Qno#4

Characters list of Novel cracking India:

Lenny SETHI
Lenny is the narrator. She is about four years old when the book begins and eight when it ends. She may be a
Parsee, a Zoroastrian whose ancestors fled Persia for religious freedom. Lenny suffers from Polio when she is
young. Her legs are weak from this disease, so she wears braces and gets massages from her family and friends
to help build leg strength. Because she has a difficult time walking, her mother has hired Ayah as a nanny.
Lenny lives in Lahore, India.
Ayah
Ayah, whose real name is SHANTA, is an 18-year-old ayah (nanny) for Lenny. Lenny cannot walk well, so Ayah
takes her everywhere. Often, this suggests that she takes Lenny along when she visits with friends and suitors
her own age. Ayah is Hindu and grew up within the Punjab region but chooses to not dress in Punjabi clothes
because she makes extra money wearing Hindu attire.
Ice-Candy Man
Ice-Candy man is one of Ayah's many suitors. He sells Popsicles (ice candies) for a living. In cooler weather, he
supports himself by using tricks to earn money, like pretending to sell birds and "telephoning Allah." He is
Muslim and has a wife in another town whom we never meet.
Masseur
Another of Ayah's suitors, Masseur is a Muslim man living in Lahore. He sometimes massages Lenny's sore legs,
but Lenny knows that he also massages Ayah.
Cousin
Lenny's cousin, the son of Electric Aunt. He is older than Lenny. He often tricks Lenny into doing things she
doesn't want to do. He attends school.
MUCCHO and PAPOO
Lower-caste Hindu mother (MUCCHO) and daughter (PAPOO) who work in the SETHI household as sweepers.
Imam Din: The SETHI family cook. He is a Muslim man whose family still lives in PIR PINDO. He is playful with
Ayah and takes Lenny with him to visit PIR PINDO and Amritsar.
HARI: The SETHI family gardener. He is a Hindu Untouchable and wears a dhoti. Mother: Lenny's mother, Mrs.
SETHI, a Parsee woman. Father : Lenny's father, Mr. Jana SETHI, a Parsee man.
ADI: Lenny's brother. He is one year and one month younger than Lenny. He attends school and is very fair-
skinned.
Themes:
Religious Tension
India may be a country of the many different religions which (generally) coexist peaceably. The SETHA family
may be a part of a, particularly diverse community. They live among Parsee, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and
Christians. because the novel progresses, these religious groups start making each other's lives miserable.
Lenny is just too young to actually concentrate on the political changes of the days, but she isn't altogether
unaware of them. She understands that her family moves north because their neighborhood is not any longer
safe for them. More importantly, she pays attention to the Colonel's speech when he urges people to reject the
teaching of Gandhi. Nearing the close of WWII, India experienced many changes as Britain tried to take care of
its grasp on the colony. The native people viewed the war as a chance to maximize political upheaval for his or
her independence. As time progresses, people start paying more attention to political leaders like Gandhi who
promise the deliverance of their people. These messages, however, are often intertwined with religious
mandates which pose danger for people of differing religions.

The theme of inter-community marriage is at the core of SIDHWA’s novels like Ice-Candy-Man, An American
Brat and therefore the Crow Eaters. Her handling of the theme of inter-community marriages is relevant and
contemporary. This sensitive issue arouses acrimonious debates in PARSI Community. In PARSI
faith, it's believed that a PARSI might be one only by birth. In mixed marriages, the children lose their right to be
members of the PARSI community. The PARSIS have a patriarchal society. While handling the theme of marriage,
SIDHWA maintains a balance without revolting against rigid social codes. In her novel An American Brat, SIDHWA
examines the theme of inter-faith marriage intimately . Its protagonist FEROZA migrates to America where she
intends to marry a Jew boy David Press. Her PARSI community opposes this marriage and FEROZA has to
withdraw her move but she expresses her conviction to marry a boy of her choice only, irrespective of religion.
In Ice-Candy-Man, Sidhwa presents the theme of interfaith marriage through the love relationship between the
Ice-Candy-Man and the Hindu Ayah. On seeing his fellow Muslims massacred, the Ice-Candy man goes mad
with rage and keeps his beloved Ayah in the brothels of Hira Mandi in Lahore. Then he realizes his mistake and
marries the Hindu Ayah but now love has become powerless. The Ayah is rescued and is taken to a Recovered
Women’s Camp in Amritsar. Thus, a number of themes have been well-integrated in the narrative of  Ice-Candy-
man.
Train to Pakistan Character List
LALA RAM LAL
LALA RAM LAL is the moneylender of MANO MAJRA, and his family is the town’s only Hindu family. At the
beginning of the novel, MALLI and a pack of dacoits murder him, and attempt to frame JUGGA for the murder.
MALLI
A young dacoit who is the leader of a gang from another village. He and JUGGA hate one another, and he attempts
to frame JUGGA for the murder of LALA RAM LAL. At the end of the novel, he is left in charge of the property of
MANO MAJRA’S Muslim population.
JUGGA/JUGGUT SINGH
JUGGUT Singh, nicknamed JUGGA, is the main protagonist of  Train to Pakistan. A young, strapping dacoit with a
good heart, he is the resident “bad boy” of MANO MAJRA. By the end of the novel, he redeems himself and saves
the lives of MANO MAJRA’S Muslim people.
NOORAN
NOORAN is the daughter of MANO MAJRA’S Muslim weaver, who is also the mullah of MANO MAJRA’S mosque. She
and JUGGA often have trysts together, and by the end of the novel she is pregnant with his child.
JUGGUT Singh’s mother
JUGGA’S no-nonsense, long-suffering mother disapproves of her son’s reckless ways but can’t do much about it.
She’s the only one that knows NOORAN is pregnant with JUGGA’s child.
ALAM Singh
ALAM is JUGGA’s deceased father. He was an infamous dacoit and was hanged two years before for murder. His
reputation impacts that of his son.
IQBAL Singh/IQBAL Muhammad
IQBAL is an educated man from Delhi sent to inform the people of MANO MAJRA of various petitions for
government reform.. Instead, he gets hauled into jail alongside JUGGA for LALA Ram LAL’S murder, and accused of
being a member of the Muslim League.
BHAI Meet Singh
Meet Singh is a priest and the guardian of the Sikh temple in MANO MAJRA. At the end of the novel when the band
of Sikh extremists come to MANO MAJRA and gather volunteers to murder a train of Muslims ENROUTE to Pakistan,
he is the only voice of dissent.
Banta Singh
Banta Singh is the LAMBARDAR (local headman) in MANO MAJRA. He collects taxes for the state and thus is
considered a local authority. At the end of the novel he informs the police in CHUNDUNNUGGER about the plan to
murder the Muslims on the train to Pakistan.
HUKUM CHAND
HUKUM CHAND is the magistrate and deputy commissioner of MANO MAJRA and the surrounding
district. Morally questionable, he struggles with many of his decisions throughout the novel. In
the end, he attempts to avoid a massacre of the Muslims in his district, and releases JUGGA and
IQBAL so they can stop the train massacre.
The Head Constable
The police officer who arrests JUGGA and IQBAL, he is the lackey of HUKUM CHAND and the
SUBINSPECTOR.
The SUBINSPECTOR/INSPECTOR Sahib
A corrupt official who imprisons JUGGA and IQBAL although he knows they didn’t murder LALA
Ram LAL. He starts the rumor that IQBAL is a member of the Muslim League in an attempt to
further discredit him. He also threatens JUGGA with torture so that JUGGA will reveal the true
identities of LALA Ram LAL’S murderers.
Imam BAKSH
Imam BAKSH is NOORAN’S father and the imam and mullah of MANO MAJRA’S mosque. Blind, he
is unaware of NOORAN’S relationship with JUGGA.
HASEENA Begum
HASEENA is a young Muslim prostitute who HUKUM CHAND solicits.
PREM Singh
A colleague of HUKUM CHAND’S who tries to curry favor with groups of English people.
SUNDARI
The daughter of HUKUM CHAND’S orderly. Four days after she and her husband Mansa Ram were
married, a mob rapes her on her way to Gujranwala.
Mansa Ram
SUNDARI’S husband. On their way to Gujranwala a Muslim mob attacks their bus. The mob rapes
his wife and cuts his penis off.
Sunder Singh
A Sikh war hero with a row of medals for victorious battles in Burma, Eritrea, and Italy. He shoots
his children and wife when they are stuck for several days on a over packed train to India with no
provisions. He doesn’t have the nerve to kill himself, and eventually makes it to India safely.
The Leader of the Mob
A young man who comes to MANO MAJRA from a surrounding village. He incites the Sikhs of
MANO MAJRA to turn on their Muslim neighbors, and devises the plot to murder the train of
Muslims bound for Pakistan.
THEMES
1. The Partition of India and Religious Warfare
KHUSHWANT Singh’s historical novel A Train to Pakistan is set in the fictional town of MANO MAJRA during the
summer of 1947, the year of the infamously bloody Partition of India. Following World War II, Great Britain
granted its former colony independence and then divided it into the states of India and Pakistan—an attempt to
dispel bitter religious tensions by providing a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. Murderous chaos ensued,
however, as millions of Muslims attempted to cross the partition into Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs into India.
Singh uses the tiny frontier village of MANO MAJRA, once an “[oasis] of peace,” as a microcosm of the religious,
caste, and moral divisions that had long existed but were exposed during the nation’s literal rift. Singh suggests
that the violence that erupted from India’s partition had less to do with outside influences and more to do with
the willingness of people to succumb to pre-existing prejudice and hatred.
At first, MANO MAJRA, a religiously diverse border town, is blissfully unaware of the tumult surrounding it
despite its proximity to a railway bridge that connects India with Pakistan. For example, when the magistrate
HUKUM CHAND asks the SUBINSPECTOR what “the situation” is like in MANO MAJRA, the latter says that he is not
sure if anyone “even knows that the British have left and the country is divided into Pakistan and Hindustan.” He
thinks that some of the villagers know who Mahatma Gandhi is, but he doubts that anyone is conscious of
Muhammad Ali Jinnah—the founding father of Pakistan. This blissful ignorance quickly changes in favor of
wrathful violence, however, when a trainload of dead Sikhs arrives from Pakistan at the MANO MAJRA train
station. Singh shows how this tragic event, including a pre-existing prejudice, spurs a dangerous cycle of
hostility and violence.
The first sign that things are changing in the village is when the train schedule goes awry, causing passenger
trains to arrive exceptionally late. For MANO MAJRA, which uses the arrival and departure of the trains to
determine its daily schedule, this disrupts the sense of normalcy in the village. The second sign is that the arrival
of the “ghost train” from Pakistan, which plants the primary seed of suspicion within the villagers’ mind. Finally,
Sikh officers show up and ask the villagers to offer all the wood and kerosene they will spare. The villagers are
kept within the dark about why the soldiers need these materials, but later they smell the stench of burning
wood and kerosene mixed thereupon of charred flesh. The secrecy of the Sikh officers' et al. in authority,
including HUKUM CHAND, who presides over the burning of the bodies, instils the villagers with the sense that
something is very wrong which they're under possible threat.
The village is exposed to further violence after the monsoon, when the rainwater causes the Sutlej River to rise.
When the villagers witness several people floating within the water, they see stab wounds and therefore the
mutilated breasts of girls , making it clear that these people had been massacred. The sight of those bodies,
including the knowledge that many Sikhs and Muslims were murdered in Pakistan before being sent into India
on the “ghost train,” spurs the Sikhs into violent action, convincing many to partake within the plot to kill
Muslim refugees getting to Pakistan.
Not all of the inhabitants of MANO MAJRA succumb to hatred. The local BHAI, Meet Singh, isn't a very gifted
priest, but he uses his position of reference to appeal to people’s sense of decency. His efforts to remind his
fellow Sikhs that their Muslim neighbors shouldn't be blamed for the behavior of Muslims across the border
convince be futile in tempering the violent impulses stimulated by visiting Sikh soldiers. Indeed, one evening
MANO MAJRA receives a visit from a gaggle of Sikh soldiers with rifles slung on their shoulders, one among
whom—a boy leader—entices the gang to interact in revenge killings in response to the massacres of Hindus
and Sikhs in Pakistan. He urges the male villagers to kill “two MUSULMANS” for “each Hindu and Sikh [the
Muslims] kill.” Meet Singh highlights the shortage of sense this makes; the Muslims of MANO MAJRA don't have
anything to try to to with the violence in Pakistan. The priest reminds the gang that it's more important to take
Muslims individually than to condemn a whole group, but his measured appeals to rationality prove futile as he
is outdone by the boy leader’s appeal to the crowd’s thirst for revenge. Later, following the DACOITY at LALA
Ram LAL’S house, the head constable asks if anyone has spoken to “a young MUSSULMAN Babu called
Mohammed IQBAL who was a member of the Muslim League.” The villagers find it strange that the police think
that an informed , middle-class man would be a suspect during a DACOITY, and start to suspect that the
Muslims have sent IQBAL as a spy. The head constable’s questions succeed in dividing MANO MAJRA “into two
halves as neatly as a knife cuts through a pat of butter,” revealing how easily people can be manipulated to
mistrust those whom they call friends.
Toward the top of the novel, the boy leader plots with Sikh villagers to kill many Muslim refugees who are
going to be sitting on the roof of a Pakistan-bound train. Meet Singh advises his fellow Sikhs on proper
moral action, but he doesn't interfere with an excessive amount of out of fear of also becoming a victim of
retributive violence. However, the BHAI’S words do inspire JUGGUT Singh, a former robber well-known for
violence, to require redemptive action. JUGGER visits Meet Singh and asks the priest to read him a prayer.
He then asks if the prayer is sweet, and therefore the priest assures him that the Guru’s word is usually
good and may help those that benefit. If people perform evil, the Guru’s words will work against them.
JUGGER goes on to “do good” by sacrificing his own life so as to save lots of the train filled with Muslim
refugees. Through this, the author suggests that language alone cannot either stop or spur violence but,
just like the head constable’s manipulative suggestions to the villagers, language is often a catalyst that
prompts people to act on already existing desires.
By refusing to cast blame toward any particular religious group for the violence of the partition, Singh
illustrates the complexity of humanity during a time when people were simplified to their religious
allegiances. He gives detailed accounts of the cruelties committed by all to stress that such habits aren't
limited to certain religious factions, but rather, are common to humanity. Yet whilst Singh uses the story of
India’s partition as a cautionary tale of what can occur when people succumb to their baser instincts, his
depiction of JUGGA’S destruction of the rope shows that humanity is additionally capable of extraordinary
acts of courage and heroism within the face of hatred.
2. Gender and Masculinity

