleeing down his street away from certain slaughter. The incident took place when the British partitioned India in 1947 and the multi-cultural population disintegrated into a killing frenzy.
After a 65-year search the Sikh boy has found his saviour, Anthony (Tony) Bliss, who was aged 10 at the time and let him and his family into the safety of the Bliss family home in Quetta, Balochistan, now Pakistan.These days Mr Bliss lives in Somerville, Howick. The boy was Harbhajan Singh, who studied with Mr Bliss at St Francis Grammar School in Quetta. He now resides in New York, under the name of Mickey Nivelli, and has earned a worldwide reputation for making movies, particularly pioneering the West Indian film industry.
KIWI CLASSMATE: Anthony (Tony) Bliss is receiving thanks
for saving an Indian family from slaughter 65 years ago.
Times photo Wayne Martin
Mr Bliss’ father Charles was senior registrar at Quetta’s Civil Hospital when the violent dissolution of the Indian Empire into the new states of India and Pakistan took place.“School was closed and I was at home, sitting in my favourite tree,” Mr Bliss says. “It was the only place to see what fighting was happening down in the town.
“It was pure luck I was sitting in the tree, because I saw Harbhajan running down the road with his family behind him. I jumped down to let them in and got into trouble for it.”
The family’s bearer, ayah (nursemaid) and another manservant were Muslims who objected to the Sikh family coming in.“Mother and father gave me a dressing down for letting them in. But what could I do? They were screaming at me to help and I couldn’t do anything else.” Later that night, Surgeon Bliss took the Singh family across the road to the hospital, which was neutral territory and they were kept safe.
“I have recurring nightmares of him running down the street,” Mr Bliss says.
“Every day from then on there was no school, so I was sent into the hospital. I used to watch queues of people going in to be repaired, one person carrying his right arm to be stitched back on, and the chief of police coming in with an axe still buried in his face.”Surgeon Bliss was in the Indian Army Medical Corps and his son was born there in 1937. He sent the family back to the UK when World War II broke out in 1939, but they returned to India in 1945.
After partitioning in 1947, the family left India for Samoa and came to New Zealand in 1949.
Mr Bliss was educated at Timaru Boys’ High School, then King’s College in Auckland, where he remained to study mechanical engineering at Auckland University and pursue his career.
Meanwhile, after many months of hunger, horrors and homelessness, the Singh family escaped to India from the newly-established Pakistan. Harbhajan grew up to pursue a movie career in Bollywood, changing his name to Harbance Kumar. For some time he managed India’s iconic movie stars, Sunil and Nargis Dutt, and recently wrote a love story about them titled Together Forever.
His fame, however, was cemented when he was credited for pioneering the West Indian movie industry where he wrote, produced and directed landmark films including The Right And The Wrong, Girl From India, Caribbean Fox and Rainbow Raani in 2006, about a “rainbow society” where black, brown, white and yellow-skinned people coexist. He moved to New York in 1977 with his West Indian wife Chand.
He met an old German-Jewish lady, Lotte Nivelli, who thought the spirit of her son the Nazis had murdered during World War II radiated from him.She became Harbhajan’s adopted mother and, touched by the Nivelli family’s tragedy, he decided to relinquish Harbance Kumar, the Bollywood name which had made him famous, and took on Lotte’s son’s name, Mickey Nivelli.
Lotte’s husband was also murdered by the Nazis and her eternal love for him became the title of another book, Echoes Of Love From Heavens Above. Mr Nivelli never forgot his school friend Mr Bliss, who had saved his family and he conducted a lengthy and costly search.
“I am 74, but before I die, I want to meet him or his children and kneel down in gratitude for saving us from becoming rotting corpses on those streets,” he said in his search message.
Four months ago, Mr Bliss’ son Martin phoned him, saying “dad, I’ve had a peculiar phone call, what’s it about?”
British researchers Julie and Lee Childs had tracked down Mr Bliss to New Zealand and contacted Martin.
Mr Nivelli, who was offering a US$5000 reward, was receiving crank messages from people trying to make money from his anxiety in searching for Mr Bliss.
