Chabiyan

The meaning of basti keeps changing for Zakir in the novel. Land itself is treated as very unimportant but the significance of having roots in a specific area and the emotional effects of the  partition on different generations is highlighted using different symbols - one of which is the use of the key. First we see Ammi jaan asking for the keys to their old haweli back in rupnagar  ‘kothri ki chabi kho gaee tou ghazab hojaway ga’. For her they were important because of her engagement with things before partition. That haweli in Rupnagar and its belongings represented Muslim Shia history for them. The kafn ka kapra and the trays all were a part of who they were. When Aba jee is dying and he passes on the keys to Zakir, he does so while giving a speech on how yeh dunya eik ‘mehmaan khaana  hai’ . Keys are normally representative of control especially in the Pakistani context for example when the saas hands over the keys to the bahu to take care of the house. Similarly when handing over the keys Aba jee says ‘ nahi, humnay tou inhein zang nhi lagnay dia, agay zakir mian jaanein’. Later in the novel we see that Zakir doesn’t take care of the keys -  ‘yeh chabiyon ka ghucha isi tarah para hai’.  For him yeh  ‘baap dada ki amanat’ doesn’t hold any value because of something that Aba jee highlighted in his speech. Zakir was taking care of something jismein uska koi ‘haq’ nhi tha.  The 'Zang' of the keys that Aba jee talks about somehow mirrors Zakir’s passivity as how Zakir didn’t react to the partition, how he most probably will not go back to Rupnagar and how the keys and all that they represented will not be there in his life anymore.