In Every Dream Home a Heartache

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2018

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

Over the last twenty years or so hundreds of mansions have appeared in the Kharian region of the Punjab. Each mansion represents a successful migration to the West – some to the UK but mostly to Norway. For three or four weeks a year the mansions are holiday homes to the returning migrants and their Norwegian born children. This is often a time when differences and rifts in extended families emerge and a time when young people must assess their futures.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the BBC World Service. I am Asadale. This is every dream home, a heartache.
0:07.0	We have come to this corner of the small town called Kherya on the Dinger Road in Pakistan.
0:18.0	Villages on both sides have had an exodus of migrants to Scandinavia and in particular one country, Norway.
0:25.6	Some villages are even dubbed Little Norway. Behind each home is a powerful story.
0:36.4	You can hear a local band playing their version of an English song which is called in every home a heartache.
0:50.0	We are going to visit three mansions to speak to the people who own them and those who build and live around them.
0:57.0	My name is Aslem Asen.
0:59.0	This is my village and it is from here that I set off in 1971 and reached Norway.
1:05.0	The original idea was to make enough money and return to Pakistan to start a stable business.
1:11.0	So I bought a plot and built a house. I did not know I would spend my entire life living in Norway.
1:21.0	Like Aslam, I belonged to a village in Pakistan, but I came to the UK.
1:27.9	What makes the town of Khharina so special is its links to Norway. When the first men left, like Aslam, it was a different place.
1:36.0	Today, where once stood mud houses, stand mansions.
1:40.0	All the houses were made of mud. The whole village was like that. There were only 15 to 20 houses.
1:50.0	Aslam is one of the first generation of Pakistanis who migrated to Norway in the 70s.
1:57.0	Having spent most of the last 40 years abroad, he has built this house in stages. There's two sections to the house.
2:07.0	The first was made in 1992 and it wasn't enough for our means.
2:12.0	The second section was made in 2008. Right now it's just
2:17.6	me and the servants. I only use one room otherwise it's empty. Usually this house is locked and the servants
2:26.1	look after it. This is a Siemens washing machine it is imported. This is our living room. We can close the door and this becomes separate
2:40.1	from the rest of the house for entertaining guests.
2:43.0	A living room or bettak in Punjabi
	...

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