However, Mr Bliss’ accurate recollection of opening the gate for the Singh family, and a distinctive middle name, along with a schoolboy picture sent to Mr Nivelli, confirmed he was the old schoolmate.
Mr Nivelli emailed Martin Bliss saying: “Please tell your dad my main mission in life is to touch his feet and lay before him for saving the lives of my entire family.”
Tony Bliss replied: “Yes, I’m your long-lost friend. But there’s no need to touch my feet or lie before me.
“The sight of you running down the street, screaming for help has stayed with me all of my life. What else could I do? Stay there in safety and watch you run down and caught, or open the gate.”
Mr Nivelli responded with a plea for Mr Bliss and his partner Annette Brown to go to the United States as his guests.
The down-to-earth engineer replied: “I’d very much like to meet you again to shake you by the hand and give you a big man hug, which I hope would satisfy your desire to lie at my feet. That would seriously embarrass me.”
Mr Bliss and Ms Brown will soon spend a month with Mr and Mrs Nivelli in New York and will stopover in San Francisco to visit Mr Nivelli’s eldest sister, Manjit, who remembers the Bliss family.
Mr Nivelli says: “We’re all waiting to welcome you and Annette in the manner you deserve to be welcomed, a veritable hero, who in 1947 saved the lives of us nine innocent people fleeing the murderous rampage of religious fanatics.
“Please don’t underestimate your role in our lives, because I definitely do not. I’ve searched for you for 65 years to thank you.”
THE partition of British India in August 1947 was made on the basis of religious demographics.
It led to the creation of the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh) and Union of India (later the Republic of India).
The violent event resulted in the dissolution of the Indian Empire and the end of the British Raj. It resulted in a struggle between the new states of India and Pakistan and displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million.
Most estimates of the numbers of people who crossed the borders between India and Pakistan in 1947 range between 10 and 12 million.
--रिपोर्ट-- यह रिपोर्ट newzeland के newspaper में पर्काशित हो गयी है . Mickey Nivelli ने हमें टैग की है ......
Times Newspapers for Howick, Pakuranga and Botany news
Dramatic search ends with special reunion
A RETIRED mechanical engineer, who spent his early childhood in India, has scant memories of the period, except for a recurring nightmare of a Sikh classmate fleeing down his street away from certain slaughter. The incident took place when the British partitioned India in 1947 and the multi-cultural population disintegrated into a killing frenzy.
After a 65-year search the Sikh boy has found his saviour, Anthony (Tony) Bliss, who was aged 10 at the time and let him and his family into the safety of the Bliss family home in Quetta, Balochistan, now Pakistan.These days Mr Bliss lives in Somerville, Howick. The boy was Harbhajan Singh, who studied with Mr Bliss at St Francis Grammar School in Quetta. He now resides in New York, under the name of Mickey Nivelli, and has earned a worldwide reputation for making movies, particularly pioneering the West Indian film industry.KIWI CLASSMATE: Anthony (Tony) Bliss is receiving thanks
for saving an Indian family from slaughter 65 years ago.
Times photo Wayne Martin
Mr Bliss’ father Charles was senior registrar at Quetta’s Civil Hospital when the violent dissolution of the Indian Empire into the new states of India and Pakistan took place.“School was closed and I was at home, sitting in my favourite tree,” Mr Bliss says. “It was the only place to see what fighting was happening down in the town.
“It was pure luck I was sitting in the tree, because I saw Harbhajan running down the road with his family behind him. I jumped down to let them in and got into trouble for it.”
The family’s bearer, ayah (nursemaid) and another manservant were Muslims who objected to the Sikh family coming in.“Mother and father gave me a dressing down for letting them in. But what could I do? They were screaming at me to help and I couldn’t do anything else.” Later that night, Surgeon Bliss took the Singh family across the road to the hospital, which was neutral territory and they were kept safe.
“I have recurring nightmares of him running down the street,” Mr Bliss says.
“Every day from then on there was no school, so I was sent into the hospital. I used to watch queues of people going in to be repaired, one person carrying his right arm to be stitched back on, and the chief of police coming in with an axe still buried in his face.”Surgeon Bliss was in the Indian Army Medical Corps and his son was born there in 1937. He sent the family back to the UK when World War II broke out in 1939, but they returned to India in 1945.