Even as love proves a powerful force within the desperate world of A Train to Pakistan, women in the story
are routinely denied autonomy and defined primarily by their relationships to men. At the same time, men
in the story are subject to stringent expectations of masculinity that shape their prevalence towards
violence. By highlighting the highly-restrictive attitudes that prescribe both male and female behavior
throughout the novel, Singh suggests that, in addition to religious and caste tensions, gendered prejudice
is heavily to blame for the horrors following the Partition.
Women in the story lack their own subjectivity. When they are discussed, it is in the context of their
relationships with men. Even NOORAN, who is more fully detailed than any other female character in the
novel, is defined as JUGGUT’S lover and the daughter of the Muslim weaver, Imam BAKSH. JUGGUT’S
mother is given no name at all, though NOORAN calls her “Bey,” a reference to her status as a female elder
and a term that reinforces her role as a nurturer. Muslim prostitute HASEENA is perhaps the most
powerless female character in the story, whose thoughts and feelings are filtered through her client,
HUKUM CHAND’S, perceptions of her. These characterizations of women reinforce the notion that they
lack individual agency. Women are also regarded as objects or vessels for men’s desires. During a
conversation with IQBAL in their shared cell, for example, JUGGUT speaks of British women as
unattainable sexual objects (“HOURIS”) and calls Indian women “black buffalos” due to their darker skin.
The comparison of English women to HOURIS, or angels, reinforces a myth, learned through colonial rule,
that white women are superior to darker-skinned women and are more desirable because they were long
forbidden to Indian men.
When women are not rendered sex objects, they become emblems of purity whose chastity determines
their value. CHAND says Hindu women are so “pure that they would rather commit suicide than let a
stranger touch them.” This indicates that Hindu women who become rape victims worry that the crime
committed against them will devalue them in the eyes of Hindu men. CHAND’S comment is especially
hypocritical given that he happily uses the services of HASEENA, the teenaged Muslim prostitute while
rhapsodizing about the “purity” of Hindu women. This indicates grossly disparate standards of behavior
for Hindu men and women, which constrain the latter while ensuring the sexual license of the former.
When men cannot prove their masculinity through the sexual exploitation or objectification of women,
they resort to violence.
Sikh men in the novel in fact characterize their manhood by a willingness to confront or commit violence.
For example, when a group of Sikh soldiers goes to the GURDWARA during a community meeting, a boy
leader stands out among them and baits the Sikh male villagers into killing Muslims by saying that their
masculinity depends on it. Singh describes the young man as “small in size, slight of build” and “somewhat
effeminate.” This indicates that the boy leader is using his military authority to rouse the male villagers into
violence, as a means of validating his own manhood. Manhood is also threatened by the presence of the
HIJRAS, whose transgender or intersex identities place them outside of traditional modes of masculinity
and femininity. The HIJRAS’ flagrant disregard for social norms allows them to call attention to the
performative nature of gender. During a confrontation with a Sikh and Hindu mob that threatens to kill a
Muslim infant, for example, the HIJRAS “[whirl] around so fast that their skirts [fly] in the air,” revealing
their genitals and prompting them to ask the mob if they are “Hindus or Muslims,” a comic stroke that
pokes fun at rigid obedience to categories of identity. When the Sikhs offer to let the Hijras live in
exchange for their immediate departure from the village, one HIJRA “[runs] his finger in a Sikh’s beard” and
asks if he is afraid that the men will become like the HIJRAS and stop having children—which sends the
crowd, including other Sikhs, into laughter again. The comment is a not-so-subtle reference to the
tendencies of some Indian men to have sexual affairs with HIJRAS while denying any affiliation with them in
public. Singh uses the HIJRAS’ mockery of the mob, particularly of the Sikhs, who are most hostile toward
them, to address the hypocrisy of the men. The animosity toward the HIJRAS further suggests that
masculinity is often constructed as a rejection of anything approaching femininity. The novel’s treatment of
women and HIJRAS exposes their vulnerability in a country that does not value them individually and
ultimately highlights how sexism and gender discrimination were related to the vicious cycle of violence
that engulfed the country. The gendered nature of that violence is evidenced in the novel’s repeated
mention of rape as a weapon of war. For example, Muslims in MANO MAJRA speak of Rumours “of
gentlewomen having their veils taken off” and being “raped in the marketplace.” The story of SUNDARI is
another horrific account, as Muslims rape the newlywed and then cut off her husband’s penis—this literal
unmanning being the basest and most humiliating of punishments. This routine denial of humanity to
women and HIJRAS is one of the precursors, Singh suggests, to the wider violence that overtook India in
1947.
3. Postcolonial Anxiety and National Identity

