The Partition Project

When her grandmother comes off the airplane in Houston from Pakistan, Mahnoor knows that having Dadi move in is going to disrupt everything about her life. That fact is confirmed when Maha has to give up her bedroom to the grumpy old woman and is assigned to be Dadi’s unofficial babysitter.

As an aspiring journalist, Maha knows all about the importance of facts (though her best friend would say that stories are just as important). She can’t wait to start her journalism elective—until their teacher announces that their big assignment will be to film a documentary, which feels way outside of what she would call “journalism.”

While Dadi starts to settle into life in Houston and Maha scrambles for a subject for her documentary, the two of them start talking. About Dadi’s childhood in northern India—and about the Partition that forced her to leave her home and relocate to the newly created Pakistan.

As details of Dadi’s life are revealed, Dadi’s personal story feels a lot more like the breaking news that Maha loves so much. And before she knows it, she has the subject of her documentary.