Building upon the discussion we had in class, the description
of Sheher-e-afsos given by the second man is particularly important in
understanding the morbidity of their situation. In his narrative he relates
that he was overcome with laughter when he inquired about how the forlorn group
of people happened to be in this city of sorrow. His laughter, as he clarifies
later, is in mockery of the notions of a homeland that these people have
acquired. He believes that once you have separated from your motherland, you
can belong nowhere else, or rather, no other place accepts you. To top that,
the old man’s narrative corroborates this idea of even the notion of a
motherland as being farcical (“Mein ne
dekha aur jaana ke har zameen zaalim hai”). As a reader, it made me think
of the extent of the second man's own displacement which has caused him to reach this
understanding of the world. The atrocities of the preceding events have left
him completely apathetic and almost inhumane that he cannot feel for the
distraught people of Sheher-e-afsos. His own horrendous actions have left him
bereft of everything, including a place to call home. And perhaps it is the realization
of this hopelessness and meaninglessness that makes him laugh his hollow and
eerie laughter.
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