A Train to Pakistan details how the Partition of India not only divided the nation geographically but also
demarcated the British colonial era from that of postcolonial independence. In the novel, some characters claim
that India was better off under British rule, despite the partition being Britain’s solution, according to the
historical record, for stemming the rise of religious strife. Singh depicts India as a place looking to define itself
after colonial rule and struggling to create its own path towards progress. The novel ultimately illustrates how
overcoming colonial rule is not merely a task of reasserting control over one’s political destiny, but of
surmounting the psychological impact of decades of subordination.
The author uses IQBAL Singh, a political worker, who, along with JUGGUT Singh, is falsely accused of committing
the DACOITY against LALA Ram LAL, to represent the desire for Indian independence and progress without the
aid or presence of the British. IQBAL was educated in Britain and is the only character in the novel who is frank
about his distaste toward the British Empire. Unlike Imam BAKSH, whom he meets through Meet Singh, IQBAL
does not trust the British to protect India from violence. He also recoils from his cellmate, JUGGUT’S comparison
of English women to “HOURIS,” or angels, and Indian women to “black buffaloes,” and argues against others’ near
worship of the British and lack of faith in Indian institutions.
When Banta Singh, the LAMBARDAR who joins Meet Singh and an unnamed Muslim during a visit to IQBAL, asks
IQBAL why the English left India, IQBAL explains their departure in the context of fear among the English that the
country would eventually turn against them, evoking the vague example of “the mutiny of the Indian sailors”
against the British during the Second World War. He highlights a growing trend in India toward resistance after
World War II that was necessary in helping India fulfill its own destiny. By joining the Japanese war effort, for
instance, some Indians were performing a major act of defiance against the British, while also subtly pointing out
the hypocrisy of fighting with the British against Japanese imperialism while the British perpetuated their own
empire. Though “independence” is an abstract concept to IQBAL’S listeners, he believes that the idea of political
freedom can serve as the basis for fostering a new economic reality—that is, for creating a system in which fewer
Indians suffer from poverty. With the perpetual presence of the British in India, however, self-determination
would remain elusive.
Nevertheless, some characters claim that India was better off under British rule. For example, when Banta Singh
details how he fought with the Allied Powers on behalf of the British in World War I, he insists that the other
Indian soldiers “liked the English officers” and thought that they “were better than the Indian.” Meet Singh
confirms this view with an anecdote from his brother, “a HAVILDAR,” or sergeant, who says that all of the
“sepoys are happier with English officers than with Indian” and that his niece still receives gifts from London
from his “brother’s colonel’s MEM-SAHIB.” The language that both men use is distinctly comparative and tends
to elevate the British soldier over the Indian, not based on military skill or leadership, but on the quality of their
personal interactions with the British officers. Banta Singh, Meet Singh, and Imam BAKSH use these positive
experiences to subtly justify the presence of the British in India and use these anecdotes to overlook the
cruelties of their former colonizers. Their comments also suggest that the three men believe that the British
were superior and, therefore, better equipped to lead India—a notion which frustrates IQBAL.
IQBAL contradicts this notion of superiority when he describes the British as “a race of four-twenties,” in
reference to Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code which “defines the offense of cheating.” If the British were
trustworthy, he says, they “would not have spread their domain all over the world.” He further makes a
distinction between their “nice” disposition as human beings and how they behave politically. It is possible for
the British to learn Indian religious customs and language, as Lord Mountbatten—“the handsome, Hindustani-
speaking cousin of the King”—did, while still undermining India through destructive policy, such as the
partition, which was Mountbatten’s idea. IQBAL compares Mountbatten’s love for India to that of “the
missionaries”—it is a not a form of love built on acceptance and equality, but one that seeks to transform India
in favor of British customs and values. IQBAL’S criticism of the British as “cheats” is his effort to get the others
to see them as flawed and not as the superior rulers Indians have been conditioned to regard them as. This
effort refers back to IQBAL’S political work of helping Indians overcome their view of themselves as subjects
instead of as self-determining citizens.
IQBAL’S experiences in Britain have allowed him to know the British on more egalitarian terms, however, while
the others know them primarily as ruling officers. Access to such experiences, as a result of his higher social
class, make it more difficult for IQBAL to understand the fears of poorer Indians who believe that they cannot
rely on themselves to develop their own path forward. Indeed, Imam BAKSH further explains his skepticism
toward independence by asserting that the departure of the British will make little difference for the poor and
ignorant.
He believes that educated people such as IQBAL will get the jobs that formerly went to the British, while poor
Indians—“once slaves of the English”—will simply “be slaves of the educated Indians—or the Pakistanis.”
Imam BAKSH’S outlook for India after independence is a negative one, which envisions that there will always
be an underclass over whom others will rule. The author ultimately uses the conversation between IQBAL,
Meet Singh, Banta Singh, and Imam BAKSH to highlight the uncertainty that many Indians felt in the post-
Independence era.
Though British rule may have been unjust, some believed that the imperialists gave the country a structure
that it would not otherwise have had. From these conversations, the author describes the nature of
postcolonial anxiety—and how self-doubt, lack of education, elitist rule, and, now, sectarian warfare, made a
successful post-Independence government seem increasingly elusive.
 Ice Candy Man and Bapsi Sidhwa
According to Hassan (1997), the Partition of India in 1947 affected millions of people and even today
still continuously disturb the people and nations and is frightened to be worse than bloodshed (Sidhwa,
Monsoon, 2000). Bapsi Sidhwa depicts in her novel, Ice Candy Man that different societies and religions
were living in harmony and peace at one land. Sidhwa insists that there was no major clash between
Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus before partition on religious and cultural issues. However, the claim is totally
against the facts and geo-political situation of that time (Haroon, 2004). Sidhwa depicts that how even
Muslims and the Hindus fell in love with each other though they have different religions. Ayah, named
Shanta, a Hindu girl, have many lovers including a Muslim hero of the novel, Ice Candy Man and the Sikh
zoo attendant Sher Singh, the Muslim butcher, Hari a Hindu. masseur, the gardener, a Pathan Sharbat
Khan, the restaurant owner and many others. Sidhwa displays that all these people communicate with
each other like normal human beings and live like friends though they all were belonging to different
religions and communities. She describes this harmony between Ayah and her admirers through a child
narrator, Lenny, in Ice Candy Man. But when the violation was erupted then these good friends
transformed into enemies of each other.
Train to Pakistan and Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh expresses his disagreement to the Indian sub-continent partition and forms the
combinability of the political, social and cultural legacy between Muslims and Sikhs after many centuries
of intermixing. Being an Indian Sikh, he expresses his Indian identity and develops the Indian official
philosophy. Excitingly Zaman (2001) and Crane (1992) ignore the conscious inclination of the writer
towards Indian ideology and they maintain that Indian sub-continent partition was unusual, false,
irrational and unreasoned. Singh claims that Muslims and Sikhs were apparently two nations having
different religions but they were the produce from the same inseparably entangled political, social and
cultural past. Singh expresses Indian viewpoint at the larger political and religious level through a symbol
of ‘purely personal relationships’. A Muslim girl, Nooran was the beloved of Sikh protagonist, Juggat
Singh, Jugga, carried his child. By using this child inside the body of a Muslim girl fathered by a Sikh as a
symbol of the mixture of the Sikh-Muslim aspects and the Hindu-Sikh involvement to it. The child is a
symbol that shows the combine social, political and cultural past of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs which has
now shattered by partition (Jajja, 2012). On the other hand, Zaman (2001) does not give the importance
of the symbol of child in the belly of a Muslim girl fathered by a Sikh. According to him this is only the
exhibition
of official Indian viewpoint of Partition. India, due to inseparable unit, containing of mutual Hindu-Muslim
tradition. Singh portrays that partition was an illogical historical act and it resulted a huge destruction and
calamity of humans across borders.
Comparison:
Ice Candy Man with perspective of partition
Ice-Candy-Man described the harrowing story of the partition days when the noble ideal of nationalism
bartered early to think together, which devastation social and political sensitivities without absurd precedent
disturbed. Sidhwa portrays social anxiety sensitivity, insecurity policy that was shared by all people divided
during the partition days. However, Ice-Candy-Man presents the stormy agitation of Indian sub-continent
Partition from the point of view of a child, Parsee girl. It is different from the literature written on the partition
theme. Underscoring the helplessness of human life and to maintain a delicate neutrality between happiness
and misery, by Lenny, narrator and chronicler child, she presents many shades and complications of a
conclusion of political rationality. Lenny observes different characters belonging to different societies through
the objectivity of her own Parsee understanding. A little girl narration gives to the story a real reliability free
from prejudices. Like many other stories, this novel also presents the horrific facts of brutality, displacement
and loss of life, but it does so with a restrained irony, parody and sharp mockery, forcing readers to give
thoughtful maudlin responses and increase in concentration in the impenetrability of human behavior. A
society that has lost its value is also described, and therefore disintegrates. Not only the particulars of
barbaric slaughters enacted by one religious society to another, but also describes several displays of triviality
and degenerate morals that, similar terms, had dug the internal physical power of the company are presented.
Ice-Candy-Man tells us a company that has collapsed the noble assertiveness, it stimulates small and selfish
tendencies pogroms of indifferent tolerance as the scar is kept alive with all of the skin; a society that gave
him what he deserved: an optimistic mindset and bloodcurdling, which transferred Indian partition into a sad
actuality. The occasions and characters of the novel put forward that …. Egotism, duplicity, self-importance
and self-deception... Some way establishes a factual actuality that unselfishness, self-sacrifice, fearlessness,
bravery and boldness, even present there. According to the clarification of Andrew Rutherford, emotional and
chronological actuality of art consist of not only conflict between and inferior high imitative ways, but between
imitative low and sarcastic, emphasizing what he called "a lack of faith in the psychological probability ideal”.
 The brutal reality of partition is represented in this novel with a frankness not outshine the flexibility of the
inner- self shown by a number of characters in ice-CandyMan. For Ranna, free education organizes the
Godmother, Rodabai. Fuel stored by aunt electric and Lenny’s mother to make easy the escape of her friend,
Hamida rehabilitates. Resurgence opportunities of inactivating the human soul can be detected in as Ayah,
take a brave choice, is determined to return to her personal home. She refuse to accept this constriction and
desires to look the future in all his attempts decisively odds. Women characters’ resistance protects the novel
from being a news story rendition discouraging and sad heartbreaking. In his review, Khushwant Singh in the
stardom has implemented that Ice-CandyMan merits to be classified as one of the most reliable and best
novel written on the Indian sub-continent partition. Gita Hariharan also remarks on financial time Sidhwa
picturized “confusion of time, with an excellent mixture of individual and collective discomfort, pain and
anxiety of a newly liberated country, but distributed more. Seen through the prism of girls from marginalized
minorities, it mainly centers the mutual environment deteriorating before the days of partition.
Ice-Candy-Man also consist of a number of comments on the politicians of that time. She showed the
Pakistani viewpoint about these personalities and almost all the chief political personalities of India are well
contemporary presented satirized or unfavorably. During her interview with David Montenegro, Sidhwa said:
“The main motivation comes from my reading of a good amount of the Partition literature India and Pakistan. .
.What was written, it was written by the British and the Indians? Naturally that reflects their bias. And I felt
after studying the book, it was unfair to Pakistanis. As a writer, as a human being, not one simply has to
tolerate injustice. I felt how much he could do to correct an injustice that I would do just let the facts speak
for themselves, and through my research I discovered that the facts were.” Ice-Candy-Man differs in its
interpretation of partition theme. Through their memories, Lenny exposes the sufferings of partition with a
touch of humor, imitation and metaphor, describing how friends and neighbors become impotent and
unsuccessful while responding to the cheering crowd. Sidhwa also defines how political influential influence
the standards and produce feelings of doubt and mistrust in the common man's psyche. Once the communal
frenzy broke out and conservative lusts are aroused, then communal stuff destroy and providing direction to
the senseless, thoughtless and uncontrolled destruction. She also remarked on the historical certainty of
communal procedure, proposing that people who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The
disastrous events joint with the clever brightness describe the outlook of the narrator of a distant observer.
Ice-Candy-Man allows readers to comprehend and appreciate the magnitude of the disturbances of partition
and to examine it in its historical background
and therefore defines homelessness provocatively fruits of violence in individual and collective life.
Train to Pakistan regarding Partition
"Train to Pakistan" Khushwant Singh is the history of religious riots in the fictional border town of
Mano Majra where Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims reside. Violence broke out in the city and it is difficult for
employees to maintain order after the India received its independence from the British. With this context in
mind, "Train to Pakistan" begins with the murder of a Hindu family. The murderers led by Malli, who is also
looking for the leader of the band called Juggut Singh. Sikhs Juggut is a villain who is involved in a
relationship that is prohibited for religious reasons. The wool and the gang try to frame Juggut for the crime,
leading to an arrest. The conflict continues to grow in the border city, leaving many residents they were forced
to evacuate in Pakistan by train. Towards the end of the "train to Pakistan" sabotaged train and Juggut
sacrifice his life to save Muslims. In the end of the novel, Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, everyone
knows the plot to assassinate Muslim families for the title in Pakistan train including three main characters
(Iqbal, Hukum Chand and Jugget Singh} of the novel. Train to Pakistan is a historical novel written by
Khashwant Singh is a fact that is celebrated as Indian subcontinent partition or creation of Pakistan occurred
in 1947. Indian sub-continent was the part of the British Empire before partition, exchanged their support for
combat in II World War by independence; Britain left India in 1947. Before withdrew from India, authoritative
persons of United Kingdom, the country was divided mainly into two parts, Hindus and Muslims, based on
religions. But unluckily, majority of Hindus do not live in the Hindu unit (India), similarly majority of the
Muslims do not live in the section of Muslim (Pakistan). This requires a dramatic migration of people from one
known place to another. unknown place. Millions of people go across the "dichotomy" this summertime. Both
the sides are separated for some reasons; disgust and hatred was profound between these two major groups.
As expected, the destruction was continued; in the result of this division and this movement, 2 million people
died. Britain ordered to handle the situation but that native authorities were not strong enough to control the
situation and sustain order. The story of the novel, Train to Pakistan, is set in the fictional city Mano Majra.
There was peace in the city but the train station is the focal point of the conflict at the time of distribution. A
native group of Sikh inciting violence against Muslims and sabotaging the train that would take Muslims in
Pakistan. What happens next, depends on the three round characters. Hukum Chand is a powerful, corrupt
and immoral person. Iqbal Singh is a more British than a Sikh, a social reformer, of small height, who shows
his interest in politics rather than people. Juggat Singh opposite Iqbal Singh in physique and is recognized to
respond before thinking about result. It's a native villain associated with mobs and gangs
 The event of the Indian sub-continent partition is considered an important and memorable event not only in
the history of the Indian subcontinent, but in the history of the whole world. Main cause was the common
thoughts of Muslims and Hindus, but the conditions and circumstances under which happened makes it one of
the unhappiest times in the history of India. Before partition Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were living together in
harmony. Their culture was the same but their religion was different. They were leading a peaceful life following
their religion but the followers of leaders of the two groups have played a noticeable role in fueling the fire of
collectivism paper. This fire was so violent that it caused a large scale misery and loss of identity, life and
property, as millions of migrants fled to Pakistan or India. The holocaust that occurred following the breakup of
the country is considered one of the bloodiest disorders of history that has cost countless innocent lives and
loss of property. The partition of India and the violence generated KHUSHWANT Singh frustrated enough to
capture the idea of writing a novel to express the mental anguish and internal conflicts. Speaks, therefore, of
the origin of the novel: The principles that I have valued all of my life I traumatized. I believed in the inborn
goodness of the common man. The partition of India was attend by the known most brutal slaughter in history
--- I think the Indians were peaceful and nonviolent who were more in spiritual matters. --- After the
experience of the fall of 1947, and you cannot contribute to these interpretations. I converted an angry middle-
aged man, I desired to scream in frustration with the world. I made up my mind to try my hand at writing (Singh
1964).
Introduction
 This is the English translation of the poem by Allamah Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, known as Tulu-e-Islam or the
Rise of Islam. This long poem of nine ghazals, with differences in cadence, was written in the early 1920s
after the First World War. In this poem Iqbal gives expression to his feelings on defeat of the Ottoman Empire
and dismemberment of the Muslim Khilafat. It deals with the following subjects;
1. The starting point of the poem and its leading theme is the reassuring thought, that the time has come for
the re-awakening of the Muslim world and re-assertion of Islamic values-Verses 1-4; 9-14 [1]
2. The poet pleads with himself the need for awakening of Muslims-Verses 5-8;15-16
3. In order to regain their past glory Muslims must; (a) Recognize the high place of Man in God’s universe and
also must appreciate the value of equality of Man above race and colour. This is also the essence of the
teachings of the Holy Qur’an-Verses 37;46;57
(b) Recognize their high destiny as the architects of the new World order-Verses 17-24; 49-56; 62; 63;
(c) Consider the degeneration of the Muslim world, which has resulted from complaissance and forsaking of
God’s message in the Holy Qur’an-Verse 41-45 (d) Recognize the value of Faith and develop Faith- Verses
32-36;37;39;40;47;48 (e) Work and struggle for the establishment of a united ideological nation (millat)
instead of secular, geographical nations, in other words pan-Islamism-Vreses 25-31; 49-57
4. There are passing remarks on the ethical degeneration of the Western world. This has been done to remove
inferiority complex from the Muslim mind-Verses 37;57-60
5. He exhorts Muslims to be active and struggle hard to awaken Muslim and re-assert Islamic values – Verse
61 6. Create a new world order. This is also the closing message-verses 63-72 The verses are not arranged
subject-wise in the above order for difficulties of rhyming. Some words were difficult to translate into English
correctly, such as illat and faqr. These are technical terms and can only be explained rather than translated.
Most appropriate English words or phrases have been used in such cases and the original word has been
mentioned in parentheses and underlined. In some cases additional words have been used in parentheses to
bring out the special meaning of the word, such as the use of “brave” before “man” in verse 40. Some words
have been translated with the first letter in capital to bring out the special meaning, such as “love” and “Man”.
It is hoped that such efforts will help the reader in understanding the correct meaning. Words needing
explanation are indicated by numbers within parentheses in the text and explained in “Explanatory Notes”
section.The Rise of Islam
I
1. The fading glitter of stars is the signal of a bright morning. The sun has arisen from the horizon, gone is
the period of deep torpor. 2. Life blood has started flowing in the veins of the corpse of the East SINA and
FARABI cannot understand this secret 3. The storm of the West has made Muslim into the Muslim. Only the
ocean storms complete the pearl’s beauty 4. From the Court of God is again to be bestowed on the Believer.
The TURKOMAN’S dignity, the Indian’s intelligence, the Arab’s eloquence
5. IF there is some lurking slumber in the flower buds “Strike the beat harder if the taste for music is
lacking”[ 6.Jump restlessly in the garden, in the nest, in the bowers. Mercury cannot be deprived of its
restlessness. 7. Why should the eye accustomed to seeing chaste things see the beauty of delicate leaves
When it can see the power of the holy warrior’s soul? 8. Light the candle of Love in the tulip’s heart. Make
every dust grain of the garden a martyr in search (of the Truth)
 II
9. The tear of the Muslim’s eye has acquired the effect of spring showers (NESAN)
    Pearls will be produced again in the sea of God’s Friend (ABRAHAM)
10. The book of the Bright Nation (MILLAT) is being bound again. This Hashemite branch is to blossom
again 11. The beloved from Shiraz has carried the heart of Tabriz and Kabul. The zephyr finds its fellow
traveler in the rose’s fragrance 12. The avalanche of calamity over the Ottomans is not to be bereaved.
Because the destruction of a hundred thousand stars gives birth to the dawn 13. Insight in world’s affairs is
more difficult than world’s administration Insight is created only when the soul melts into blood
14. For thousands of years the narcissus bemoans its colorlessness. The person with insight is very hard to
find in the garden 15. Sing O Nightingale so that thy modulations may produce. The heart of the falcon in
the pigeon’s frail body
16. The secret of life is concealed in thy heart; speak it out. Relate to the Muslim the traditions of the
pathos of life
 
