The book is set in a small village of Mano Majra touching the India Pakistan border. I am an imaginative person and just reading it’s short summary had me in a pre-independent India and I would never imagine to have survived the atrocities people had to face, just so they could see another day and the cycle would continue until it didn’t and their soul was free with their body crossing either side of the border in utter silence with thousands others. of pages that I was delaying reading it, but the horrors that I would have to face reading it was what scared me. This is one of those books that everyone that has no idea of the chaos of this time and the violence that followed partition is worth reading.I was contemplating reading one of the most amazing books “Train to Pakistan” written by a brilliant writer Khushwant Singh, and it is not because of the no. Then those wanting to go and come to the village in the three main characters we see the official side the political idealist. The village is run by the train that comes through as everyone arrives for the train coming those selling things to the passengers and the Villagers. Yes, the village is small but the events there reflect the events in both countries as Partition happened as people tried to get to the side they wanted. This is a short book but one of those that is like an epic in a way as it has so many little threads and little side stories about those around this small village. The trains arrival is the heartbeat of the village as passengers and hawkers are about ! Only a solitary sikh peasant carrying an Ironshod bamboo staff followed by his wife with an infant resting on her hip remained with the Hawkers on the platform.The man hoisted their rolled bedding onto his head it there with one hand, In the other he carried a large tin of clarified butter. But when guard blew his whistle for depature, most of them were back on the train. When it steamed in, the crying of hawkers on the platform and the passengers rushing about and shouting to each other gave the impression that many people would be getting off. The train this morning was only an hour late- almost like pre-war days. As time moves on the three main characters can Jugga prove he was just set up and what happens when the train stops coming but also when there are dead Sikhs who are caught between the two in this situation on the train from Pakistan? One day Iqbal arrives on the same train as some police reinforcements this young man is very political and seems out of place in this small village. This is all going to be looked at by the second main character Hukum Chand he is a magistrate that has come to see events the village has a regular train from Pakistan that arrives on a set schedule. When he has things taken in the robbery that lead to the moneylender’s death. In fact the only three brick built building s are the respective temples for each religion.We have shown events the events which happen after a money lender Ram lal is murdered the suspicion falls on Jugga. The beauty of this book is how he chooses to use one single village that until the events of 1947 the village of Mano Marija is on the border between the two new countries as the partition is happening until then it has seen all that lived there which is a mix of both Sikhs, Hindus and Muslim. This is the opening and that long hot summer is felt like a pressure cooker of events that year. People began saying that God was punishing them for their sins For weeks, the sparse clouds cast only shadows. And the summer was longer, No one could remember when the monsoon had been so late. It was hotter than usual and drier and dustier. Even the weather had a different feel in India that year. The summer of 1947 was not like other Indian summers. He also was a politician later in his life. He was later an editor and journalist for various publications. He then worked in Lahore before partition and in the Indian foreign service these experiences lead to him writing this book about the events in 1947. Khushwant Singh Studied in London law and was called to the bar after that. It is one I have been wanting to read for a number of years as it is considered a classic of Indian fiction and one of the best books about the partition of Pakistan and India. I ran a bit late and here is my last 1956 club book.
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