The fall of a Superhero!

Preeti was back after 45 days and was struggling daily for the groceries were depleted. On the subsequent Saturday (almost 2 weeks back), all of us went to Big Bazaar to fill in the quota of the month! Jay had grown up and was able to sit upright in the trolley and Kanav had become naughtier so needed a tighter vigil.

While Preeti was gathering her pick of the vegetables, I went to weigh them for her. Suddenly we realized that Kanav was no more around. We had our bouts of Panic in the past and were used to these situations and quickly jumped into action. While Preeti took hold of Jay and the groceries, I went to look out for Kanav. After a small round around the vegetables, I was not able to find him and was just running through the various options when I saw him leisurely walking around with a Frooti and taking quick sips.

From a distance he saw me; and when I waved at him to come back his eyes brightened and he just dashed upstairs on the first floor. The first floor houses toys for kids and I was sure that was where I am going to find him. So I made for the section and when I reached there, I saw him making a sales pitch to a father and son - "Wait! main aapko remote car dikhaata hoon." He picked up one of those cheap remote cars while in the other hand still had the Frooti.

I called him out sweetly and told him that we were going.

Kanav - "Papa remote car chahiye"

Me - "Hum jaa rahe hain"

Kanav - "Nahin Papa. remote car chahiye! Please"

And he was on my tail now. While making sure that I don't look at him directly to make him comfortable, through the corner of my eye, I was making sure that he was just next to me running along repeating his last sentence like a recorded toy.

When we reached where Preeti was, it was almost 15 minutes and she had missed the fun. But the situation here was hot! She had been sizzling in the thought of Kanav went missing and every minute was like an hour to her. Kanav's sight was not only relief to her but also the tipping point for the volcano to errupt.

Kanav playfully said Mamma dekho main........and then there was just the GOONJ. Thappad ki Goonj for everyone to hear clearly. Preeti was over Kanav and Kanav had a shock of his life for he did not know what called for it.

It was almost 5 seconds later that Kanav realized what had happened and started crying. I am not sure if it was the shock of the Slap or was it that the Slap really hurt but I felt pity for my kidoo. While Preeti was absolutely right in taking the extreme step, kanav for himself was completely innocent.

So when I picked him up to soothe him, he aksed me - "Papa mamma ne mere ko kyon maara...sob sob...".

I asked him - "Kannu aap binna bataye challe gaye they naa. Iss liye mamma ne pitty ki"

Kanav - "Main bataa ke gaya tha papa."

I was shocked for he did not either tell me or Preeti as to where he was heading. And so I asked him again - "Beta aap kisko bataa ke gaaye they?"

Still crying and sobbing, he answered - "Papa main Spiderman ko bata ke gaya tha!"

Its been 2 weeks and we just can't help rolling on the floor whenever we either see or hear Spiderman for Kanav's dear Superhero betrayed him by not telling his mom as to where was Kanav when she was looking for her.

Manish

The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan

One cannot talk or write about Partition without invoking a lot of emotions. As Ramchandra Guha also says that one biggest flaw in the writing of History is that the author himself/herself has an opinion and its most difficult to talk about the topic unbiased. But Yasmin Khan has risen to this challenge and left her text un-corrupted by any bias and I simply can't resist thanking her.
Yasmin Khan followed a contemporary historian's method of narrative history to describe the events during the dark days of Partition. While Maulana had described the various events leading to Partition, Yasmin Khan weaves a web of situations around this dreadful event.
The book is a slow starter and seems to be a little over analytic. But once you proceed to the third chapter, the narrative becomes nothing less than gripping.
For a generation born post emergency, its highly impossible to understand or even envisage the chaos of those times. But Yasmin's book through a collosal research and lucid writing has been able to do the impossible. She invokes images in mind which even well written novels like Tamas or Pinjar have not been able to do.
These were times which had no Parallel in history. There was no guiding post. To make it worse, communications were at there Nadir. We cannot deny it as the biggest Political error of the Modern India. But, Yasmin, as Maulana had illustrated that there was no single event which could have been pointed to lead us to these dark times. The seeds were sowed long back when Jinnah forming a Muslim League. All events post that just added to the pile and in 1947, we reached the tipping point over which Mountbatten just gave us a push.
Unlike Maulana, Yasmin Khan is not a Mountbatten fan. She has analyzed his actions to a great depth. Personally, in this part, the narrative to me seemed as if Mountbatten had a list of To-dos and Partition was just one of them.
When I shifted from Lucknow to Hoshiarpur in the 90s, the absence of mosque's and Muslims in this part of India was a shocker to me as a kid. I later thought that its just that Muslim's were centered a little more in UP and Sikh's in Punjab. But my readings of the Partition have made things more understandable.
Through Yasmin's book, I believe I have been able to live a life of the refugee for at least a week till I read this book. And if it was such an emotionally draining experience to just read, I just cannot imagine the trauma and horrors of the people who lived through. As one of the social workers remarked that the trauma was such that they didn't know what to say and how to console the ones affected; I would want to leave these horrors to rest for now.

Manish Saini