III
17. Thou art the powerful hand and the Word of the Eternal God. 0 imprudent person develop Faith
because thou hast been over-powered by doubt
18. The Muslim’s destination is beyond the blue sky Stars are the dust of the caravan that thou art
19. Both the house and dweller are transitory but THINE are the Beginning and the End. Thou art the Word
of God, thou art Eternal 20. Thy life-blood adorns with HINNAH the bride that is the tulip. Thy origin is
from Abraham; thou art the architect of the world 21. Thy nature is the custodian of all that is possible in
life. In other words thou art the touchstone for the hidden jewels of the world 22. Thou art the gift which
the Holy Apostle took From the material to the Eternal World 23. The history of the Muslim nation
(MILLAT) reveals the secret. That thou art the guardian of the Asian nations 24. Learn again the LEASSON
of Truth, Justice, Bravery Thou shalt be entrusted with the leadership of mankind
 
IV
25. This is the purpose of creation; this is the secret of Islam. Universality of Brotherhood, abundance of
Love 26. Breaking the idols of race and color merge into the MILLAT. There should be no TOORANI, no
IRANI, no Afghani 27. How long will continue the companionship of the garden’s bird in the garden’s
confines? Thy wings are endowed with the flight of QUHISTAN’S falcon 
28. In the world of life full of doubts the Muslim’s Faith. Is the guiding light -in the dark night of the
wilderness 29. What was it which demolished the grandeur of QAISER and KISRA?
Nothing else but the Prowess of HAIDER, the Contentment of Bu ZAR, the Truthfulness of SALMAN
30. With what dignity have- the free men of the MILLAT marched out? The centuries-old prisoners are
watching the spectacle through the door’s fissure
31. The stability of life is from firm Faith. The TOORANIS have lasted even longer than Germans
32. When Faith is created in this earthly ember. It acquires the wings and feathers of the Holy Spirit  .
V
33. Neither swords nor plans are of any. avail in slavery. Chains are cast away when the joy of Faith is created
34. Who can assess the power of his arm? Destinies are altered by a mere glance of the Believer
35. Sainthood, sovereignty, the universality of knowledge. What are all these? Merely explanations of the secret
of Faith 36. It is, however, difficult to develop Abraham’s vision. Greed stealthily makes images in, the sub-
conscience 37. The distinction of the ruled and the ruler is the perversion of humanity. Beware 0 OPRESSORS the
punishments of God are severe 38. The essence of everything is the same, be it made of dust or light. The sun’s
Blood will ooze out by cutting the core of the grain of dust 39. Firm Faith, constant effort, Love, conquest of the
universe. These are the swords of brave Men in the struggle of life 40. What is expected of a (brave) Man? A high
disposition, a sincere creed. A warm heart, an immaculate vision and a restless soul 
VI
41. Those who had lept like an eagle turned out to be wingless. Stars came out drenched in the blood of the dusk
42. Those who used to dive under the sea were burned under the sea. Those who bore the dashes of the ocean
waves emerged as pearls 43. Those who were proud of alchemy are now the road’s dust. Those who put their
foreheads to the ground emerged as makers of elixir44. Our slow moving messenger has brought the message
full of life. Those who were getting messages from lightning turned out to be ignorant 45. The sacred sanctuary
was disgraced by the short-sightedness of the priest. What a deep insight the Tatar youth had 46. The angels
with celestial flight were saying to the earth. These earthly men proved to be more alive, longer lasting, and more
splendid than them 47. The Believers live in this world like the sun Setting hither, rising thither, setting thither,
rising hither 48. The individuals’ Faith is the capital for the MILLAT’S reconstruction. This is the force which
shapes the MILLAT’S destiny
 VII
49. Thou art the secret of “ Be and it is”  be known to thyself. Know the secret of self-cognizance; be God’s
interpreter 50. Avarice has torn mankind into pieces Become the declaration of Brotherhood; become the
language of Love 51. This is Indian, that is KHORASANI, this is Afghani, that is Torrent. O though the one
disgraced on the shore; jump out and become universal 52. Thy wings and feathers are polluted with the dust of
color and race. 0 bird of the sacred sanctuary flutter thy wings before attempting to fly 53. Dive in self-
cognizance 0 the imprudent one, this is the secret of life. Forsake the narrow confines of morning and evening
and become eternal 54. In the struggle of life acquire the nature of steel In the Love’s bed chamber become soft
like silk 55. Transcend mountains and deserts like a furious flood. If there be a garden in thy path become a
melodious brook 56. There is no limit to thy Knowledge and Love. There is no melody sweeter than thou in the
divine orchestra
VIII
57. Man is still the helpless prey to imperialism. What a calamity that man is the hunter of the human race
58. The glitter of modern civilization dazzles the eye This is but the effect of unreal jewels
59.The science which was the pride of the sages of the West. Is the battle-sword in the blood-stained hands
of avarice 60. The magic of prudence cannot stabilize the civilization based on capitalism
61. Deeds build up life; heaven as well as hell. This earthly creature (man) is neither made of light (like angles)
nor of fire (like JINS) 62. Partake the nightingale’s clamor, open the flower bud. Because thou art the spring
breeze for this garden 63. The spark of Love has again risen from the Asia’s heart. The earth is the parading
ground of the satin-clad Tatars 64. Come, a purchaser has appeared for the frail soul. After a long time a
caravan has arrived at our place
 
IX
65. Come, O beloved the pasture’s music has come from the garden. Spring has come; the sweetheart has
come; as the sweet-heart has come so has tranquility 66. The spring cloud has established its camp up hill
and down dale. The sound of waterfalls has come from the mountain tops 67. I have won you over, O Loved
one, thou shouldst also sing melodies of the days gone by. Because flocks of songster birds have come in
rows after rows 68. Withdraw from the (ritualistic) pious people and fearlessly draw the wine cup. After a long
time the nightingale’s song has come from this old branch 69. Narrate to the anxious ones the traditions of
the Master of BADR and HONAIN. Their hidden meanings have opened up before my eyes [23]
70. The other branch of KHALIL is greening up with our blood. In the Love’s market place our currency has
attained full value 71. I am sprinkling tulip petals at the martyr’s grave Because his blood has nourished the
young plant of our MILLAT. 72. Come, so that we may sprinkle flowers and pour wine in the cup. Rend
asunder the sky’s roof and lay a new foundation.
 
