Memory

Zakir is a historian but his own history seems to be re-written. Most of the events in Basti are seen in flashbacks which make the reader wonder if the events from his memory are real or in fact tainted. We see Zakir’s childhood in Rupnagar through his adult gaze. The place comes across as a very heavenly land as his memory of Rupnagar is very idyllic, very intergrated. For Zakir the time spent in Rupnagar was ideal -‘ jab dunya naee naee thi, jab aasmaan taaza tha aur zameen abhi mayli nahi hui thi’.  We see this harmonious and peaceful lifestyle being disturbed with the entrance of the British and because of the partition. With the British came the introduction of technology and their arrival caused a change in the relationships between the Hindus and Muslims. A place where previously all types of people, animals and living things were co-existing- (the Hindus, the Muslims, the monkeys) - now were being separated against their will. People were being forced to leave their hometowns.  People like Zakir’s father (a leader in Rupnagar ) were forced to leave to unknown places where they had no voice (evident in the Maulana’s silence in ch5 when they are discussing the happenings of the city). Whatever happens after Rupnagar seems to be going downhill and the reader wonders whether Rupnagar was a function of Zakir’s memory? - That memory that you hold on to in hope of reliving it one day? It seems like Zakir is transforming and mediating events, while along the way trying to make sense of his own history – ‘Doosron ki taareekh araam say parhi ja sakti hai jaisay novel araam say parha ja sakta hai. Magar apni taareekh? Mai apni taareekh se bhaaga howa hoon’.