Train to pakistan: by Khushwant Singh

It is a heart wrenching story about Muslim and Hindu refugees who are slaughtered at the time of partition of India.

It is a very small book which can be finished in 5 hours. Those who want to know about partition must read this book. It highlights the mistakes done by people. It shows the mental attitude of people who have lost their near and dear ones. The social structure and hierocracy of people at the time of independence is nauseous. But in the end it creates a feeling of sympathy.

Rating (1-10): it gets 6.

The whole story is weaved around the village Mano Majra. Refugees who are coming to India are killed during their journey. A ghost train containing dead bodies of thousands of refugees arrives at Mano Majra. The same people who livd peacefully before get ready to kill all the Muslims going to Pakistan. Amidst all the violence there is love between a Muslim girl and a Sikh rowdy. The story also shows the inability of a learned man (Iqbal) to take action. The story ends with a little suspense. A life is sacrificed for the sake of good thing. The story resembles the film “Gadar”. In the end the story shows that love is much powerful than hatred.

About author: Khushwant Singh was born in 1915, his very first novel “train to Pakistan” is a major hit.

He was the editor of “New Delhi” magazine and “the Hindustan times”. He was a syndicate columnist. He is famous for critics and controversial views.

Bomb scare at PESIT

The college started today as usual. The classes commenced at 8:15 in the morning. There were not much of disturbances except that some students who came late tried to jump into the class through open window.

We get ½ an hour break after every 2 classes. During this time I went out to buy 2 refills for my pen. Outside the building a police bike was parked; nearby, its owner was talking to the principal of the college. While I was passing them, I heard the police say “its better to get all the students out” I should have guessed something fishy was going on, but at that time my pea brain was filled with thoughts of the girl walking next to me. I went outside college( as the campus mart was completely filled with students).i bought 2 refills from shop nearby and came back to college.

To my astonishment all the students were coming out of the building (as in film kindergarten cops) a mob was being created in the drive way. When I tried to enter the building a college security guard stopped me and said “you cannot go in” and asked me to stand with the rest of the students. I had left my bag in the classroom and I had to get it now. There is a saying that “there is a hero inside every one of us” the hero inside me probably did not have time sense, came out at this point.

Since they had blocked the main entrance of the building, our superhero (that’s me) tried to enter into the building from back gate 9near the canteen). My bag was still a hostage on the fourth floor of the building. So our superhero had to go up up and away to get it back. As I entered the building, I could hear the MI2 music going on in my head. Our superhero instead of using the stairs, jumps into the elevator with six other like him. But the elevator stopped at very first floor and a guard a hyperexitedly asked all of us to step out and go to drive way. But our stubborn superhero dose not give-up. He uses the stairs at the other end and reaches the second floor. There he is once again caught by a teacher, but this time the teacher personally took me out of the building.

There was a traffic jam in the driveway, other than this the situation was completely calm. Students were standing in groups talking jokes. When the principal declared holiday everyone shouted “yaaa”. Even though the whole building was evacuated the canteen was still running. A group of police care and sniffer dogs came into the seen. As I was standing in the driveway a cop was telling us to go out of campus. Even if a bomb had blown off just in front of him, nothing would have happened to him as he had a 7 inch thick armor of fat.

As me and my friends were going out of campus, the director was coming in, in his black SUV (Honda CRV). Finally we came out of college without even a single fart going off.

Orientation at PESIT

I was feeling a bit cheerful that my college is starting after 3 long months of uneventful holidays. At college I had orientation program on 11th of September. I had no idea that it would turn out like this.

The invitation to program said that it would start at 10 am (it mentioned nothing about end time, people at PES are very clever) I sincerely showed up at the gates of PES at 10:20 am (because of my cozy bed). I feverishly went into the auditorium, and found that it was completely packed (even balcony and upper balcony). As soon as I went in a volunteer came to me and hissed “come with me”. She took me directly near the stage and made me sit a row behind the ‘press’ table. The program had not yet started.

The program started with chief guest as the last arrival. He gave a genuine reason for being late. He said he had gone out with his wife for shopping (who in the hell would go shopping at 9:30 am) the program started of smoothly, after sometime I felt like going to toilet. Other than this nothing went wrong.

A man was seated beside me and a extremely beautiful girl after him. After a while the man got up and went off. I gave the girl a broad smile, but she looked at me as if I was a monster in clothes. So I quickly turned away from her. After few minutes I said “hi whats up”, but she got up and walked off to some other row (I can write a book on ‘how to make women hate you’) this incident made me bladder full. By the end of first secession I was excited to go to bathroom.

After first secession (in second secession) there was a lecture on rules and regulations of the college. In between the two secession we had 10 minutes break. When I got up to go to bathroom during break, the same old volunteer came and pushed me back “you are not supposed to leave, the program will continue shortly”. Before I could do anything the second secession started. The director of the institution started hammering us with his slide shows. The AC had made the hall so cold that I was shivering to keep myself warm. If you think that Antarctica is the coldest place on earth then you have not been to PES yet. Director even pointed out that it was the first time the AC was working fine without any glitches. But for me it was creating a hell lot of trouble. For the first time I cursed the guy who invented AC with all the slang I ever knew. I had to sit in this condition of next 1 hour. By the end of the secession so much pressure had been created that it could have need used as a water canon. (used to disperse crowd)

Finally I came out of the hall feeling very very sick. It was an orientation program and there was no direction for restroom. Suddenly I started panicking (what if there is no toilet here). My bladder was so full I would have flooded the whole building. I asked a guy who was standing near me for directions to bathroom. He told me that that there is a bathroom in basement. To tell u the truth, it is damn painful to climb stairs when your bladder is full. By the time I reached the toilet most of my underwear was soaked. Finally I emerged out of bathroom feeling really really happy.

Dear friends it is once in a lifetime experience so I hope you all have privilege to be in a situation like me.

Disclaimer: author has no connection with the person in this post. So don’t mistake me.