IBLEES KI MAJLIS-E-SHURA" (English: The Parliament of Satan) is an URDU poem written by MUHAMMAD
IQBAL in 1935. It describes the meeting of the Devil and his advisers, and they discuss the current
situation of the world. It was described as "a scathing criticism of the major socio-political and economic
systems offered by the West.
The poem is written as a meeting between  IBLEES (the first of the DEVILS, or SATANS in Islam) and his
five advisers. The first chapter starts with the Devil describing his accomplishments in taking over the
world. His five advisers then discuss certain threats they conceive to the Devil's plans, which were
explained as various aspects of the Western society such as CAPITALIISM the rise of DEMOCRACY  and on
the other hand SOCIALISM. The Devil completes the chapter by dismissing his advisers' concerns one by
one. He completes the poem by speculating on a final threat, which he sees as most critical, the
resurgence of Islam. IQBAL’S poem narrates a conversation between the Devil and his advisers. In the
play, the Devil boasts that he has led mankind astray through imperialism, capitalism and western
democracy which have made the ruling elites power-hungry, the rich greedy and the poor helplessly
resigned to their fates.
One of the Devil’s five advisers points out the threat posed by socialism to the Satanic order, claiming
that socialism has empowered workers to break free of their chains in Europe. The Devil snubs its
advisers and states Islam is the greatest threat to Evil. He says he dreads the day there is a Muslim
resurgence and tells its advisers to keep them entangled in worldly affairs.
SAQI NAMAH
The central theme of the poem is Muslim Renaissance. IQBAL sketches changing order of the world's political
system and laments that Islamic Nations are still devoid of that awakening. He prays to Almighty Allah to
bestow Muslims with wisdom and awareness. The word SAQI is translated in English as a bartender. The
word has been extensively used as a metaphor in Urdu poetry for lover, friends, poet's alter ego and even for
Almighty God. IQBAL has used the word SAQI a poetic reference to Allah. The poem is divided in
seven stanzas  and gradually proceeds to its central theme that actually occurs in stanza three. Each stanza
has twelve ASHAA’R (couplet). In the first stanza IQBAL has narrated the exultation of nature on the arrival of
a new world order, although, the cause of exultation has not been indicated. He has used the entities of
living worlds (such as flowers and birds) and physical worlds (mountains and rivers) to bring out the energy
of this changing world order. IQBAL opens the poem by welcoming BAHAAR the season of spring. After
having described the jocundity of natural elements during springs, IQBAL addresses SAQI, admitting that the
spring is a timely event and will go soon. He pleads SAQI to bestow the knowledge of spirituality and ethereal
wisdom on him – the knowledge that has been referred as MAE (wine).
In the second stanza IQBAL narrates the changing world order. He acknowledges that how political structure
in politically, philosophically and scientifically developed Europe is heading from monarchy to democracy and
how the social order based on capitalism is being challenged. IQBAL hints how countries like and India
 and China are emerging as a nation developing their own social structure. Finally, IQBAL comes to Islamic
nations and criticizes them for lack of their zeal to reinvent calling them as dead ashes.
In the following stanzas (third to seventh), IQBAL makes as strong appeal to his SAQI to incite the Islamic
 nations with zeal to reinvent themselves. Though IQBAL makes references to Indian Muslims, to fight against
the colonial British, in general he makes appeal for Islamic Nations. IQBAL urges for the inculcation of KHUDI
(self, a concept of IQBAL), stating that the best bread is the bread that is earned with self-respect and any
bread earned at the cost of KHUDI is a poison.
References
KHIZR-E-RAH
The poem ‘KHIZR-E-RAH’ by ALLAMA IQBAL describes his feelings and emotions about the Muslim
nation as a whole, especially the youth. He is addressing them and trying to instill in them a sense of
responsibility.
IQBAL starts the first verse of the poem in an expressive form. He expresses what he felt while he was
sitting at the bank of the river on a particular night. The poet describes the stillness of the night
comparing it with a stationary object, a painting.  In the third and the fourth verses, the poet compares
the stationary river with a child who sleeps silently in the cradle. The child is immobile externally, but
within it there is a storm of emotions in the form of dreams. Similarly the river is still superficially but the
rage within it is immense. The poet further expresses the stationary river as being undisturbed by the
birds who are lying still in their nests. The first four verses turn out to be dominantly expressive with
some degree of the informative function as well. From the fifth verse the poem becomes directive as well
as informative, together with its expressive function as in the first four verses. The poet expresses his
respect and regard for HAZRAT KHIZR. In the sixth verse the informs us of his conversation with HAZRAT
KHIZR in which HAZRAT KHIZR directs IQBAL ‘ to see the world through your heart; you will be able to see
everything clear and vivid. The poet uses the theorizing function by saying that one can foresee future
through his intuition as well as will. From the eighth till the tenth verse, the poem is predominantly
expressive. IQBAL expresses his respect and admiration for HAZRAT KHIZR, saying how knowledgeable,
intuitive and farsighted he was. His knowledge and intelligence even surpassed HAZRAT MOUSA’S
abilities and left him bewildered. The poem is serving the informative function in the sense that the poet
informs us of the greatness of HAZRAT KHIZR. The poet uses laudatory remarks, informing us of the
capabilities and achievements of HAZRAT KHIZR. ALLAMA informs us that HAZRAT KHIZR lived a simple,
descent life away from the materialistic existence of towns and cities, in deserts and jungles without any
awareness of time or place.
From the eleventh verse onwards the poet addresses Muslims and the youth in particular. He uses the
directive function as well as the informative function to instigate the youth and instill in them a sense of
responsibility. The poet directs them to wake up and get motivated and face the challenges of the time. He
coaxes them for their sloppiness and directs them to stand and fight for the sake of the honor of their
religion. The poet informs the Muslim youth of the deteriorating state of their country and directs them to
stop following the western culture. He expresses his anger over their irresponsible attitude and how deeply
he believes that the younger generation should cope with the situation bravely, as did HAZRAT Ibrahim who
had to go through a tough test to defend his beliefs and religious sanctity. The last verse serves the
informative as well as the expressive function; the latter being in the form of a moving appeal or direction to
the Muslims.
MOHSIN HAMID
He was born in Pakistan, but he spent much of his childhood in Palo Alto, California, while his father
pursued a PhD at Stanford University. After the age of nine, HAMID returned to Pakistan with his family and
attended AITCHISON COLLEGE, a highly prestigious boarding school founded in the late 19th century. At
the age of 18, he attended Princeton University, where he studied with the famous writers Toni Morrison
and Joyce Carol Oates, and graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors). He attended Harvard Law
School, but found it boring. In his spare time, he worked on a novel he had begun writing as an
undergraduate at Princeton; in 2000, he published this work,  Moth Smoke. Moth Smoke was a success in
the United States and a huge hit in Pakistan (it was even adapted as a TV miniseries), enabling HAMID to
devote himself to writing full-time. He didn't complete another novel until 2007, when he published The
Reluctant Fundamentalist, which reflects his experiences at Princeton. His third and most recent novel, How
to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, was released in 2013. HAMID writes for dozens of magazines, journals,
and newspapers, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Paris Review. As of May 2015, he
is rumored to be working on his fourth novel.
SUMMARY
In the streets of Lahore, Pakistan, a young man, CHANGEZ, approaches an unnamed man (for the purposes
of his summary, we'll call him the Stranger), and asks, in an unclear combination of extreme politeness and
menacing familiarity, if he can be of assistance. CHANGEZ says that the Stranger looks American, and
escorts him to a nearby cafe, where they drink tea and eat dinner. As afternoon turns into evening,
CHANGEZ tells the Stranger about his time in the United STATES.CHANGEZ comes from a respected but
declining Pakistani family. Nonetheless, he gets into and attends Princeton University, where he makes
excellent grades and acts the part of an exotic foreigner, but secretly works multiple jobs to support
himself and his family. He comments to the Stranger that he now sees that Princeton was indoctrinating
him into a pro-American mindset—teaching him to use his skills to help American companies—but that he
didn’t realize this at the time. Near the end of his senior year, he interviews for a prestigious valuing
firm, Samson, which does analysis to determine the worth of companies. During his interview, Jim
Underwood an executive vice president at the firm, learns that CHANGEZ is on financial aid, and conceals
his economic status from his classmates; Jim tells CHANGEZ that he, too, hid his background at Princeton,
and gives him a job. Between graduating Princeton and beginning his career at Underwood Samson,
CHANGEZ goes on a vacation to Greece with Princeton friends and peers. It is here that he meets Erica, a
beautiful and charismatic Princeton graduate, with whom he is instantly smitten.
In New York, CHANGEZ begins his career at Underwood Samson. He makes friends with another
trainee, Wainwright, and wins the admiration of his colleagues and supervisors. Meanwhile, he continues to
spend time with Erica, who lives in New York and invites him to parties and dinners. CHANGEZ notices that
Erica seems deeply lonely, even when she's surrounded by friends, and learns that her boyfriend and
childhood friend, , CHRIS died last year.
While working in Manila, in the Philippines, CHANGEZ witnesses the collapse of the Twin Towers on
September 11, 2001, and finds himself feeling pleasure at the sight of powerful, arrogant America brought
to its knees. Then, on his return flight to New York, he is detained at the airport. He begins to notice and be
the subject of increasing racism and discrimination in New York City and at Underwood Samson. Erica,
traumatized by 9/11, begins to sink into nostalgia for Chris. One night, CHANGEZ and Erica have sex, a
“success” CHANGEZ achieves partly by telling Erica to pretend that he is Chris. CHANGEZ thinks this will
bring them closer, but Erica grows increasingly distant from CHANGEZ.
CHANGEZ, feeling increasingly uncomfortable in New York and the United States as a foreigner after 9/11,
travels to Pakistan to see his family, and feels angry with the United States for supporting India's aggression
against his home. At the same time, he doesn’t feel entirely Pakistani, either. Later, while traveling to Chile
for Underwood Samson, he meets Juan-Batista, the president of a publishing company, who compares
CHANGEZ to a janissary — a reference to Crusades era warriors who were kidnapped from their own culture,
and then forced to fight against it. CHANGEZ realizes this is true, that he is doing harm to Pakistan by
working for Underwood Samson. He returns to New York in the middle of his assignment. Jim fires him, but
seems sympathetic to his struggle. CHANGEZ returns to Pakistan, where he lectures at a university and
supports anti-American demonstrations, although, he insists, he never encourages violence.
As CHANGEZ tells the Stranger his story, he frequently points out that the Stranger seems uncomfortable,
and notes that the Stranger has something under his jacket in the exact position where spies keep a
gun. The waiter who serves them their food seems angry with the Stranger, but CHANGEZ assures the
Stranger that there is no danger. CHANGEZ then walks the Stranger back to his hotel. As they stand outside,
the Stranger notices a group of people, including the waiter, who've been following them, and reaches
under his jacket.
CHANGEZ:
the protagonist of the novel, is a Pakistani man who went to college in Princeton, and who narrates the story of
his time in the United States to the Stranger. For most of the novel, he loves the United States and works hard to
be accepted by his American friends and colleagues while working at a New York financial firm. Yet, after 9/11
changes his perspective and he faces increasing racism and discrimination, and as his relationship with the
beautiful American ERICA is thwarted by Erica’s obsession with her dead former boyfriend Chris, he eventually
becomes disillusioned with his adopted country, viewing it as a danger to the rest of the world. CHANGEZ then
leaves America and returns to Pakistan, where he becomes an anti-US lecturer. Throughout CHANGEZ’S narration
he sometimes addresses the Stranger directly, and these interactions are never entirely clear; CHANGEZ’S tone
hovers between concern, politeness, and care, and a kind of over-solicitous menace (which one might also say
accurately describes his feelings for the US at this point of his life). Ultimately, though, the novel ends without
revealing whether or not CHANGEZ can be trusted, both as a narrator and as a friend to the Stranger, whether
CHANGEZ has come to his anti-US views while still to an extent loving America, or whether he has become a
terrorist. There is a sense in the cliffhanger ending, which seems poised on a knife’s edge between cementing a
friendship between CHANGEZ and the Stranger or descending into violence, that CHANGEZ is in that moment
choosing his own path.
THE STRANGER
The unnamed person to whom CHANGEZ recounts his time in America, the Stranger never speaks in the book. In
fact, the reader’s only impressions of him come from CHANGEZ’S remarks. Because of this, it’s left unclear how
much CHANGEZ can trust the Stranger – it seems possible that the Stranger is merely a tourist, and just as
possible that he is some kind of government agent. In fact, there is a sense that the Stranger may even be an
American spy sent specifically to investigate, apprehend, or even kill CHANGEZ. Yet the novel ends on a
cliffhanger, not revealing who or what the Stranger is, and in that way capturing the uncertainty and tension in
any exchange between these cultures in the post-9/11 world.
ERICA
 is a beautiful and popular Princeton graduate, with whom CHANGEZ falls in love. She has strong feelings for CHANGEZ,
though she sometimes seems to view CHANGEZ as an exotic foreigner more than a true friend and lover. A writer, she is
nostalgic for Chris a childhood friend and boyfriend who died a year before she and CHANGEZ m et. After 9/11, she falls into
depression and mental illness, focused around an obsessive nostalgia for Chris that thwarts any possibility of a relationship with
CHANGEZ. By the end of the novel, she may have killed herself, though CHANGEZ in his life in Pakistan still thinks fondly of
her and imagines – though without any real hope – that she will someday come to him. That the name “Erica” is contained within
the word “America” is no coincidence, and CHANGEZ’S relationship with Erica can be seen as analogous to his relationship to
America.
Jim
Jim is an executive vice president at Underwood Samson, and CHANGEZ’S mentor for most of his time
with the company. Because he worked his way up from an impoverished family, Jim identifies with
CHANGEZ’S financial situation, and regularly communicates this to CHANGEZ. Like Erica, Jim’s feelings for
CHANGEZ may be limited by his minimal understanding of CHANGEZ’S culture and personality. The novel
also hints that Jim may be interested in CHANGEZ romantically, though Jim’s sexuality is never revealed.
THE WAITER:
The Waiter serves CHANGEZ and the Stranger while they sit and drink Tea in the café in Lahore to which
CHANGEZ steered the Stranger. A member of a tribe victimized by America’s military, he appears hostile
and angry with the Stranger, though CHANGEZ assures the Stranger that the man is polite and gentle. At
the end of the novel, the Waiter is running toward the Stranger in a dark and street, and may be about to
attack him, though this isn’t at all certain.
WAINWRIGHT:
CHANGEZ’S friend at Underwood Samson and the only other non-white trainee, Wainwright  is laid-back and
popular with his peers. He and CHANGEZ quickly become friends, but because he is more comfortable with
America and American culture after 9/11, he and CHANGEZ grow apart. Nevertheless, Wainwright is the only
one of CHANGEZ’S peers who shakes his hand when CHANGEZ is fired.
TJUAN-BATISTA
He president of a Chilean publishing company that Underwood Sampson values. CHANGEZ works on the
project, and becomes friendly with Juan-Batista. It is Juan-Batista's questioning that leads CHANGEZ to see
himself as a "janissary" – a person who has been kidnapped and made to fight against his own culture. This
revelation causes CHANGEZ to cease working at his job at Underwood Sampson.
JEEPNEY DRIVER
One day while traveling to work for Underwood Sampson in a limousine, CHANGEZ notices a JEEPNEY (a kind
of public bus) driver staring at him angrily . CHANGEZ can't figure out whether the man seems angry at him
for personal reasons, because he’s jealous of CHANGEZ’S suit and limousine, or because he hates
Americans. After the staring match is over, CHANGEZ looks at his blonde Underwood Samson colleagues
and is struck by their foreignness, and feels suddenly closer to the driver than to his colleagues. This
incident is a first step in CHANGEZ'S increasing alienation from the United States.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Themes
Patriotism & Post-9/11 United States
Coming of Age
Racism & Fundamentalism
Human Connection
American Imperialism
2. MEATLESS DAYS
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
SULERI was born in Pakistan, one of six children, to a Welsh mother, MAIR JONES, an English professor, and a
Pakistani father, Z. A. SULERI (1913–1999), a notable political journalist, conservative writer, author, and
the Pakistan Movement  activist regarded as one of the pioneer of print journalism in Pakistan, and authored
various history and political books on Pakistan as well as Islam in the Indian subcontinent.
She had her early education in London and attended secondary school in Lahore. She received her B.A.
at Kinnaird College, also in Lahore, in 1974. Two years later, she was awarded an M.A. from Punjab University,
and went on to graduate with a PhD from Indiana University in 1983 SULERI taught for two years at Williams
College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, before she moved to Yale and began teaching there in 1983.
SULERI is a founding editor of the Yale Journal of Criticism. Her memoir, Meatless Days, is an exploration of the
complex interweaving of national history and personal biography which was widely and respectfully reviewed.
 Her 1992 The was well received in literary circles. One critic, for instance, said recent scholarship by Edward
Said, the Rhetoric of English India OMI BHABHA, GAURI VISWANATHAN and Jacques Derrida has "reformulated
the paradigmatic assumptions of colonial cultural studies," and the book was as "important addition to such
scholarship." The "unconventionality of some of her selections brings a breath of fresh air to a field prone to
turn, time and again, to the same weary list of standard texts."However, an historian took SULERI to task for the
"casual manner in which she forms important generalizations without benefit of hard data." As with
other deconstructionists,  he continued, there are "Pronunciamentos based on unstructured, undisciplined and
unresearched observations about the past..." He concludes, that "This is not to say that SULERI'S work is totally
without substance or that all of her insights are without value. No doubt, she is a sensitive literary critic who
would be bored with the kind of detailed monographs historians and ethnographic anthropologists do as a
matter of course."[Boys Will Be Boys : A Daughter's Elegy was published in October-15,2003. In  Boys Will Be
Boys, she returns—with the same treasury of language, humor, and passion—to her childhood and early
adulthood to pay tribute to her father, the political journalist Z. A. SULERI (known as Pip), for his "patriotic and
preposterous disposition".
In Meatless Days, post-colonialism is used, like the English language itself, self-consciously. Post-
colonialism and English have become not just historical links to the canon, but tools used by the authors to
communicate their unique, non-Western visions of life. Discussion of post-colonialism in these novels
illustrates the confrontations of two worlds, Western and colonized, but this is conflict is not bemoaned or
decried. In fact, post-colonial rhetoric, metaphors, and imagery have been appropriated in both, as has the
very use of English. Meatless Days delivers a forceful image of a unique culture that has collided with
Western tradition in no uncertain way. Works such as these can illustrate the effect the fermenting residue of
colonial power will ultimately have on nations confronting the dual identities of indigenous and imposed
culture. An apt analogy lies in the derivative of cricket played by the native populations of some Indonesian
islands. Discouraged by British missionaries and early colonial outposts from pursuing their traditional form
of mostly theatrical warfare and their pagan rituals, they coopted cricket, which the colonials were eager to
disseminate. Transforming it, they play it as a multi-day ceremonial celebration in full traditional garb and
with much of the showy feints and retreats characteristic of their original inter-tribal conflicts.
Although Meatless Days is non-hronological, a significant amount of the text address the partition of the
Indian subcontinent and the resulting confusion: “When in 1947 Mountbatten’s scissors clipped at the map of
India and handed over what Jinnah fastidiously called a moth-eaten Pakistan…those very people must have
worked with speedy fidelity all through the crazy winter of 1946, realigning their spatial perspective with
something of the maniacal neatness of a MUGHAL miniaturist” . The religious/ethnic conflict on the
subcontinent has become a prototype irredentist dispute of the kind now manifesting itself in many ex-
colonies: Ireland, the Middle East, India and Pakistan, etc. Neither of these novels is about post-colonialism.
Theses authors do not stake claim to canonization by appealing to current historical and political
sensibilities, but by presenting a unique synthesis of their literary predecessors and native cultures.
Meatless Days, colored by the effects of colonialism, provides a unique vision that is not explicitly post-
colonial in nature. Meatless Days treats multiple themes (gender and sibling relations, political strife,
religion, expatriatism, etc.), but above all it is a personal novel, a celebration and remembrance of her
English mother. In communicating her personal vision, SULERI necessarily writes about colonialism, for she is
a Pakistani. However, as a celebration of her mother, post-colonialism is conceptualized as a communicating
tool and metaphor. She asks, “How can I bring them together in a room, that most reticent woman and that
most demanding man?… Papa’s powerful discourse would surround her night and day”.
.
Meatless Days succeed as vessels for communicating a unique vision. It is evident that SULERI has
become adept at utilizing her cultures’ encounters with the West to their own ends. This cooptation of
things Western, including English itself, provides an ironically effective method of forcing Westerners to
reevaluate their beliefs in regard to the canon among other things. These are precisely the contemporary
writers who can force open the canon. In an era where post-colonialism, the third world, and ethnicity
are central concerns, the sensibilities that shape the canon may be ready to accept Meatless Days.
Certainly her vision, quality, resourcefulness, and groundbreaking topicality recommend them.

