Train to Pakistan

Many things inspire me to read books, but this is the reason I started to read this book. One of the Sikh people spends time writing historical novels in his house. When his wife notices this activity, she tells him, "Nobody can buy your novel, it is such a wasteful thing you do." But unfortunately, his novel was selected for the Groove award in 1954, and also more than one lakh copies were sold, despite his wife's wise words. His name is Kushwant Singh, one of India's most popular novelists.

The story starts from Mano Majar, the fantasy village situated on the border of India and Pakistan in the district of Gujarat. The village contains only one Hindu, named Ram Lal, the money lender of the village. He is murdered by some dacoits at the beginning of the story. The remaining population comprises Muslims and Sikhs who live together. They all have the same mentality about freedom, often saying, "Why do we want freedom? The white guys are so good compared to us." This type of ignorance they have. The most important entertainment for the villagers is the railway station. They always notice and talk about train timings. Sometimes the train may be delayed, causing the whole village to scream and run to the railway station because whenever the train is late, it always carries corpses, not passengers. The conflicts between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims escalate, with killings and rapes of Hindus and Sikhs sent to India through the train. The revenge of Indian guys does the same thing against Muslims and sends them to Pakistan through the same train.
Finally, the India-Pakistan border is divided with conflict. A group of Pakistani soldiers comes to the village threateningly, forcing the Muslim villagers to shift to Pakistan within one day. The Muslim villagers leave their belongings and go to Pakistan through the train. Sadly, some of them die from starvation, thirst, and rushes. When I completed this novel, a line from the song 
              "போர் சொல்லும் வீரம்
               ஒரு தாய் மகன் தான்
               நம்மில் யார் இறந்தாலும்
               ஒரு தாய் அழுவாள்"
"All of us have mothers, if any one of us died, she will cry" from the movie Vishwaroopam came to my mind.

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