After partitioning in 1947, the family left India for Samoa and came to New Zealand in 1949.
Mr Bliss was educated at Timaru Boys’ High School, then King’s College in Auckland, where he remained to study mechanical engineering at Auckland University and pursue his career.
Meanwhile, after many months of hunger, horrors and homelessness, the Singh family escaped to India from the newly-established Pakistan. Harbhajan grew up to pursue a movie career in Bollywood, changing his name to Harbance Kumar. For some time he managed India’s iconic movie stars, Sunil and Nargis Dutt, and recently wrote a love story about them titled Together Forever.
His fame, however, was cemented when he was credited for pioneering the West Indian movie industry where he wrote, produced and directed landmark films including The Right And The Wrong, Girl From India, Caribbean Fox and Rainbow Raani in 2006, about a “rainbow society” where black, brown, white and yellow-skinned people coexist. He moved to New York in 1977 with his West Indian wife Chand.
He met an old German-Jewish lady, Lotte Nivelli, who thought the spirit of her son the Nazis had murdered during World War II radiated from him.She became Harbhajan’s adopted mother and, touched by the Nivelli family’s tragedy, he decided to relinquish Harbance Kumar, the Bollywood name which had made him famous, and took on Lotte’s son’s name, Mickey Nivelli.
Lotte’s husband was also murdered by the Nazis and her eternal love for him became the title of another book, Echoes Of Love From Heavens Above. Mr Nivelli never forgot his school friend Mr Bliss, who had saved his family and he conducted a lengthy and costly search.
“I am 74, but before I die, I want to meet him or his children and kneel down in gratitude for saving us from becoming rotting corpses on those streets,” he said in his search message.
Four months ago, Mr Bliss’ son Martin phoned him, saying “dad, I’ve had a peculiar phone call, what’s it about?”
British researchers Julie and Lee Childs had tracked down Mr Bliss to New Zealand and contacted Martin.
Mr Nivelli, who was offering a US$5000 reward, was receiving crank messages from people trying to make money from his anxiety in searching for Mr Bliss.
However, Mr Bliss’ accurate recollection of opening the gate for the Singh family, and a distinctive middle name, along with a schoolboy picture sent to Mr Nivelli, confirmed he was the old schoolmate.
Mr Nivelli emailed Martin Bliss saying: “Please tell your dad my main mission in life is to touch his feet and lay before him for saving the lives of my entire family.”
Tony Bliss replied: “Yes, I’m your long-lost friend. But there’s no need to touch my feet or lie before me.
“The sight of you running down the street, screaming for help has stayed with me all of my life. What else could I do? Stay there in safety and watch you run down and caught, or open the gate.”
Mr Nivelli responded with a plea for Mr Bliss and his partner Annette Brown to go to the United States as his guests.
The down-to-earth engineer replied: “I’d very much like to meet you again to shake you by the hand and give you a big man hug, which I hope would satisfy your desire to lie at my feet. That would seriously embarrass me.”
Mr Bliss and Ms Brown will soon spend a month with Mr and Mrs Nivelli in New York and will stopover in San Francisco to visit Mr Nivelli’s eldest sister, Manjit, who remembers the Bliss family.
Mr Nivelli says: “We’re all waiting to welcome you and Annette in the manner you deserve to be welcomed, a veritable hero, who in 1947 saved the lives of us nine innocent people fleeing the murderous rampage of religious fanatics.
“Please don’t underestimate your role in our lives, because I definitely do not. I’ve searched for you for 65 years to thank you.”
Partition of India
THE partition of British India in August 1947 was made on the basis of religious demographics.
It led to the creation of the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh) and Union of India (later the Republic of India).
The violent event resulted in the dissolution of the Indian Empire and the end of the British Raj. It resulted in a struggle between the new states of India and Pakistan and displaced up to 12.5 million people in the former British Indian Empire, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million.
Most estimates of the numbers of people who crossed the borders between India and Pakistan in 1947 range between 10 and 12 million.
--रिपोर्ट-- यह रिपोर्ट newzeland के newspaper में पर्काशित हो गयी है . Mickey Nivelli ने हमें टैग की है ......