THEMES
GENDER AND SIBLING RELATIONS,
POLITICAL STRIFE, RELIGION,
FEMINISM
Main characters :
The character of Dadi
The character of mustakori
 AUTHOR: MUNSHI PREMCHAND
DHANPAT RAI SRIVASTAVA (31 July 1880 - 8 October 1936), better known by
his pen name MUNSHI PREMCHAND ,  ( was an Indian writer famous for his
,

modern Hindustani literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian

subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers of the early twentieth
century. His novels include GODAAN, KARMABHOOMI, GABAN, MANSAROVAR, IDGAH.
He published his first collection of five short stories in 1907 in a book called SOZ-E
WATAN.
He began writing under the pen name "NAWAB RAI", but subsequently switched to
"PREMCHAND", MUNSHI being an honorary prefix. A novel writer, story writer and
dramatist, he has been referred to as the "UPANYAS SAMRAT" ("Emperor among
Novelists") by writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 300 short
stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi
CHARACTERS
NIRMALA, the protagonist; a 15-year-old girl, married off to TOTARAM who is 20 years her senior.

TOTARAM, NIRMALA'S husband, a lawyer of 35.

MANSARAM, TOTARAM'S eldest son from his first wife; suspected of having a relationship with NIRMALA, and
forces him out of the house to live in a hostel where he eventually dies.

JIYARAM, TOTARAM'S second son from his first wife; he blames his father for the death of his older brother
and flees from home after absconding with NIRMALA'S jewelry. He eventually commits suicide.

SIYARAM, TOTARAM'S third son from his first wife; he is lured away from his father's house by a false saint.

ASHA, TOTARAM and NIRMALA'S daughter.

RUKHMINI, TOTARAM'S widowed sister.

UDAYABHANU LAL, NIRMALA'S father.

KALYANI, NIRMALA'S mother.

Krishna, NIRMALA'S younger sister.

BHUVANMOHAN SINHA, former fiance of NIRMALA. After the death of NIRMALA'S father, he learns there won't
be a dowry and withdraws from the marriage.

SUDHA, BHUVANMOHAN'S wife and the companion of NIRMALA.

BHALCHANDRA SINHA, father of BHUVANMOHAN SINHA.

RANGILI BAI, BHALCHANDRA SINHA'S wife and BHUVANMOHAN SINHA'S mother.

PANDIT MOTARAM, a wise priest.

BHUNGI, maid in TOTARAM'S house.

SUMMARY OF NOVEL NIRMALA
UDAYABHANU LAL, a lawyer, arranged to marry off his 15-years-old daughter NIRMALA to
BHUVANMOHAN SINHA, son of BHALCHADRA SINHA. KALYANI, NIRMALA'S mother advises LAL not
to spend too much money on NIRMALA'S marriage as he also has the duty of getting her second
daughter, Krishna married. Angered by KALYANI'S words, he decides to teach her a lesson by
leaving his old dresses along the riverbank and going out to the next village for sometime to
make KALYANI believe that he is dead. LAL was later murdered by his rival MATHAYI, who was
once tried in court by LAL and sentenced to jail. The death of LAL caused the SINHAS to withdraw
from the arranged marriage since there was no longer a large dowry as anticipated prior to LAL'S
death. KALYANI writes a letter to RANGILI BAI, BHUVANMOHAN SINHA'S mother telling about her
pitiful situation. RANGILI BAI'S effort of making her husband and son understand ends up in vain.
With the help of PANDIT MOTARAM, KALYANI searches a groom for NIRMALA. Financial hardship
forced NIRMALA'S mother, KALYANI, to marry her off to TOTARAM, a lawyer 20 years her senior.
Totaram tried his best to seduce his beautiful young wife but to no avail. He once tells a false
story that he killed two thieves who had big swords with them to make her feel that her husband
is full of bravery. But Nirmala who knows that it is a false story, still smiles and acts as though
she's happy. She had no feelings for him other than respect and a sense of duty, which fell short
of the love he expected to receive from his wife.
TOTARAM had 3 sons from his first marriage. His eldest son MANSARAM was only a year older
than NIRMALA. It wasn't long before TOTARAM grew suspicious of NIRMALA due to his widow
sister, RUKMINI'S words and her relationship with his son MANSARAM. Jealousy and suspicion
caused him to send MANSARAM away to live in a hostel, a decision they all soon came to regret.
MANSARAM'S health soon deteriorated in the hostel environment. It was BHUVANMOHAN who
treated MANSARAM at the hospital. When MANSARAM was in need of blood it was NIRMALA who
donated her blood after which TOTARAM realises his mistake. BHUVANMOHAN learned about
NIRMALA, he arranged for his brother to marry NIRMALA'S sister, Krishna, as penance.
BHUVANMOHAN was haunted by his thoughts of NIRMALA and her distress. MANSARAM
eventually died of tuberculosis.
TOTARAM was heartbroken and guilt ridden over his role in his son's death.
RUKMINI fuels the fire in JIYARAM and SIYARAM that NIRMALA was the reason for their brother's death.
They believe in RUKMINI'S false words. It wasn't long thereafter when his second son, JIYARAM
absconded with NIRMALA'S jewels and fled from TOTARAM'S house. He later committed suicide.
TOTARAM'S third son SIYARAM also fled, having been lured away by a false saint. Depressed over the
loss of his sons, TOTARAM set off on a mission to find his only living son, SIYARAM.
Meanwhile, BHUVANMOHAN was back in NIRMALA'S life as the husband of her friend, SUDHA. He tried
to seduce NIRMALA, but his wife learned of it and criticized him harshly. BHUVANMOHAN became
emotionally distressed, and out of sorrow and his love for her, he committed suicide. [1] Depressed by
the sad turn of events and her own failing health, NIRMALA gave her daughter ASHA to RUKHMINI and
died. A much older TOTARAM returned home to discover NIRMALA had died. RUKMINI realised her
mistake. 
THEMES
SECOND WIFE
DOWRY
MARRIAGE
ABDULLAH HUSSAIN,,14 August 1931 – 4 July 2015) was an Urdu novelist and short story writer
from Rawalpindi. His ancestors migrated from BANNU to Punjab. His father worked as excise inspector and
went to be farmer later on. Abdullah was his only and youngest son of three other children. His mother died
when Abdullah was only six months old. His father was super protective about him. He preferred Abdullah to
be with him in his free times. Reflection of this bond is often seen in his writings as well. Abdullah HUSSAIN
shot into fame with his novel UDAAS NASLAIN]. He was awarded the Adamjee Literary Award for this debut
novel. UDAAS NASLAIN is considered as a milestone in Urdu literature. It is a story of a common man who
entered into elite class by marriage but is not able to cope with it and eventually returns.
He also wrote BAAGH  in 1982, which focuses on Kashmir liberation. BAAGH (A Lion) is a symbol of terror to
everyone. His 1989 novel 'QAID' (prison) is a story of a newborn who was murdered in Karachi. 'RAAT'
published in 1994 was also his novel of same genre. Later he wrote NADAR LOG  in 1996 which is based on
1971 war between India and Pakistan. Novel focuses on SARFRAZ'S story who was appointed in east Pakistan
and went on to be a prisoner of war and reveals the causes behind the Dhaka fall.
He has also written collections of short stories NASHAIB  and 'FARAIB‘, and a novel in English about Afghan
jihad.
SUMMARY
 This classic novel was the first to depict in fiction the struggle of the people of India against the British Raj.
Naim, the son of a peasant farmer, loses an arm fighting for the British during the First World War and is
decorated for his bravery. But his faith in the Raj has been shattered and on his return to his village in
northern India he joins the newly formed Congress Party and later the Muslim League, eventually being
incarcerated for his political activities. He marries AZRA, daughter of a wealthy landowner, but the marriage of
this couple from very different social backgrounds proves impossible to sustain, thus mirroring the union
between the British Empire and its Indian subjects. Finally, NAIM'S hopes for a united India are swept away
after Independence in 1947 when his Muslim family is forced to migrate to newly created Pakistan.
This novel, along with QURATULAIN HAIDER’S novel AAG Ka Darya, has reverberated through the annals of
Urdu literary scene for decades. Since no other great Urdu novels displaced them from their enviable position
on top of the post-partition literature, the two novels continued to leave a distinct impression on the reading
public in Pakistan and abroad.
The first part of the novel is brimful with story-telling. But, the second part ends up with an intellectual
engagement with issues of loneliness, nostalgia, historical consciousness, meaninglessness of life and
death, role of religion in shaping human consciousness and various other abstracted ideas and thoughts. It
seems the novel moves from situating the characters in their respective domains of life and developing
their individual patterns of interaction to a stage where the plot starts thinning out and reliance on musing
about metaphysical ideas and philosophical themes increases. The higher the novel goes in intellectual
expression, the thinner it becomes in terms of action, plot, characterization as well as the attention and
interest of the reader.
In UDAAS NASLAIN the author seems to loosen his grip over the plot as it progresses towards the end.
Abstraction takes over facts and events. NAEEM, AZRA, NAJMI, ANISUR REHMAN, Dr ANSARI and various
other characters dabble in expression of abstract thoughts. On the other hand, story is paramount in
fiction, and parts of this novel towards the end discount story at the gross cost of smoothness in the text.
The grand stature and scope of the novel demanded a stable proximity between characters and their
interactions.
 THEMES
 Culture 
Society 
Class struggle
Love 
Loss 
Death
BANO QUDSIA
BANO QUDSIA : 28 November 1928 – 4 February 2017), also known as BANO AAPA, was a Pakistani novelist,
playwright and spiritualist. She wrote literature in Urdu, producing novels, dramas plays and short stories. QUDSIA is best
recognized for her novel Raja GIDH. QUDSIA also wrote for television and stage in both Urdu and Punjabi languages. Her
play AADHI BAAT has been called "a classic play“. BANO QUDSIA died in Lahore on 4 February 2017. BANO QUDSIA was
born on 28 November 1928 in , FIROZPUR British India, as QUDSIA CHATTHA. Her father was a Bachelor of
Agriculture and her brother PERVAIZ CHATTHA was a painter. She migrated to Lahore with her family after
the partition of India and had begun writing short stories while studying in class 5. She graduated from
the Kinnaird College in Lahore and then joined the Government College University (Lahore) (GCU) to earn her
master's degree in Urdu literature which she completed in 1951.
QUDSIA married writer ASHFAQ Ahmed whom she had met at the Government College University (Lahore). They
had three sons ANEEQUE, ANEES and ASEER. The couple had been considered inseparable in their social lives.
QUDSIA'S novel Raja GIDH (The King Vulture) is considered a modern Urdu classic. Among her more prominent
writings are AATISH-I-ZER-I-PAA, AIK DIN, ASAY Pasay, CHAHAR CHAMAN, CHHOTAA SHEHER BARAY
Log, Footpath KI GHAAS, HAASIL GHAAT and HAWA Kay NAAM. The most well known plays she wrote
include TAMASIL, HAWA KE NAAM, SEHARAY and KHALEEJ.
SUMMARY
Hailing from an upper-middle-class family, SEEMI Shah falls in love with her handsome classmate AFTAB in the MA Sociology class at
Government College Lahore.[citation needed] SEEMI is a modern and attractive urban girl and attracts most of her male class fellows,
including the narrator QAYYUM and the young liberal professor SUHAIL. AFTAB belongs to a Kashmiri business family. Although he also
loves her, he cannot rise above his family values and succumbs to his parent's pressure to marry someone against his wishes and leave
for London to look after his family business. The novel then takes on touching several moral and ethical issues, beyond the love triangle
plot, depicted through the rich culture and everyday life of Lahore.
 
