This only aggravated the Chaudhry further. ‘What is this nonsense?’ he asked furiously.
Even Miranbakhsh asked his friend softly, ‘Yes, yaar, what is this nonsense?’
‘It isn’t nonsense, Miranbakhsh!’ Karimdad spoke as though trying to explain things to his friend. ‘Just think, in a war the two parties try their hardest to defeat the other side. Just as the wrestler who grids his loins, as it were, and enters the ring, and tries every trick in the book to bring his opponent to the ground.’
Miranbakhsh nodded his tonsured head and said, ‘Yes, that’s true.’
Karimdad smiled, ‘Then it is all right to even close the river. It may seem like cruelty to us; but for them it is perfectly acceptable.’
‘When your tongue begins to loll and hang to the ground with thirst, then I will ask you if it is acceptable. When your children cry for every morsel of food, will you still say it is okay to close the river?’
Karimdad licked his dry lips with his tongue and answered, ‘I will still say the same thing, Chaudhry. Why do you forget that it isn’t as if they are our enemies only; we too are their enemies. If we could, we too would have shut off their food and water. But now when they can and are going to close our river, we will have to think of a way out. But what’s the point of useless abuses? The enemy will not produce rivers of milk for you, Chaudhry Nathu. If he can, he will mix poison in every drop of your water. You might call it cruelty, even barbarianism, because you don’t like this form of taking life. Isn’t that strange? Before the commencement of war, should the two warring parties lay down a set of conditions and clauses, a bit like a nikah? Should we tell them not to kill us of hunger or thirst but that they are welcome to do so with a gun and that too a gun of a certain bore? This is the real nonsense … Think about it, carefully and coolly.’
By now Chaudhry Nathu had reached the far limit of his frustration. He shouted, ‘Someone get a slab of ice and place it on my breast.’
‘You expect me to get that too?’ Karimdad said and laughed. Then he patted Miranbakhsh on the shoulder, got to his feet and left the chaupal.
As he was about to cross his threshold, he saw Bakhto coming out of the house. She saw Karimdad and a toothless smile appeared on her face.
‘Congratulations, Keeme! You have been blessed with a healthy baby boy. Think of a suitable name for him now.’
‘Name?’ Karimdad thought for no more than a second and said, ‘Yazid — Yazid.’
Bakhto’s mouth fell open with surprise.
Whooping with joy, Karimdad entered his house. Jeena was lying on a string bed. She looked paler than she had ever before. A bonny baby lay besides her, busy sucking his thumb. Karimdad looked at him with a glance full of love and pride. Touching his cheek lightly with a forefinger, he said softly, ‘My little Yazid!’
A faint shriek escaped Jeena as she squealed with surprise, ‘Yazid?’
Karimdad looked closely at his son’s face, inspecting each feature carefully, ‘Yes, Yazid. That’s his name.’
Jeena’s voice sounded faint, ‘What are you saying, Keeme? Yazid…’
Karimdad smiled, ‘What’s in it? It’s only a name!’
All Jeena could manage was a whisper ‘… But whose name?’ Karimdad answered with all seriousness, ‘It needn’t be the same Yazid. He had closed the river; our son will open it.’
1 Within fifty years of the Prophet’s death, the small community of Muslims was torn by conflicting claims to leadership. The governor of Syria, Mu’aviya, opposed Ali and wrested the Caliphate from him. His son, Yazid, carried the enmity forward by demanding allegiance (bay’ ah) from Ali’s son and successor Husain. When Husain — son of Ali and grandson of the Prophet Muhammad — declined, Yazid issued an unequivocal calclass="underline" Surrender or Die! Surrender meant recognition of Yazid and the power he had wrongfully wrested. For Husain both were unacceptable; instead, he chose willing sacrifice of himself, his family and supporters.
It was the year AD 679 — seventy men held out against 4000 in a desert named Karbala, approximately 70 km from Kufa. Rations dwindled, men died in battle, children were slaughtered and the enemy closed in on the small, besieged group. On the eighth day of battle, water supply was cut off. The river Euphrates glimmered in the distance but the way was barred. Ill, hungry, dying of thirst, the bedraggled but valiant group faced battle on the fateful tenth day, the day called Ashura, when all perished save for three male members and some women and children who were paraded till Damascus to be presented before Yazid. Quite naturally, then, Yazid is one of the most hated figures in Islamic history.
2 Called Chhoti Eid in the Urdu original, meaning ‘small Eid’ referring to Eid-ul- Fitr that comes after the month of Ramazan.
3 Called Badi Eid in the Urdu original, meaning ‘big Eid’ referring to Eid-uz-Zuha or the Feast of the Sacrifice which is celebrated in memory of Abraham’s sacri- fice of that which was dearest to him, his son Isaac.
4 Muharrum is the first month of the Muslim lunar calendar. The incidents of Karbala happened during this month. Shaam-e-Gharibaan (Eve of Sorrows) on the night of the ninth day of Muharrum is a poignant cathartic occasion for remembrance. By Ashura, the tenth day, the matam or mourning reaches a fren- zied climax: processions are taken out, the faithful walk on live coals, flay them- selves with chains and whips. Alam, a replica of the standard or pennant carried by Husain in battle, is carried at the head of the procession. The Panja, an emblem in the shape of the open palm signifying the panj tan paak, the Five Holy Ones, namely, the Prophet, Fatima (his daughter), Ali (her husband), Hasan and Husain (their sons) — and the taaziya — an elaborate construction of paper, tinsel and other finery replicating Husain’s tomb — are included in the procession for ‘burial’ at Karbala. Any city with a sizeable population of Shia Muslims has its own ‘Karbala’ to bury both the annual taaziya and serve as bur- ial ground for Shias. All over north India, both Shia and Sunni Muslims partic- ipate in these Muharrum processions. Crowds gather to watch them, and in rural India occasionally the ‘spectacle’ overtakes the solemnity of the occasion.
5 Karbala, here is a metaphor for vicissitudes, troubled times, when there might be shortages of food and water.
SLIVERS AND SILVEREENS
‘The brave and famous Indian leader has been barred from entering Kashmir.’
‘And it is noteworthy that the brave and famous leader is a Kashmiri!’
‘Saadat Hasan Manto is also a Kashmiri.’
‘And he has three cases of obscenity filed against him.’
‘Politics, too, is obscene.’
‘A case under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code ought to be filed against the brave and famous Indian leader.’
‘And the Sessions Court ought to acquit him.’
‘Because so far no decision has been reached on the issue of obscenity.’
‘Neither has a correct and satisfactory definition of obscenity been spelt out.’
‘The brave and famous Indian leader who is a Kashmiri…’
‘May he live long!’
‘Saadat Hasan Manto.’
‘The brave and famous — and emotional — Indian leader arrived in Kashmir despite a ban on his entry.’
‘The Dogra rulers better beware!’
‘All those present stand at attention!’
‘The President is on his way.’
‘We are not Dogras; we have do gur, two virtues, that is.’