Intizaar Hussain in this work has very beautifully sketched
out a nascent picture of the partition of Pakistan. Free of the atrocities of
the time and the bloodshed, it tactfully deals with the broad questions of
identity and belonging. In the entire text, we feel a general sense of
vague-ness, sense of loss and absent mindedness as the four characters move
through to the new land. However, this very present state refers to the deep
relationship of the figures with their past. It is as if they have latched onto
a part of themselves so strongly that the new dimension or sphere of existence
doesn’t make complete sense to them or even matters so to say.
When it comes to counting the number of people in the
company and the fear that then follows, it is evident of how the characters are
fearful about their new existence and life, and how the new setting has
distorted their paradigm and thought, fragmented it in a sense. Furthermore, there
is a general lack of need to name the characters from the author, implying that
the sense of identity is a questionable part for the author as well as the four
characters. It is as if they are striving towards finding a new identity for
themselves or may be trying to go back to how they were previously but are
stuck in a limbo with nothing to guide them forward.
This notion of general anonymity and puzzled present is the
crux of the text primarily because, according to my opinion, there were many
different responses to the partitioning of the sub-continent. Many Muslims who
were promised a religious freedom in the new, separate homeland of Pakistan,
were so attached to the Indian land, amidst its atrocities, that finding a new
place to call home was found to be problematic. This very theme is attached to
the organization of the text and thus presents the partition picture in a
secluded context.
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