CHARACTERS
The story of Raja GIDH: This tale revolves around four central characters: Professor SOHAIL, who teaches Sociology at the Government
College Lahore, and three of his students, SEEMI Shah, QAYYUM and AFTAB BUTT.FEB 7, 2017
SEEMI Shah, westernized in her mannerisms and dress, is a product of Lahore’s elitist ‘culture of GULBERG’. A not-so-handsome QAYYUM
hails from a SHEIKHUPURA village. He is a bookworm while AFTAB Butt is a scion of an elite LAHORI family from the Walled City. Along
with his film star looks AFTAB (Moon), a leader of the student union is charming by virtue of his intelligence. The three young sociology
students are tied into a love-triangle while Professor SOHAIL is the geometrician behind the triangle. 
 QAYYUM is also madly in love with SEEMI and is jealous of AFTAB. Incidentally, AFTAB and QAYYUM are hostel roommates but they are
not friends. They never speak about SEEMI. One day, QAYYUM finds out that AFTAB is engaged to a cousin and views this as an
opportunity.  AFTAB marries his cousin and leaves for London, without completing his course. SEEMI, heartbroken and dejected, moves
to Rawalpindi. She is unable to forget AFTAB and keeps travelling to Lahore so that she can meet QAYYUM and talk about AFTAB. Such is
her passion that she establishes a physical relationship with QAYYUM thinking that AFTAB and QAYYUM being roommates might have
been in a gay relationship. After all boys while living in hostels become homosexuals .

THEMES 
ETHICAL COLLAPSE
                    The central theme of Raja GIDH is man's ethical collapse which is exposed through SEEMI'S futile love and QAYYUM'S sexual
desire whose self-exploration and subjectivity lead them towards mysticism and spirituality.
PAKISTANI POETRY IN ENGLISH
Q no#6 (A)
AN ODE TO DEATH BY DAUD KAMAL SUMMARY
This first citation demonstrates that there is almost no separation between man’s life and demise. The account of man’s life end
precisely when, demise get a handle on him in its arms. It occurs inside seconds and it requires even much little investment than lifting
of an eyebrow. How microscopic is distance between a man and demise. Then he takes the quotation of E.E Cummings that: Death is
more than a certain. Death is an ultimate reality, it’s certain and undeniable fact. No one can escape from its grip. There is a saying of
Owen Meredith that:
Almost certainly that everybody encounters to die one day, yet it’s in like manner a reality that time bears no impact with the
destruction of a spirit. Nobody can bite the dust with the sorrow of his friends and family demise, finally he need to come towards his
normal life. As the needles of clock tick constantly for anybody same is the situation with people they take constantly breath with the
passing of their beloveds. If we comprehend the concoction organization of a precious stone it’s comprised of carbon. In any case, it
isn’t essential that each particle of carbon dust turns into a constituent of the precious stone or jewel itself. Like is the situation with
men that it isn’t really in the fortune of each individual that he achieve every one of his wants in this extremely short liveliness.
Because: Human creatures has awesome aspirations and wishes throughout their life, yet it is incomprehensible for a man to satisfy
them all since time resembles a pomegranate and the deeds and wishes of man are its seeds and he can’t satisfy them all. He can’t
make all his wishes in extremely restricted life.  These are extremely excellent lines in light of the fact that the writer has made a
correlation amongst of all shapes and sizes animal wisely. He brings up that what is a contrast between a gigantic pine tree which was
demolished by a crash of thunder a year ago and a little match stick which he has copied out in his ashtray. The finish of both is same.
Both need to taste the kind of death. In the event that there bite the dust an awesome nobleman of a nation and a poor homeless
person of a similar country, what improvement is in the middle of both. The last goal of both is grave.  There is an Italian proverb that: 
These are extremely excellent lines in light of the fact that the writer has made a correlation amongst of all shapes and sizes animal
wisely. He brings up that what is a contrast between a gigantic pine tree which was demolished by a crash of thunder a year ago and a
little match stick which he has copied out in his ashtray. The finish of both is same. Both need to taste the kind of death. In the event
that there bite the dust an awesome nobleman of a nation and a poor homeless person of a similar country, what improvement is in
the middle of both. The last goal of both is grave.  There is an Italian proverb that: 
In this section the writer needs to state that, the Existence of people is the mix of soul and body, and these two components blend into
the extravagances and shades of life. The word ‘two streams “utilized in these lines which implies that, the human spirit and human
body and which “blend into the overlooked waterway” of world. The connection amongst life and passing resembles the connection
between an eye and tear. In the bustling life individuals overlook demise will come as quickly as detaches spill out of eye. Nobody
realizes that when tears will start to move outside the eye correspondingly, nobody realizes that when demise will come however it will
doubtlessly happen.
.
Now the DAUD KAMAL introducing the state of grave after death, there is a quietness, and perpetual rest in the gathering of islands.
The quietness in the island in writing is the image of risk and furthermore demonstrates the quietness of death in light of the fact
that there are no more hardships of life. In reality DAUD KAMAL here presents the Islamic perspective about the everlasting post-
existence. He says this is a position of barrel bare rocks, and there is no space of despondency, it is free from all trails. Troubles,
sorrows of LIFE.NOW the DAUD KAMAL introducing the state of grave after death, there is a quietness, and perpetual rest in the
gathering of islands. The quietness in the island in writing is the image of risk and furthermore demonstrates the quietness of death
in light of the fact that there are no more hardships of life. In reality DAUD KAMAL here presents the Islamic perspective about the
everlasting post-existence. He says this is a position of barrel bare rocks, and there is no space of despondency, it is free from all
trails. Troubles, sorrows of life. These lines are about the inclination which a man feels when passing happens and artist has express
all these inclination perfectly. He says that I am feeling that my life is moving far from me. Demise as a pitiless beast is overwhelming
my life. I can feel however can’t do any do anything since I am sad. The artist is communicating cynics feeling of man. The artist says
that nobody knows; either life is backstabber or demise or which one of them will bamboozle or both are offering swindle to each
other. Daud Kamal is making an inquiry to life that either on skimming Island or you was on a shore entirely one knows who moves
away he is speaking with life that it is possible that you moved far from me or I drew close to death.
Floods by DAUD KAMAL

