Gawahi

 “Woh Jo Kho Gaye” shows that ideas of belonging and nationhood can conveniently be regarded irrelevant to the present. The story suggests that nationhood is only a product of memory, and nostalgia. The absence of memory particularly, “Kash, hum yaad rakh saktey key hum kahan sey kab niklay they aur kaisey niklay they? Aur kyun niklay they?” leaves them helpless in making sense of the present. The crisis in the story is then largely based on the rootedness of man in a place of origin, and next, to any movement but which credits a sane purpose. While they wish for memory to situate them in the present, and Intezar Hussain uses apt words like ‘aafiat’ to describe the scene, the ‘zakhmi sar wala aadmi’ in his current pain and anguish says “Main ukhar chukka hoon. Ab meray liye yeh yaad karney sey kia farq parta hai ke who kaun si sa’at thi aur kaunsa mausam tha aur kaunsi basti thi.” However, this feeling of displacement and disconnection with the past is only acceptable until their existence is vouched for, by the others, “Afsos ke mai ab doosron ki gawahi per zinda hoon” and temporality of this frustration causes them to follow the darkness. The inability of the present to be inclusive makes them forget to count themselves and finally it’s shocking and bewildering until their presence is testified by the others. The whole concept of individuality is based on trusting the other, leading to remarkable existential crisis, which thrives on the concept of witness, or ‘Gawahi’ in Islam.

“Sou tum apni gawahi se agar phir jao tou mai nahin rahun ga”