This poem was written when there was a flood disaster which had encircled all the villages of Pakistan,
exact date or time couldn’t be found. Poet is suggesting several images to express the feeling of decline
and misery. The first three lines suggest the feeling of misery and helplessness. Notice the use of image
“treachery”. Treachery is commonly associated with infidelity, poet perhaps using this image to express the
unfaithfulness of bridegroom who has been died into flood.
The poet carefully uses image of treachery by personifying flood as “blind river” whose treacherous act has
turned fidelity of groom into willful betrayal of infidelity. Perhaps groom has been died into flood without
meeting his bride. The image of “water buffaloes dissolving in the mud?” paints a picture of utter
destruction. The point of destruction is again emphasized with another image of destruction the people
who suffered due to flood are deprived of their hut “hut was forty years old” perhaps hut has drowned into
river. Poet gives an image of “hut” into a context that emphasizes the utter misery of the village people
who lived in their lovely hut for forty years.
The image of “three wooden boxes of dowry” again points to the treacherous motif of river and paints clear
picture of infidelity of bridegroom.
The final images of the last lines express misery of bride waiting for her bridegroom in camp; feeling of
grief is strengthened by the image of “sackful of expensive rice” “Bride-to-be covers her head” and the use
of alliteration “her head”.
We can see through out the poem poet is repeating the theme of “misery” and use of words “forgive”,
boxes of dowry” describe the melancholic tone, poet has used blank verse to maintain the essence of
poem.
KITCHENS BY TOUFIQ RAFFATIN
the very first lines we are introduced to a specific kind of kitchen where we grew up. It might be shocking for
westerners, what kind of kitchen that would be where people grow, but when it comes to Pakistani culture we
realize that yes, it is being said about the kitchens we have even today. This image of kitchen becomes particular
rather than general term used everywhere and the theme related to it makes it so. In Pakistani villages where 70 %
of our population live there we have kitchens where we not only prepare meals but also eat, it has enough space to
serve as a dining room too in that sense. It has got such a strong cultural color that we are attracted by the taste it
provides, we don’t care how much spicy and smoky the environment there is, we like to sit in it. We see in the
poem that after getting up from the beds in December, we at once rush into the kitchen to seek fire and the
kettle which is depicted as black and the curry of the previous night in the breakfast. These are all very
common to the context of Pakistan. The bowls for tea are also particular because throughout the world cups
are used, although we also use cups nowadays but once we were familiar only with bowls and still in most
parts of the country they are used to take tea. The image of the last night’s curry is also something not familiar
to westerners because in critical situations it might be possible for them but in normal situations they will take
it as something not desirable, but in Pakistan in normal situations we have last night’s curry in breakfast and
we consider it something not undesirable, even we offer it to guests sometimes if it is a special dish. To
discuss the minor activities like death of someone, marriages, births, and the new crop of the season, these
things are very common in villages but in cities it is very hard to find such things. Mother takes the position of
presidency and we act as sub-ordinates. She takes on a certain topic and we start talking on it, later mother
confines to serving us and leave the topic to us. It is the exact depiction of the Pakistani society but, it is by
this point that the poem takes a turn where we can say, the poem is only about the rural life. On the other
hand, according to the statement that above 70% of the total population come from the rural areas, we might
claim that yes it is the clear reflection of the Pakistani society. In other words people come to city under
compulsion but the major parts of their families lie behind in the rural areas.
The second part of the poem reflects the city life, which the poet condemns and that is why we realize that the first
part of the poem is dependent upon the second part to prove the depiction of Pakistani culture. In this part the poet
reveals that the society borrowed from somewhere else has not brought us closer rather it has contributed in our
farness from one other. The society depicted in the first part was the very essence of our national and cultural
heritage and it was better for us to maintain that societal standard but unfortunately we have adopted the western
way of life and that’s why we are unable to share our happiness and grieves with one other. All these were possible
in the old kitchens where we would come to “savor our triumphs or unburden our grief.” The traditional slats have
been replaced by chair which are insular, and the texture has been replaced by chromium and Formica which are not
familiar to us nor can immerse into our culture. All images in the second part of the poem are found in West, even
the poem condemns the clock which has replaced the picture of grandfather once used to hang on the walls. The last
four lines come in a clear contrast with the kitchen of the first part of the poem where we would take our
breakfast along with previous night’s curry sitting together in the presence of mother cooking bread for us, and
now we are having electric toasts instead of fresh bread and we are in such a hurry that we while taking the last
gulps rush out of the dining hall. By taking into consideration the images employed in the poem one can easily
trace Pakistani culture, either in first or second part of the poem. In first part we come across such imagery
which we mark as typical Pakistani imagery while in the later part of the poem we come across such images
which on their own claim to be rather Western than Pakistani, and for this reason the poet condemns it and
again for this reason we say that the poem in broader sense reflects Pakistani society. On the other hand in
restricted sense one can interpret it as the reflection of Pakistani village life versus Pakistani city life. Pakistani
city life is not the life led by its inhabitants and therefore we say it is borrowed from the west.
MR. NACHIKET
Poet creates a dramatic sort of situation in MR NACHIKETA. It is a narrative poem in which there are four
characters. The poem opens with description of the father of Mr. NACHIKETA. Though he is the character
who unconsciously opens the discussion about death ye he plays no important role in the latter part of the
poem. In the beginning of the poem, the father gives impetus to his son to search for death by saying “ I
give you to death ” The point here is that no father in the world asks his son to go and search for death
but it seems as if we all were asking our dear ones to go and search for death though we are not conscious
of it because whoever is born has to die. It was not as a matter of fact all of a sudden that the father has
asked his son to go to look for death. It actually was the son who was asking for it. He was insistently
asking his father that “to whom do you give me” In the third stanza of the poem, Mr. NACHIKETA goes out
in search of death. He searches it in mountains, swamps, lands, jungles and deserts but concludes that
“there was no sign of death”. Here TAUFIQ wants to tell us that death is not something which is present
there in deserted place. The paradox as depicted by the poet is that death resides in cities and societies of
living people but it turns places lived- in into deserted ones. And the same stanza, Mr. NACHIKETA comes
across mendicants and SADHUS, the people who are disinterested in life and in this world, but these
people also could tell him only about life but not death. It was the time when he noticed that “this is the
house of death”. Here he met the third character of the poem, the servant of death. Mr. NACHIKETA had a
long conversation with the servant of death about death and his reality. Even the servant of death could not
tell him where his master was. He could only tell that. “There will be nothing there Nothing before, and
nothing after Nothing, nothing at all”. Ideas of TAUFIQ about death that we gather from his poetry can be
summarized as following: 1. Death does not reside in jungles or deserted places but in lived-in places. It is
there with each and every person but people are not wise enough to feel this. 2. Death is certain to come,
every person knows this much. But where, when and how it will come, nobody knows. Even the servant of
death himself doesn’t know this.
GITANJALI – poem 1
The 1st stanza starts mentioning the grace of God to human being.  Tagore considers human body as a frail
vessel, God intermittently repairs it’s damages and fills up it with fresh life. God is the all master of Human
being, he take care of his subjects and solve all of their problems. In that way man is made endless with the
pleasure from God.  God is a great flute player or a musician and the poet is considered to a flute. The breath
payed through the flute comes as a melody and it is eternally new, it lasts forever. Tagore might have
considered the poet as a flute and the poem comes out of his mouth as an eternal melody which is new
forever. Poet reaches in unspeakable about the characteristic of God. Every touch from the God touches poet’s
heart, this fills his heart with over joy and makes him in a state of pleasure extreme to be expressed. Tagore
says God’s infinite gifts comes only to him, to his little hands. God will save me, protect me, bless me. I will
be the same person even when the ages pass. My special room is my heart to store all your blessings. God
continues to pour his blessings to rooms of his hearts, but still there is room to fill. God is omnipotent and
omnipresent.
GITANJALI – POEM 3In in this stanza we get the quality of God’s music. Tagore says he knows god’s music,
always hear it in silent mood with amazement. Now he is waiting for god’s singing/ instructions. God’s music
enlightens the word. Tagore praises god’s music more and more. The life breath of the God’s music is filled
among the skies, so as to enlighten the entire universe. From Tagore’s perception the stream of God’s music
is powerful so as to break through any hard stony obstacles, His music is even more strong by which any
obstacles would be shifted from one to another. That much beautiful song God sings for “me”. While he hears
music from God, he would like to join with god to make a duet. But he gets totally confused. He can’t speak
without his immense joy, poet cries out of confusion. In the above line poet says still he is unable to make a
duet with God, still he feel good as he hears music from God. His music made the poets heart captive.
‘captive’ means the state of feeling under control, poet feels as he is under the control of God. Poet feels
God’s presence upon all his limbs through the spiritual touch from the God’s music. Poet mentions God as his
‘life of life”. Poet feels his life is in control of God and his life is a song for the God, and He controls the poet.
POEM 7
 the speaker imagines the poem that he's writing as a woman who is taking off all her "adornments" and
"decoration" (1-2). The speaker thinks this is for the best. That's because fancy poetry (which is equated
with a woman all dressed up) distracts the speaker from really being able to access the divine. The speaker
wants communion with God (whom he addresses directly), and he realizes that he can only have that
communion if his poetry is simple and is written straight from the heart. the speaker compares his poetic
abilities to those of God. God, to him, is a "master poet." Again, he addresses God directly and tells him that
he feels pretty pathetic when he holds up his own poetic powers to God's. (Who wouldn't?) In this stanza the
speaker also uses the metaphor of music. He says that all he can do, being the measly little human being
that he is, is to make his life "simple and straight" like a "flute," so that God can "fill" him with music (8-9).
In this sense, the speaker suggests that he really can't make poetry. Only God can make poetry through the
speaker, in the same way that a musician makes music through an instrument.
POEM 10
The beginning lines express poet’s admiration to the God. Tagore tells God is with the poorest and the lowliest and the lost people.
Poet asks where are you, what is your role, now I’m going to offer my life and bend down on your footstool. Poet is living among
the common people where he can see God. Here, the poet may be trying to explain that we can find God through the poorest,
lowliest and the lost people. God won’t leave them but definitely will help. Like a king rest his foots on a footstool, here poets tells
God’s footstool is the poor men themselves, He rests his foots among them. In the 2nd stanza Tagore how deep rooted
the relationship of the God with the poorest people. When poet tries to bow  down before the God, his
obeisance cannot reach down to the depth where God’s feet rest among the lost people. That much deeper
is the God’s touch on the common people. People with ego can never reach to God. The God has worn the
cloths of humbleness, and he walks among the poorest, and lowliest, and lost. Poets service is to offer his
life to the God, poet is not ready to suffer as all the poets wish a peaceful life. Simply remove ego and get
purified, then come to the God. He never loves egoist men. Poet is on search, he can’t take rest in his life.
He want God always with him otherwise his life will become meaningless. In this last stanza poet feels so
confused. He can’t find a way to reach the God, because God is with the poorest people. This make him
fear, he feels without His presence he can’t lead a meaningful life.
POEM 11
THE poet advises the priests to give up their counting of beads and their singing and chanting of mantras. He
also urges them stop the worship of God in a secluded corner of the temple, with their eyes half shut. He
sharply states, ‘Open your eyes and see God is not there before you.’ God is not to be found in this way. God
lives with the humble and down-trodden like the tillers of the land and path-makers who work hard at
breaking stones. He lives with those who toil in sun and shower and whose clothes are soiled with dust. If the
priest wants God he must come out of his temple, give up his holy robes and work with the humble tillers of
the soil in rain and sun. Tagore thus glorifies the life of the humble labourors and rejects the ascetic way of
life. The ultimate spiritual goal of the ascetic is to seek deliverance. This is the liberation of the soul from the
cycle of birth and death. But God Himself is bound to all of us in chains of love. He himself is not free and He
has joyfully bound Himself to the work of creation and to the objects He has created. How can then man ever
hope to be free from bondage? He urges the ascetics to leave the ritualistic flowers and incense which does
not serve any purpose. According to the poet one can find God not in the temple but with the workers who
are working whole day in the dirt and under the hot sun. He asks us what harm is there if you work under the
sun and if your clothes become dirt. Even when your clothes are turn out or stained there is no harm because
one is going to see the creator. Thus Tagore conveys that participation in the activity of life is essential for
the realization of God.
PAKISTANI POEM
FAIZ AHMAD FAIZ  13February 1911 – 20 November 1984) was a Pakistani poet, and author in Urdu and
Punjabi language. He was one of the most celebrated writers of the Urdu language in Pakistan. Outside
literature, he has been described as "a man of wide experience" having been a teacher, an army officer, a
journalist, a trade unionist and a broadcaster.
FAIZ was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and won the Lenin Peace Prize.
Born in Punjab, British India, FAIZ went on to study at Government College and Oriental COLLEGE. He went on
to serve in the British Indian Army. After Pakistan's independence, FAIZ became the editor to The Pakistan
Times and a leading member of the Communist Party before being arrested in 1951 as an alleged part
of conspiracy to overthrow the LIAQUAT administration and replace it with a left-wing government.
FAIZ was released after four years in prison and went on to become a notable member of the Progressive
Writers' Movement and eventually an aide to the Bhutto administration, before being self-exiled
to BEIRUT. FAIZ was an avowed Marxist, and he received the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union in 1962.
His work remains influential in Pakistan literature and arts. FAIZ'S literary work was posthumously publicly
honored when the Pakistan Government conferred upon him the nation's highest civil award, NISHAN-E-
IMTIAZ, in 1990.[
Poem: Before you came: This poem is about a person who once had a dull and ordinary perspective on life,
but has a changed heart after he meets a person he loves. Love is represented through imagery and tone
shifts, and is emphasized through the use of caesura. After each stanza, the tone drastically shifts from
nostalgia and dullness to passionate and colorful, from darkness, pain, and destruction to hopeful and
optimist. Imagery was used to contribute to the symbolism, when Faiz compares his internal emotions to the
seemingly uninteresting things in the world -- the sky to his sadness, the road to his pain, and the wine
reflecting their inability to see eye to eye when in a relationship. Overall, this portrays how love can have the
special, magical ability to change a person's world.
Maki KUREISHI (1927 Calcutta – Karachi 1995) was a Pakistani poet.
She taught at the University of Karachi for 30 years. She wrote in English. [Her nephew is HANIF KURESHI. For My
Grandson’’, Drunken Boat 10 The Far Thing. Oxford University Press. 1997. KALEEM Omar, ed. (1975).  WORDFALL: Three
Pakistani Poets, TAUFIQ RAFAT, Maki KUREISHI, KALEEM Omar. Oxford University Press. MUNEEZA SHAMSIE, ed. (15
January 1998). A Dragonfly in the Sun; An Anthology of Pakistani Writing in English. OUP Pakistan.
LABURNUM TREE SUMMARY
BY MAKI KUREISHI
In the first four lines, the poetess addresses the Laburnum tree that winter is hostile to you when it is in full mood with
its freezing winds, brutal and cool water because this season is not your season to flourish and nourish. She tells the
laburnum tree that this winter has blown away all your buds and branches; the brutal slaps of this wind of winter has
badly damaged you, and it has seriously challenged your existence. She adds that because your look is so weary and
awful which even repel the birds; the birds always look for fresh and green branches where they can feed upon, but
this laburnum tree is weary in winter, so, the birds go away from it. In lines 4-6, the poetess continues to say that the
winter brings calamities to this laburnum tree: this tree becomes nothing but a rattle of twigs. She means to say that
this laburnum tree is more like something crumbling and the rustling of leaves can be heard far and wide. She, in this
line, vey beautifully portrays the image of falling branches of the laburnum tree which are resonating in the air. She
then adds that this condition of the laburnum tree in the winter is such miserable that all the passerby people think it
as dead. This shows the fragile look of the laburnum tree affected by winter.
From line 7-12, the poet draws a very bright image of the laburnum tree. She mocks the people who consider the
laburnum tree as dead in the season of winter. She says that these people never think about the spring which changes
the whole overlook of laburnum tree. When the April begins, she says, the laburnum tree will blossom. All the buds
will blossom fully and will get ripened. She compares the branches of laburnum tree with the chandeliers looking
bright of shinning.
 She says as the large decorated lights under the sky shine with hundreds of holding bulbs, similarly, the
branches of the laburnum tree shine in the spring as well. From line 13-18, Maki says the blue sky with a
favorable weather makes the laburnum tree fully blossom and swing. Similarly, the gentle wind when winds, it
flourishes all the flowers of laburnum tree and they seem to ever enchanting to the people looking towards this
tree. In this way, this weather with its bright environment creates every flower, leave and branch of this tree
which makes our spring a season to enjoy and fun. Maki shows the dependency of humans on trees. She says
that when they fully blossom, they make the spring an enjoyable season for human beings as they have also
been in their homes winters and have seen the roughness of autumn; this Laburnum tree in spring brings
happiness to the eyes and freshen the eyes The line 21-23, poet celebrates the glory of the laburnum tree. She
says in the spring; when the laburnum tree is in its full swing, people come to enjoy it so they appreciate the
hard struggles of this tree as she has survived the harshness of winter. Maki is appreciating the glory of this
laburnum tree because it fought with the wild and brutal winds of winter which tried to put it down and perish
it way. The poetess reminiscence the days when the birds avoided this tree because of its ugly look but now
when it is spring and this tree is enjoyable so all the beauty seems to be lying at the feet of this tree as she tree
stands the far most beauty of the landscape.
In lines 23-26, the poetess gives courage and strength to this laburnum tree as the spring is fading out. She says
that the dark days will again come but you need not lose the faith; she adds that winter will again come as cruel
as it could be, but you must not leave to survive. She warns the laburnum tree that the flowers will again fall,
the branches will again look ugly but keep the sap alive as it will fight for the whole season and give blossom to
the flowers again